Artificial Life
Law and science fiction has only recently emerged as a definable subtopic in the area of law and the humanities, but it already boasts a developing bibliography. See also Artificial Life, Artificial Law (this website). Dr. Frankenstein's Wayward Experiment The creation of artificial life has been a staple of fiction and horror novels and movies since Mary Shelley published Frankenstein. The idea of creating a new human being from parts taken from the dead was certainly influenced partly by the activities of William Burke and James Hare. The book also shows many influences of the Gothic period of literature. Resources for the Study of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Websites Artificial Intelligence & Law Resources Resources for the Study of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (from Georgetown University) Literary Sources of Frankenstein Films Other experiments which have gone awry, through the lack of scientific, ethical and legal oversight, include Dr. Moreau's attempt to create a viable hybrid of human and animal. H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau appeared in [] and immediately caused a sensation. Note that by the time Wells wrote, public opinion had swayed from the optimism of the early nineteenth century concerning the possibilitihttp://www.theandroidmaker.com/es that science offered to better the human condition to a distrust, sometimes profound, of human motives in using scientific and technological advances, which seemd to be soulless and anti-humanitarian, and to benefit only the privileged classes. Coupled with the bloodiness of the First World War and the Russian Revolution of 1917, this distrust seemed justified, and seemed to justify calls for increased government control of human activities and behavior. Other Sites Robots and Androids Robots, androids, and computers that "come to life" are popular themes in science and horror popular culture. See Law and Science Fiction (this website), Law, the Humanities and the Biological Sciences (this website), Utopias (this website) and Law and Politics in Popular Culture (this website). Common questions concerning artificial life and law are these: 1) what rights if any are due to artificially created life? 2) if rights are due, are they due to all artificial life or only sentient life? 3) what duties if any do human beings owe to artificially created life? Among novels which pose these questions are Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (made into the film Blade Runner) and William Gibson's Neuromancer, and the "robot novels" of Isaac Asimov. Films which pose the question to a greater or lesser extent include Blade Runner, Colossus: The Forbin Project, War Games, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Star Trek, and Star Wars. For further information on the theoretical creation of androids, see for example The Android Maker. On particular androids see for example TNG: Lieutenant Commander Data and Commander Data. Some recent books about the question of AI and artificial life include George B. Dyson, Darwin Among the Machines (1998) Lois Gresh and Robert E. Weinberg, The Computers of Star Trek (2001) Volker Gentejohann, Narratives from the Final Frontier (2000)(more about the narrative nature of Star Trek, but has some interesting thoughts about aliens and AI and their rights and culture in the original series). Stephen Levy, Artificial Life (1993) WORDS TO LIVE BY: NOT EVERYTHING USEFUL IS ON THE NET! Also search 1. Library catalogs under the headings Androids, Artificial intelligence, Artificial life, Robots 2. Periodical indexes such as MLA (Modern Languages Association Bibliography) or BIological Abstracts for keywords such as robots, androids, artificial intelligence, artificial life, computers, aliens. RELATED ISSUES Mad Scientists
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