TEHRAN A Persian translation of English writer David Edmonds young adult novel Undercover Robot: My First Year as a Human has come into the Iranian bookstores.The book has been published by Now with its original illustrations by Bertie Fraser.
Meisam Mohammadamini is the translator of the book.If super-high-tech android Dotty can spend an entire year masquerading as a twelve-year-old schoolgirl, she could win a multi-million-pound prize that will enable her creators to continue their ground-breaking work in the development of AI.Easy-peasy, right? As Dotty navigates the social expectations of Year 7 she gets into a series of hilarious scrapes, and encounters numerous ethical dilemmas both at school and at home.Then a boy in her class discovers theres a reward for outing the robot, and becomes intent on proving that Dotty is not who or what she says she is.To prevent herself from being discovered, Dotty needs to put into practice everything she has learned about being human.
But will it be enough?It is a hilarious story that poses some fascinating philosophical and ethical questions, told from the point of view of a smart, sassy android robot.Edmonds is a radio feature maker at the BBC World Service.
He studied at Oxford University, has a Ph.D.
in philosophy from the Open University and has held fellowships at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan.He is the author of Caste Wars: A Philosophy of Discrimination and co-author with John Eidinow of Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers and Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time.He has also written a book on the trolley problem, entitled Would You Kill the Fat Man?.
In this he outlines the problem and several of its variations, providing a rounded view on the trolley problem while analyzing many ethical theories and how they would respond to the trolley problem.Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of David Edmonds book Undercover Robot.MMS/YAW