Positronic Brain vs. Human Brain: Robots' Brain Text as the Representation of Ethical Guiding Principles in Isaac Asimov's The Complete Robot

Abstract

This article contributes to a large discussion on the paradigm of Isaac Asimov’s robot stories— the positronic brain—and postulates that the “Three Laws of Robotics” represent essential guiding principles of ethical systems by applying the concept of “brain text” with the framework of Zhenzhao Nie’s ethical literary criticism. With focus on the analogy between positronic brain and human brain, and based on the analysis from The Complete Robot (2018), this article argues that the positronic brain is the embodiment of the qualities of humans’ ethical choices by gathering and calculating the programmed brain text. By raising a copy-versus-real ethical issue, it further evinces the uncanny feelings of the highly anthropomorphic brain as simulacrum, which generates a new challenge to anthropocentrism and anxiety over humans’ subjectivity. However, attributed to the lack of ethical judgments in their brain text, robots may be confronted with ambivalence and incarnated only with humans’ desires in the face of choices among the Three Laws. Thus, with an insistent privilege of humans, Asimov considers the positronic brain in essence as a simulation of human brain to represent human ethics.