Moon is a Harsh Mistress Thinking Computers

L

Longtimer

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Just listening to the Moon is a Harsh Mistress discussion. I think it is really interesting. In case anyone is interested I thought it would be worth pointing out that Asimov's Robot series had introduced thinking and talking computers to the sci fi crowd and started to deal with some of the issues Heinlein is dealing with
 
Definitely true. Mike is sort of a mash-up of the robots of I Robot (short stories written from 1940-1950), R. Daneel Olivaw (first appearing in the Caves of Steel, 1953-1954), and his huge Multivac computer (appearing in many short stories, first in 1955). Multivac was a huge (varying between building-size and city-size) computer that controls all of earth in some stories, but it doesn't have a personality. The robots, have personalities, especially by the time you get to R. Daneel Olivaw (and also Stephen Byerley), but aren't huge world-ruling systems. If anything, Mike is most like the world-ruling Machines in the last story in I Robot, the Evitable Conflict, written in 1950, though we don't really get insight into their personalities.

Bruce
 
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