A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Its role is to serve as a central computer for a robot, and, in some unspecified way, to provide it with a form of consciousness recognisable to humans. When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939/1940, the positron was a newly discovered particle and so the buzz word positronic, coined by analogy with electronic, added a contemporary gloss of popular science to the concept. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Isaac Asimov, Ph. ... A Lego RCX Computer is an example of an embedded computer used to control mechanical devices. ... ASIMO, a humanoid robot manufactured by Honda. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 MOSTLY HARMLESS Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... The first detection of the positron in 1932 by Carl D. Anderson The positron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. ... A buzzword (also known as a fashion word) is an idiom, often a neologism, commonly used in technical, administrative and political environments, consisting of an over-used word or phrase. ...

Asimov remained vague about the technical details except to assert that the brain's substructure was formed from an alloy of platinum and iridium. Asimov relied on the reader's knowledge of the capacity of positrons and electrons to be formed in pairs and to annihilate each other, in order to convey the impression that such pair creation and destruction could serve as a metaphor for the evanescence of thought. The focus of Asimov's stories was directed more towards the software of robots (such as the Three Laws of Robotics) than the hardware in which it was implemented. General Name, Symbol, Number platinum, Pt, 78 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 6, d Appearance grayish white Atomic mass 195. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iridium, Ir, 77 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 9, 6, d Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 192. ... The Electron is a fundamental subatomic particle that carries an electric charge. ... Personification of thought (Greek Εννοια) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

Several robot stories have been written by other authors following Asimov's death. For example, in Roger MacBride Allen's Caliban trilogy, a Spacer roboticist called Gubber Anshaw invented the gravitonic brain. It offered speed and capacity improvements over traditional positronic designs, but the strong influence of tradition made robotics labs reject Anshaw's work. Only one roboticist, Fredda Leving, chose to adopt gravitonics, because it offered her a blank slate on which she could explore alternatives to the Three Laws. Because they were not dependent upon centuries of earlier research, gravitonic brains could be programmed with the standard Laws, variations of the Laws, or even empty pathways which specify no Laws at all. Roger MacBride Allen (born September 26, 1957) is a US science fiction author. ... Isaac Asimovs Caliban (1993) is a science fiction novel by Roger MacBride Allen, set in Isaac Asimovs Robots/Empire/Foundation universe. ... In Isaac Asimovs Foundation/Empire/Robot series, the Spacers were the first humans to emigrate to space. ...

Doctor Who

In the The Power of the Daleks, a fourth series episode of the British sci-fi program Doctor Who, the Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, awakens from his first regeneration and eventually faces one of his old nemeses, the Daleks - a race of armed robotic tank shells with violent organic brains. The humans in the episode, who had found disabled Daleks and who are examining them, discover that, upon activation, the daleks have fantastic powers of computation, prompting a scientist to comment "what sort of positronic brain must this device possess." Lulled into complacency by the obsequiousness of the Dalek under study, the humans are unprepared for a relentless attempt at conquest by the restored dalek specimens. While the scientist in question commented on a positronic brain, the Daleks are actually organic life-forms that were encased in robotic shells, and thus do not possess the purported positronic brain. They were created through genetic manipulation of the Khaled race by its chief scientist, Davros, to create a new species to win a milennium long war against their rivals, the Thaals, on their home world Skaro. The Daleks evolved into a species completely devoid of emotion and most of the five senses, but also completely rationale and committed to the belief that they were superior to, and therefore committed to the conquest all other life. The Daleks suffer from no Asimovian legal limitations and continue to plague humanity, the Doctor and all other creatures throughout the entire series. The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from November 5 to December 10, 1966. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... This article is becoming very long. ... Patrick George Troughton (March 25, 1920 – March 28, 1987) was a versatile and prolific English actor best known in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long running British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 until 1969. ... This article is about the Time Lords from Doctor Who. ... The Daleks (pronounced DAH-lecks; IPA: ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ...

