What role does logical thinking play in the fiction we have read about robots/artificial intelligence? How prepared do you think ordinary people are to use logical effectively to live/work with with AI? What should we do about this?

Logical thinking plays a huge role in the the fiction stories, “Three Ways” and “Runaway”. In every scenario, we, as the reader, have to understand the predicament the humans face when dealing so closely with the robots. (They can’t feel.)

Because of this, we have to remove our Disney Channel notions that robots can feel and love their creators/users. In both stories, the users/humans have to think completely logically without any emotion to solve their issues with the new technology. Hobbes and the two men who lose Speedy have to channel their inner robot in a sense to think as they do. Hobbes realizes the robot purposely murders Mr. Won because he was going to leave his job, thus causing the company to lose a major economic asset. Not only that, but the robot did not directly work for Mr. Won, so his life was just as minuscule as any other because he was a threat to the company. While this sounds very cold to an empathetic human, we have to realize, as Hobbes did, that robots are just that. Similarly, the two men in “Runaway” have to increase the importance of the first rule by putting themselves in grave danger, with complete confidence that Speedy would save them.

Ordinary people are not prepared to face the removal of all affections towards their material things, which is why they are not prepared for AI. People are genuinely good in their nature and kindhearted, falling prey to their emotions very often. It is so easy to get emotionally attached to materials, especially ones that talk and complete tasks for you. They will most likely fail in using logic to work with AI, as they sometimes fail to use logic in any tasks that emotion may also play a part in. We should offer a class of some sort, a mandatory robot licensing class to ensure all users know not to get attached.