Positronic brain

A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Its role is to serve as a central computer for a robot, and, in some unspecified way, to provide it with a form of consciousness recognisable to humans. When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939/1940, the positron was a newly discovered particle and so the buzz word positronic, coined by analogy with electronic, added a contemporary gloss of popular science to the concept.

Asimov remained vague about the technical details except to assert that the brain's substructure was formed from an alloy of platinum and iridium. Asimov relied on the reader's knowledge of the capacity of positrons and electrons to be formed in pairs and to annihilate each other, in order to convey the impression that such pair creation and destruction could serve as a metaphor for the evanescence of thought. The focus of Asimov's stories was directed more towards the software of robots (such as the Three Laws of Robotics) than the hardware in which it was implemented.

Several robot stories have been written by other authors following Asimov's death. For example, in Roger MacBride Allen's Caliban trilogy, a Spacer roboticist called Gubber Anshaw invented the gravitonic brain. It offered speed and capacity improvements over traditional positronic designs, but the strong influence of tradition made robotics labs reject Anshaw's work. Only one roboticist, Fredda Leving, chose to adopt gravitonics, because it offered her a blank slate on which she could explore alternatives to the Three Laws. Because they were not dependent upon centuries of earlier research, gravitonic brains could be programmed with the standard Laws, variations of the Laws, or even empty pathways which specify no Laws at all.

Star Trek

The fictional characters Lieutenant Commander Data, his eldest brother B-4, his "mother" Julianna Soong Tainer, and his brother Lore from the Star Trek series The Next Generation, were androids equipped with positronic brains. In one episode Data creates an offspring named Lal with a similar but somewhat more sophisticated brain. After a short time she displays promising advances in emotion and other human behaviours that Data has not been able to master. Sadly, she died of a "rapid positronic cascade failure" shortly after she had been told that Starfleet wanted to separate her from Data. In the episode Datalore, Commander Riker refers to the positronic brain as Asimov's dream. In the episode "Brothers" we see an unnumbered quantity of Androids (and/or Android parts) that preceded both Lore and Data. These are assumed to also posses positronic brains in some form or fashion with each being an improvement over the last.

None of these androids were constrained by Asimov's robot laws, although Data's actions were restricted by ethical programming provided by his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong since Lore soon developed an apparent lack of ethics early on in his development.

Perry Rhodan

In the German science fiction series Perry Rhodan, positronic brains (German: Positroniken) are the main computer technology (for quite a time they were replaced by the more powerful Syntronics, but those stopped working due to the increased Hyperimpedance). The most powerful positronic is called NATHAN and covers large parts of the earth's moon. Many of the larger computers (including NATHAN) as well as the race of Posbis combine a biological component with the positronic brain, giving them sentience and creativity.

I, Robot, 2004 Film

The robots in the 2004 film I, Robot also had positronic brains. Sonny, one of the main characters from the film, had two separate positronic brains working in unison (The second being a positronic "heart"), which meant he had choices open to him the other standard robots in the film did not. He also had the possibility of being able to develop emotion.

Additionally, there was a colossal positronic brain, VIKI, that played a prominent role in the story.

Bicentennial Man

The robots in the 1999 film Bicentennial Man (based on one of Asimov's stories) also had positronic brains, including the main character Andrew, an NDR series robot that started to experience human characteristics such as creativity. Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to "decay", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being. This event takes place on the two-hundredth anniversary of his creation, hence the title.

References

External links

Foundation universe | Fictional computers | Fictional technology | Star Trek devices

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