Conference noted::sf

"Positron" is another name for an anti-electron, a sub-atomic particle that
is in all ways similar to an electron except for its charge. 

The term "electronic brain" doesn't have quite the same, er, charge to it.

Ray

    From an imaginary interview (contrived by the Good Doctor):
    
    "What's a positronic brain?"
    
    "A mechanism that uses positrons instead of electrons."
                                                          
    "How does it work?"
    
    "I haven't the vaguest idea."
             
    As stated in the preceding reply, "positronic" sounds better than
    "electronic."                                 
    
    					andrew

    Asimov has admitted in several essays that he coined the term
    "positronic brain" for the sheer sound of it.  In his robot stories, he
    has elaborated just a tiny bit more:  positronic brains contain a good
    deal of "platinum-iridium sponge."
    
    The really important thing about Asimov's robot brains was that they
    were of human calibre in most ways, but had a psychology dominated by
    the "Three Laws of Robots" here quoted for those who haven't seen them
    before:
    
    First Law: A robot may not harm a human being or allow a human being to
    	com to harm.
    
    Second Law: A robot must obey orders given it by human being unless
    	such obedience would violate the First Law.
    
    Third Law: A robot must protect itself from harm unless such protection
    	would violate the First or Second Law.
    
    The First Law has been adopted by many sf writers, particular for the
    screen, under the name of the "Prime Directive."
    
    Asimov tells a story that he went to a premier or preview (I forget) of
    Kubrick's "2001," along with other spacey notables such Carl Sagan.  At
    the end of the first half, just before intermission, it is clear that
    HAL 9000 is contemplating homicide.  At intermission, Asimov came
    steaming out into the lobby declaiming, "They're breaking the First
    Law!  They're breaking the First Law!"  Quoth Sagan, "So why don't you
    strike them down with lightning, Isaac?"
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    In the later stories, Isaac started dropping hints about how his
    "brains" work, but they were tiny hints.  Somehow, the p[ositrons
    are routed to specific orbital paths that make the brains function.
     "Disrupting" the pathways of these 'orbiting" positrons woulds
    result in the "death" of a robot.
    
    Oh, well ...
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    If you want a good attack on the 'Laws' of Robotics, find "Roderick" by
    John Sladek.  Roderick is confused but maturing little robot who is trying
    to make his way in the world.  He doesn't understand how anyone could
    consider these to be laws.  For starters, how is a robot supposed to tell
    what constitutes harm?  Is it harmful to drink a beer?  Probably, in some
    sense.  Is it harmful to cross the street?  Could very likely be.  If human
    beings sometimes have trouble distinguishing these things, how are 
    robots supposed to?   Asimov himself found a loophole in the laws in
    almost every story.  "Roderick" is a wonderful piece of satire in 
    general.  Its sequel, "Roderick at Random", has just come out, and
    is also good.
    
    /jlr

   re .3                   
     you forget the latest law of robotics,the 0th which he had to add
     to make sense in his attempts to bring together the two main streams
     of his writings 

<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

 Edition : 3145               Monday 29-Aug-1994            Circulation :  5789 

        VNS COMPUTER NEWS .................................  102 Lines
        VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH ..............................   25   "

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VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                     [W. Stuart Crippen, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                     [Acton, MA, USA                      ]

			   A big silicon brain
			   -------------------

        From Science News, July 30, 1994, Vol. 146, No. 5, Pg 77

    Researchers at ATR laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, are building an 
    "artificial brain."  To be completed in 2001, the lab's CAMBrain Project 
    aims to produce a silicon brain with more than 1 billion artificial 
    neurons, according to Hugo de Garis, an ATR computer scientist.

    The brain will come in the form of a neural network and will exist 
    within a massively parallel computer.  To create such a complex system, 
    the researchers will have the network build itself.  "Cellular automata," 
    each one a distinct computer program, will actually forge their own 
    linkages.

    De Garis calls this approach "evolutionary engineering."  The neural net 
    grows when cellular automata send "growth signals" to each other, then
    connect via "synapses."  Currently, the brain's logical innards are 
    forming in two dimensions, though they will soon begin to interconned in 
    three dimensions, de Garis says.

    Since the network will evolve its own structure, de Garis calls it a 
    type of "Darwin Machine."

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<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 3145      Monday 29-Aug-1994   <><><><><><><><>

    Wasn't there a theoritical number of nueron connections that onced
    exceded self awareness would occur.
    
    
    Brian V
    
    I think therefore I am
    

    re -.1
    
    	I think it was in the neighborhood of 10 billion or so ( taken from
    the approx. # of connections in a human brain ).  I read a story once
    where the population of earth exceeded 10 billion, and human
    civilization developed an intelligence - and promptly committed
    suicide.  Amusing, but scary thought . . .
    
    					- Jim