{"id":31430,"date":"2017-03-22T14:11:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T18:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/?p=31430"},"modified":"2019-03-01T16:32:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T21:32:03","slug":"renstrom-publishes-chapter-in-critical-insights-isaac-asimov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/2017\/03\/22\/renstrom-publishes-chapter-in-critical-insights-isaac-asimov\/","title":{"rendered":"Renstrom Publishes Chapter in Critical Insights: Isaac Asimov<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IsaacCGS Lecturer of Rhetoric\u00a0Joelle Renstrom<\/span><\/a>\u00a0recently published a chapter in <\/span>Critical Insights; Isaac Asimov <\/span><\/i><\/a>(Salem Press, 2017)<\/span>. <\/span>As a researcher of science fiction and technology, Renstrom took\u00a0a look at robot fiction in her Asimov chapter,<\/span> “<\/span>Morality in Asimov: Laws of Robotics vs. Laws of Humanics<\/a>.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Renstrom\u2019s chapter examines Asimov and the Frankenstein complex, or <\/span>humans\u2019 fear that they will be unable to control their creations. By looking at Asimov\u2019s famous three laws of robotics, Renstrom shows what prevents robots from harming humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Renstrom notices the three laws deftly evade the notion of morality, rendering ethics \u00a0and values on the part of robots unnecessary, as robots are programmed to obey the laws without considering them. \u00a0While doing this, Renstrom examines nonfiction works such as \u201cThe Laws of Humanics,\u201d where Asimov demonstrates that the fear at the heart of the \u201cFrankenstein Complex\u201d isn\u2019t really about robots at all. It\u2019s about humans, who violate the \u201cdo no harm\u201d rule far more frequently than robots do. <\/span><\/p>\n

For more on Renstrom\u2019s fascinating work, visit her website:\u00a0<\/span>www.joellerenstrom.com<\/b><\/a>. <\/b>To hear more about Renstrom\u2019s research, be sure to check out her April 2 lecture at\u00a0<\/span>TedX in Waltham: “Science Fiction as a Looking Glass: Teaching Students How to Save the World<\/a>.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CGS Lecturer of Rhetoric\u00a0Joelle Renstrom\u00a0recently published a chapter in Critical Insights; Isaac Asimov (Salem Press, 2017). As a researcher of science fiction and technology, Renstrom took\u00a0a look at robot fiction in her Asimov chapter, “Morality in Asimov: Laws of Robotics vs. Laws of Humanics.” Renstrom\u2019s chapter examines Asimov and the Frankenstein complex, or humans\u2019 fear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9762,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4204,334,1,4209,4200],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31430"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36112,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31430\/revisions\/36112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}