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"We were essentially being shell-shocked by rapid change. That was one of the things you needed science-fiction writers for back in the Sixties, because we could cope with the future."
- Peter Watts
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| Robot Suicide | ||
| A robot decides to commit suicide, and sets up a mechanism to put his decision into effect. |
As far as I know, this is the first explicit mention of a robot suicide attempt.
| To any of you humans committing suicide, your last thought must be that death is after all so sweet and peaceful and desirable. Life is so cruel. And to be brought back from voluntary death at the last second must
be a terribly painful experience.
So it was with me, though I am a robot.
 ('Adam Link's Vengeance' by Eando Binder) My mind blinked back into consciousness. My mechanical brain was instantly alert. Full memory flooded back. What had happened to prevent my death? I had allowed my batteries to drain, and had lain myself flat to pass into oblivion with the last of the electrical energy. Over my head I had fixed a timed clockwork which would within an hour tip over a beaker of strong acid. I had removed my skullpiece so that the acid would bite deeply into my iridium-sponge brain and utterly destroy it. Now I was alive again, feeling the strong pulse of electrical current surging through me. And the acid lay spattered over the stone floor beyond, hissing and bubbling. Someone had knocked it away at the last second. And had reconnected a battery to my central distributor. |
| Technovelgy from Adam Link's Vengeance,
by Eando Binder. Published by Amazing Stories in 1940 Additional resources -
|
Fans of the science fiction film Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) recall that the Terminator states "I cannot self-terminate" when the time comes to destroy the advanced chip in his own brain.
Also, see this description of a self-aware computer suicide from All the Troubles in the World (1958), by Isaac Asimov, the depressed robot Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams and the deeply troubled robot cab driver from A Present for Pat (1952) by Philip K. Dick.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Adam Link's Vengeance
More Ideas
and Technology by Eando Binder
Tech news articles related to Adam Link's Vengeance
Tech news articles related to works by Eando Binder
Robot Suicide-related
news articles:
- First Robot Suicide Has Science Fiction Roots
| RoboBallet The Dance Of Cooperative Robots |
| Does CloneRobotics Offer A True Android? |
| Robots Repair And Modify Themselves |
| Robot Janitors Get To Work |
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'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
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Accompanied by a small selection of similar ideas from science fiction.
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