Bicentennial Man

What Hacker News says

1. godelskiAug 2025

     > it just generates the same old fairy tale plots using the new words it has learned.
   

   I think you're leaving out the best part! I don't want to spoil it, it's a short story. Classic trope, but still. Story here[0]

   On another note, as an avid SciFi lover I have always found it interesting that in books, movies, and shows there have been many machines that talk and do complex tasks yet no one ever thought they were alive. Just take Star Trek. The simulations in the Holodeck are highly realistic and intended to mimic real humans. Or even the computer is able to speak and write code as requested. Far more advanced than our systems today. There's even that famous episode in TNG with Data where they are questioning if he is actually alive or not. Not such an easy thing but yet every viewer probably thought he was and recognized the difference between him and the computer and Holodeck[1]. Though my favorite version of that question is in Asimov's The Positronic Man (basis of the movie Bicentennial Man and yes, Asimov is why Data has a Positronic brain). These are fiction, but I find this so interesting. I feel like our LLMs look much more like the computer from Star Trek than the Holograms let alone Data. Yet, I think there's a lot of disagreement about the level of intelligence of these systems and it makes me wonder why someone would say the computer in Star Trek isn't intelligent but the LLM is (I'm sure there's retconning too).

   [0] https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/sffaudio-usa/mp3s/Someda...

   [1] Well there is Voyager. And that episode from TNG. But go read [0] ;)

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2. kstenerudMay 2023
   Foundation series (Asimov)

   Stainless Steel Rat series (Harrison - a bit juvenile, but fun)

   Dune (Herbert)

   The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Heinlein)

   Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein)

   Starship Troopers (Heinlein)

   A Scanner Darkly (Dick)

   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick)

   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams)

   Childhood's End (Clarke)

   Robot series (Asimov)

   Bicentennial Man (Asimov)

   Brave New World (Huxley)

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3. logicalmonsterJul 2022
   For fiction: it's a hard tossup between Snow Crash and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, though Ender's Game, The Bicentennial Man, Rendezvous with Rama series, and Atlas Shrugged also would be contenders for me.

   For nonfiction: some current contenders would be Democracy: The God that Failed, The Physics of Immortality (very thought-provoking and mind-bending), and some of Robert Green's books particularly The 48 Laws of Power.

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4. pshermanAug 2015
   Reminds me of the library trek in Asimov's Bicentennial Man. Asimov had a great perspective on the various ways humans would react to robots. His robot series is a really enjoyable read (and once you finish those, there's a good chance you'll want to read the Foundation series as well).
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5. slowmovintargetJan 2026
   Or Bicentennial Man from Asimov.

   I know what kind of person I want to be. I also know that these systems we've built today aren't moral patients. If computers are bicycles for the mind, the current crop of "AI" systems are Ripley's Loader exoskeleton for the mind. They're amplifiers, but they amplify us and our intent. In every single case, we humans are the first mover in the causal hierarchy of these systems.

   Even in the existential hierarchy of these systems we are the source of agency. So, no, they are not moral patients.

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6. readthenotes1Mar 2025
   Asimov wrote about it (Bicentennial Man, 1976).

   The loneliness epidemic is widespread and an AI "friend" is palliative.

   Sadly, it's not that the artificial voice is replacing the authentic human relationship.

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