“Moxon’s Master” is a story written by Ambrose Bierce which tells the story of Moxon, the master, who creates a chess-playing robot. Moxon is developing a sentient conscious machine, one that can think and possesses intelligence. Although the narrator states that robots have no brains or source of thinking, he is trying to create a which he believes will be capable of thinking, acting and possessing consciousness- a robot or automaton which will be able to perform actions independent of its creator – the idea of a humanoid robot. Moxon seems to live an isolated life and the representation of the robot is what he wishes. The robot represents human cognition and social interaction, that Moxon may be experiencing.
In the story, Moxon plays a game of chess with the robot and wins. It is apparent the robot is mad, and kills Moxon. This part of the story is very interesting because Moxon states, “definition of ‘life’ the activity of a machine is included – there is nothing in the definition that is not applicable to it. According to this sharpest of observers and deepest of thinkers, if a man during his period of activity is alive, so is a machine when in operation” (238). When the robot kills Moxon, it is portraying that the robot has the ability to feel and understand anger. It is a twist to the story because in the beginning Moxon says, “you know well enough that when I say “machine” I do not mean a man, but something that man has made and controls.” Moxon lost control of his creation. Later in the story the narrator questions what really is the truth.
HI Samuel, I enjoyed reading your post I didn't read this story so I liked hearing your thoughts on it. That is interesting to think that a robot would have feelings and you wonder if it is only at certain times he has feelings and what controls that. Also to think that Moxon's creation, the robot he made ends up killing himself, these two characters have an interesting relationship as seen.
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday! I thought this an interesting story and had some intense moments. This story had my attention and wanting more. Moxon seemed to be obsessed with the idea of creating this machine, he says that it is a machine, however it had already attacked or struggle with him. The machine was stronger than Moxon and developed feelings of it’s own. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHello Samuel,
ReplyDeleteGood post! It seems that this story, Maxon’s Master, parallels Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. As Dr. Frankenstein created a “monster” with sole and feelings, he underestimated the potential harm that it might wreak. It seems to me that the robot's creator, like Dr. Frankenstein, did not consider that humans are not always good moral beings and that if you infuse a creation with human feelings and emotions you have to accept the good with the bad. Maybe the chess-playing robot was more human than its creator could deal with, displaying the true range of human emotions including intelligence and aggression. I can only wonder if the moral of this tale is that humans, themselves, are really monsters and the robot was truly made in their image.
Hello there Samuel.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very great post to read! It was very intriguing to read, even though I haven't read this before. The creativity behind this story is personally what makes it so interesting to me, considering I am a huge fan of science fiction and non fiction science. Thank you for writing such an interesting, and in depth post, keep up the good work!