How To Define Human—An Ethical Analysis On Four Science Fictions Of Robots

The conception of artificial human has a long history and appears in both Oriental and Occidental ancient myths.With the development of science and technology,artificial intelligence also becomes a hot topic of science fiction.Just like the double-edged sword science and technology being,human's attitude towards artificial intelligence is also double sided.The status and position of artificial intelligence is closely related to the definition of human,the change of which reflects how human's value and ethic is influenced by the development of science and technology.This thesis makes an ethical analysis on four science fictions which are representative works of different periods of science fiction.By examining the different ethical dilemma artificial intelligence faces in each text and the different ethical choice made by human and artificial intelligence,this thesis discusses the change of human's attitude towards artificial intelligence,which reflects the influence of science and technology development on human's value and ethics.The thesis starts with an introduction which offers information about research background,put forward the research question and makes a literature review.The main body of this thesis is composed by four chapters to analysis the four texts,namely Frankenstein by Mary Shelly,Issac Asimov's robot stories particularly the collection I,Robot and “The Bicentennial Man”,Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheep? by Philip K.Dick,and William Gibson's Neuromancer.By examining the different ethical dilemmas artificial intelligence faces in these texts and the response of both human and artificial intelligence,this thesis suggests that with development of science and technology,human's attitude is becoming more and more open and artificial intelligence is gradually accepted.The definition of human is becoming more open,proving the progress of human's ethic.