论《双百人》中机器人安德鲁“为人”的两种进路

On the Two Approaches to Andrew the Robot’s “Being Human” in The Bicentennial Man

《双百人》中的安德鲁是一名拥有自由意识的“非理性”机器人,他尝试多种方法使自己成为“人”,可分为两种进路:社会维度进路与技术维度进路。从社会维度看,他追求法律意义上的自由与不被伤害的权利;从技术维度看,他通过研发人造器官将自己改造为有机体,并设法以此延长人类的寿命,来扩大“人”的定义。但这些尝试并没有使他成为“人”,因为他无法消除人类的恐惧。最终,安德鲁使自己大脑的电位缓慢流失直至死亡才使他被认可为“人”,而死亡正是两种进路的交点。

Andrew in the Bicentennial Man is an irrational robot with a free mind. It tries various ways of becoming a“human being”,which can be divided into the social dimension approach and the technological dimension approach. From a social perspective,it seeks freedom and the right not to be harmed in the legal sense. From a technological perspective,it expands the definition of“human”by developing artificial organs and,in this way,seeks to prolong the life span of a human person,expanding the definition of “human”. However,these attempts did not make it“human”,because it could not dispel its fear of being human. In the end,the slow loss of electrical potential in Andrew’s brain leads to its“death”,which allows it to be recognized as a“human being”,and death is the point where the two approaches intersect.