Calliq Eaddy
Science fiction
Professor Ellis
5-25-21
Avenger’s age of Ultron and Asimov
The advancement of technology is both something to look forward to but also something to fear. Science fiction is defined as “a type of book, film, etc. that is based on imagined scientific discoveries of the future, and often deals with space travel and life on other planets” (Oxford dictionary). The movie Avengers age of Ultron has many characteristics of science fiction such as advanced technology and the characters. There are many different types of SF which allows us to compare and contrast Avenger’s age of Ultron with the work of Asimov.
Stann Lee, Joss Whedon, Jack Kirby and Zak Penn all contributed to the writing of Avengers Age of Ultron. The film was also solo directed by Joss Whedon himself. This movie is just one in a series of four with many sub movies that all contribute to the plot.
Avengers Age of Ultron takes place in New York City and begins with Tony Stark, one of the lead protagonists has a vison of the future in which he sees all his friends lying down dead from an alien invasion. From the events of the first movie, he has been traumatized and anxious about an upcoming battle that has resulted in him devoting a lot of his time to preparing for the worst. Him fearing that he alone will not be able to keep everyone safe leads him to designing an artificial intelligence that he wants to help defend the planet. He states that by creating this artificial intelligence he visions “a suit of armor around the world.”(avengers) although his assistant helps him design the AI, he still opposes it as he notices that although it is not a human mind it is thinking. His fear eventually becomes reality as the AI Ultron, is developed it examines the past knowledge of human life and decides for itself that when you ignore the Outerspace threats, humans are the one causing the danger and that they’re not in need or worthy of protecting. Ultron states “I know you mean well, but you didn’t think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved if it is not allowed to evolve? Look at these, these puppets. There is only one path to peace… The Avengers’ extinction.” (Fandom) The originally designed to be “peacekeeping program” turned against its creator and now seeks to destroy him and humanity. The new danger that Stark created leads to internal conflicts with all the members of the avengers as they believe tony is somewhat tyrannical as he often acts on his own like he did here without consulting with other members.
Ultron tries to input his consciences into a stronger vessel to complete his plan of human extermination, but this plan is foiled by the avengers. They seize the new vessel and instead of destroying it Stark and his assistant try again to create the “peaceful program” (avengers) that Ultron was supposed to be. Although half of the avengers oppose awakening this body the other half proceeds anyways which results in a brawl. Eventually the body is awakened, and Vision is born. Vison then decides that he is “on the side of life” (avengers) meaning he will fight to protect humans and that Ultron must be destroyed. Ultron decides to go through with his plan of human extermination lifting up Sonovia then dropping it at a speed which will be catastrophic and result in global extinction. Using a flying aircraft carrier and help from vision the avengers are able to evacuate everyone Safley. Ultimately the avengers face of in battle against Ultron and rise victorious having saved the human race and averted disaster yet again.
The dangers Ultron posed against humanity confirm the suspicions of the avengers. That having a powerful self-aware AI is too dangerous. Ultron multiplied and created a hivemind army that are all one. Life on earth was almost eradicated by this mechanical man. Although Stark was able to develop a robot (Vison) that fought for the sake of humanity, the danger outweighs to benefits as self-sufficient AI is too dangerous. This is going against Asimov’s three laws. Issaac Asimov was born January 2nd 1920 and died April 6th 1992. He pictured a world with human like robots that would serve humans. He designed three laws that would stop robots from revolting against humans like Ultron did. The first law was “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” The second law was “A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.” And the third law is “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.” (Beauchamp) In the movie we see the robots such as Ultron and Vison are self-aware and voided all off these laws as they have no moral obligation to follow them.
In one of Issaac Asimov’s short story “Little Lost robot” he talks about the Frankenstein complex. The robots are all identical except for one as it has a weekend first law. This Robot goes into hiding as he is yelled at by Mr. Black who told the robot to lose himself. The robot sees this as an opportunity to learn, because that one robot has his first law removed, he is no longer obligated to protect humans as he hides amongst a crowd of normal robots who follow all three laws. When Dr.Susan conducts a test putting one human in danger to see which robots step forward, all of them do, even the one hiding amongst the crowd. The robot is learning and adapting to his situations. Another test is conducted in which the robots were in a situation where they would try to save a human from danger but if they went to the human a Eletric cable would result in their demise. Knowing this Dr.Susan assumed that the robots would proceed anyways and try to save the human but instead they made a choice that it was pointless for them to be destroyed when it was impossible for them to save the human. When asked if they all came up with this idea themselves the robot responded no, that another robot had come up with the idea while talking and told the others. When asked which robot had the idea the robot stated it did not know which robot had the idea. The robots are becoming smarter together and protecting each other. A final test is being conducted in which there is a killing ray and a gamma ray. Only the missing robot would be able to detect the difference in rays as he has trained in physics. During the testing only that robot moved, and he was discovered. He tried to explain his actions immediately until Mr. Black approached hostile and yelling. The robot immediately attacked and killed Mr. Black Infront of the other robots.
This is where the term Frankenstein complex comes from. Asimov coins the term “Frankenstein complex” (Beauchamp) which refers to the fear that robots and artificial intelligence will turn against humanity. In the movie Avengers Age of Ultron, all the laws created by Asimov were broken just like the rouge robot from “Little Lost Robot.” Although the rouge robot in Little Lost Robot was only misunderstood as he was following orders Ultron believed himself to be superior to humans and wanted earth to rid of them.
In the movie Avengers Age of Ultron, the main plot is about a battle between human’s vs rampant AI. This is following Asimov’s Frankenstein complex and serving as a warning for the future of technology. While both AI in the short story and the movie were acting on their own and not following the orders of their creator, they both had different reasoning. Ultron’s was more sinister as he planned for human extinction while the hiding robot from the short story only sought to follow his misunderstood orders.
Work Cited:
Whedon, Joss. Avengers: Age of Ultron. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2015. “Little Lost Robot” Isaac Asimov, March 1947
BEAUCHAMP, GORMAN. “The Frankenstein Complex and Asimov’s Robots.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, vol. 13, no. 3/4, 1980, pp. 83–94. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24780264. Accessed 26 May 2021.
https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Ultron
Oxford Science Fiction Definition https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/science-fiction#:~:text=%E2%80%8Ba%20type%20of%20book,a2%2C%20Film%20and%20theatrea2
Little Lost Robot – Asimov short story. (1962)
Film of little lost robot
