Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
kyr, Posthuman
Main Menu
Tofunmi Kuti
f030da039a33eb7edc0d46b711e3c9f5d37b3620
landscape
1 2019-04-09T00:08:51-07:00 Tofunmi Kuti f030da039a33eb7edc0d46b711e3c9f5d37b3620 33524 1 plain 2019-04-09T00:08:51-07:00 Tofunmi Kuti f030da039a33eb7edc0d46b711e3c9f5d37b3620This page is referenced by:
-
1
media/landscape.jpg
media/landscape.jpg
2019-04-09T00:16:34-07:00
History
45
plain
2019-04-15T17:56:05-07:00
Many years after a major breakthrough in strong AI research, we are closer to living in a posthuman world...
It has been over a decade since Irene Axell, founder of Axell Corporations succeeded in replicating and enhancing the human consciousness. With her research and testing team, they successfully created the ARC (Artificial Robot Consciousness). The design team spent months creating the perfect form, put them through a rigorous trial-and-error testing phase, and engendered a new race of self-thinking and self-conscious robots called the Kyroid.
The First Year
During the first year, the launch of the Kyroids was announced, humans around the world were in a frenzied state. Majority of the population were ecstatic by the thought of having an efficient helper at home, at work, and at school. Parents began to dream of the long get away trips they would be able to have, once they get a robot nanny to watch the kids. CEO's imagined how much more efficient their days would run, with a robot personal assistant who wouldn't forget their coffee in the morning. School's began celebrating at the thought of having more efficient security, there had been way too many kidnappings within the passed month already. Yes, majority of the world began to yearn for a life of bliss and security once they had robots in their lives. A smaller population of the world however, had watched enough science fiction films to know what their fate would be. They were terrified of a world where competent machines roamed freely among them, so they began organizing riots against Axell Corp's launch. Axell Corp began buying property in neighborhoods around the world and started constructing houses designed for their Kyroids. Protesters tried their best to slow down the construction but more members of each neighborhood were thrilled to have robot neighbors and protected the construction site from any protester that dared disrupt it.
The Second Year
Much to the dismay of the minority, the protests caused no disruption towards the housing constructions and proposed launch of the Kyroids. So a year after the world had long awaited their arrival, they were finally released into the world. The day the Kyroids set out to their homes went down in history as the beginning of a new age for most and the beginning of the end for a few. This monumental event was covered by every news station on the planet and humans all around the world got a glimpse of their new cohabiters. Axell Corp had created about a billion robots as a test run and dispatched them into their various homes around the world. Every Kyroid was welcomed into their new neighbourhood by a thousand pair of eyes from the crowd of people eager to catch their first glimpse of a robot, camera lights from people eager to get live coverage, and rotten fruits to the head from protesters who wanted to let them know they weren't welcome here.
After a few weeks, the Kyroids adapted to their various societies really quickly and began seeking jobs to earn money, making friends to feel like part of the community, and taking up leisure activities to keep themselves busy. After several months, a Kyroid could now walk down the street without having every eye fixed on them in amazement, and speak to a human without having them initially shriek and stare infatuatedly. Yes, the Kyroids were quickly adapting to their new society, and it seemed the humans were quickly adapting to them as well.
The Third Year
After a year of Kyroids peacefully living amongst humans, an eye-opening incident occurred…
One evening on Colwell bridge, three lives were claimed as two cars collided into one another, a white SUV and a yellow Porsche. Martha Norris and her daughter Susan were in the white SUV driving home from a night out at the cinema. In the yellow Porsche, Orson Allen and his girlfriend were driving home from a failed romantic dinner and began yelling at eachother in the car. At about 10pm that night, both cars cruised down in opposite directions, by 10:15pm Orson had unknowingly swerved into the wrong lane and by 10:16pm he crashed into the white SUV knocking it over the bridge into the water below. A Kyroid was taking a stroll down the very same bridge that night and had watched the whole event unfold. In a split second, the Kyroid jumped off the bridge and swam down to the sinking car. Seeing that Susan was already dead, the Kyroid began to help Martha out of her seat and brought her to dry land. A bystander had already called for an ambulance and the victims were rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately only Martha survived the accident.
The next day Martha Norris had filled a lawsuit against Axell Corporations for producing "deficient" robots. She claimed that when she saw the Kyroid approaching her car underwater, she motioned for the robot to save her daughter first and it blatantly disobeyed her, breaking the second law of robotics (Asimov, 36). Protesters rallied behind her claiming the Kyroid had also broken the first law by not attending to Orson and his wife on time. However, the charges were dropped by the court as Axell Corp was able to prove that their Kyroids were sentient beings and therefore above such 'primitive' laws.
The whole incident caused a stir around the world because suddenly humans had no guarantee that they would be safe from an angry Kyroid, and their unrealistic expectations of security were quickly shattered. After a couple months, Axell Corporation made a world wide statement:"In light of the fallout from the Colwell bridge incident, it has come to our attention at Axell Corp that preconceived notions of what the Kyroids are, and what their purpose is, have been made. It seems the Kyroids have been perceived as second-class citizens designed and built to serve us (humans). I would like to reassure you all that the Kyroids, although incredibly enhanced, are no danger to our specie, and they will not be placed below us on a hierarchical scale. They are a race of their own, different from us, but worthy of the same respect as any of us are. As such, Axell Corporation would be publishing official set of laws guiding your interaction and expectations from Kyroids, they have already received legislative approval and would be implemented a year from now. I present to you the three laws…"
