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Apositronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived byscience fiction writerIsaac Asimov.[1][2] It functions as acentral processing unit (CPU) forrobots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form ofconsciousness recognizable tohumans. When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939 and 1940, thepositron was a newly discovered particle, and so thebuzz word "positronic" added a scientific connotation to the concept. Asimov's 1942 short story "Runaround" elaborates his fictionalThree Laws of Robotics, which are ingrained in the positronic brains of nearly all of his robots.[3]
Asimov remained vague about the technical details of positronic brains except to assert that their substructure was formed from an alloy ofplatinum andiridium. They were said to be vulnerable to radiation and apparently involve a type ofvolatile memory (since robots in storage required a power source keeping their brains "alive"). The focus of Asimov's stories was directed more toward thesoftware of robots—such as theThree Laws of Robotics—than the hardware in which it was implemented, although it is stated in his stories that to create a positronic brain without the Three Laws, it would have been necessary to spend years redesigning the fundamental approach toward the brain itself.[4]
Within his stories ofrobotics onEarth and their development byU.S. Robots, Asimov's positronic brain is less of aplot device and more of a technological item worthy of study.[citation needed]
A positronic brain cannot ordinarily be built without incorporating the Three Laws; any modification thereof would drastically modify robot behavior. Behavioral dilemmas resulting from conflicting potentials set by inexperienced and/or malicious users of the robot for the Three Laws make up the bulk of Asimov's stories concerning robots. They are resolved by applying thescience of logic andpsychology together withmathematics, the supreme solution finder beingDr. Susan Calvin, ChiefRobopsychologist of U.S. Robots.
The Three Laws are also abottleneck in brain sophistication. Very complex brains designed to handle the world economy interpret the First Law in an expanded sense to include humanity as a whole, as opposed to a single human; in Asimov's later works likeRobots and Empire this is referred to as the "Zeroth Law". At least one brain constructed as a calculatingmachine, as opposed to being a robot control circuit, was designed to have a flexible, childlike personality so that it was able to pursue difficult problems without the Three Laws inhibiting it completely. Specialized brains created for overseeing world economics were stated to have no personality at all.
Under specific conditions, the Three Laws can be obviated, with the modification of the actual robotic design.
Robots of the last type directly parallel contemporary industrial robotics practice, though real-life robots do contain safety sensors and systems (a weak form of the First Law; the robot is a safe tool to use, but has no "judgment", which is implicit in Asimov's own stories).