The Machines and Utilitarianism

   

             The short stories in this book all provoke interesting discussions about humanity and the advancement of technology. However, I think the most compelling theme is introduced in the last story. The “Machines”, used to optimize the world’s economy and production, begin to give instructions that are in violation of the Three Laws. The World Coordinator, Stephen Byerley, says that “World Steel reports an overproduction of twenty thousand long tons [and] [t]he Mexican Canal is two months behind schedule…” (page 241). They discovered that the Machines have altered the First Law. The Machine’s changed the words ‘human being’ to humanity. Dr. Susan Calvin discovers that the machines’ intensions are to divert harm away from humanity as a whole by allowing harm to come to a select number of individuals. In other words, the Machines have adopted utilitarian ethics.

Philosophers continually debate about the morality of acting in the interest of the ‘greater good’ at the expense of certain individuals. A classic thought experiment that explores the debate about utilitarianism is the Trolley Problem. This is a hypothetical situation in which a trolley is headed towards your mother and the only way to save her is to change the course of the trolley to run into a group of five people. Should you alter the path of the trolley? Despite the fact that utilitarianism suggests one should not alter the path of the trolley, most people would want to save their mother because a personal interest can override the interests of the greater good. The fact that the Machine’s make these utilitarian decisions rather than a human is an interesting discrepancy in Asimov’s story. Machine’s are incapable of having a personal investment in an individual, and therefore, are able to avoid this conflict of interest.