Star Trek

The fictional characters Lieutenant Commander Data, his "mother" Julianna Soong Tainer, and his brother Lore from the Star Trek series The Next Generation, were androids equipped with positronic brains. In one episode Data creates an offspring named Lal with a similar but somewhat more sophisticated brain. After a short time she displays promising advances in emotion and other human behaviours that Data has not been able to master. Sadly, she died of a "rapid positronic cascade failure" shortly after she had been told that Starfleet wanted to separate her from Data. In the episode Datalore, Commander Riker refers to the positronic brain as Asimov's dream. In the episode "Brothers" we see an unnumbered quantity of Androids (and/or Android parts) that preceded both Lore and Data. These are assumed to also possess positronic brains in some form or fashion with each being an improvement over the last. In the Royal Navy, United States Navy and United States Coast Guard, a lieutenant commander (lieutenant-commander or Lt Cdr in the RN) is a commissioned officer superior to a lieutenant and inferior to a commander. ... Data, portrayed by Brent Spiner, is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe. ... Juliana Tainer is a character in the fictional Star Trek universe, played by Fionnula Flanagan. ... In the fictional Star Trek universe, Lore is the name of a prototype for the android Data, often referred to as his evil brother and was played by the same actor: Brent Spiner. ... Star Trek is an American science-fiction franchise spanning six television series, ten feature films, hundreds of novels, computer and video games, and other fan stories. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... In the television program Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lal (played by Hallie Todd) is the name of Lieutenant Commander Datas daughter. ... Starfleet Command In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet is the paramilitary defense, research, diplomacy, and exploration force of the United Federation of Planets (UFP) with – as of the late 24th century – hundreds of starships and starbases at its disposal. ... Datalore is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. ... William Thomas Riker is a character in the Star Trek universe played by Jonathan Frakes, who appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and all the movies focusing on the TNG characters. ...

None of these androids were constrained by Asimov's robot laws, although Data's actions were restricted by ethical programming provided by his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong since Lore soon developed an apparent lack of ethics early on in his development. In the fictional Star Trek: The Next Generation universe, Dr. Noonien Soong (played by Brent Spiner) is a human cyberneticist who lived on the colony Omicron Theta for several years, where he created six androids with positronic brains, the last two being Lore and Data, both of whom were also...

Perry Rhodan

In the German science fiction series Perry Rhodan, positronic brains (German: Positroniken) are the main computer technology (for quite a time they were replaced by the more powerful Syntronics, but those stopped working due to the increased Hyperimpedance). The most powerful positronic is called NATHAN and covers large parts of the earth's moon. Many of the larger computers (including NATHAN) as well as the race of Posbis combine a biological component with the positronic brain, giving them sentience and creativity. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Perry Rhodan is the worlds most prolific literary science fiction (SF) series, published since 1961 in Germany. ...

I, Robot, 2004 Film

The robots in the 2004 film I, Robot also had positronic brains. Sonny, one of the main characters from the film, had two separate positronic brains working in unison (The second being a positronic "heart"), which meant he had choices open to him the other standard robots in the film did not. He also had the possibility of being able to develop emotion. I, Robot is a science fiction film filmed in Vancouver, Canada but produced in the United States released on July 16, 2004, attributed to Isaac Asimovs Robot Series, especially a short-story collection of the same name. ...

Additionally, there was a colossal positronic brain, VIKI, that played a prominent role in the story. Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (V.I.K.I.) is a fictional computer/character in the I, Robot movie. ...

Bicentennial Man

The robots in the 1999 film Bicentennial Man (based on one of Asimov's stories) also had positronic brains, including the main character Andrew, an NDR series robot that started to experience human characteristics such as creativity. Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to "decay", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being. This event takes place on the two-hundredth anniversary of his creation, hence the title. The Bicentennial Man is a novella by Isaac Asimov. ...

References

See also

• Transmog

In the science fiction stories of Clifford D. Simak, such as Installment plan, transmogs are special-purpose auxiliary brains that can be plugged into robots. ...

External links

Positronic brain article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki. Memory Alpha (often abbreviated to MA) is a collaborative project to create the most definitive, accurate and accessible encyclopedic reference for topics related to the Star Trek fictional universe. ... Star Trek is an American science-fiction franchise spanning six television series, ten feature films, hundreds of novels, computer and video games, and other fan stories. ... A wiki (IPA: <WICK-ee> or <WEE-kee>[1]) is a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. ...