Living on Mars

Fake News Famously, former US President Donald Trump would brand anything he didn't agree with as Fake News, even if there were credible, eye-witness accounts or, better still, actual footage of an event. How do you work out what's real and what isn't?
	Artificial Intelligence Douglas Adams gave us Marvin, the Paranoid Android, the chronically depressed machine with nothing good to say about the world, or the Universe, or anyone in it. Should we offer Marvin a cure for his condition? Should we offer him medication? Does Marvin want to be cured anyway? Shouldn't we ask him?
Machine Intelligence Rob Grant and Doug Naylor created the sci-fi situation comedy, Red Dwarf, about a group of misfits left to fend for themselves in an unforgiving universe. The crew are Dave Lister, the last human being alive, Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of the ship's janitor, a prissy, highly-strung robot called Kryton and a creature descended from the ship's cat, called (imaginatively) Cat. Grant and Naylor created many other interesting creatures and personalities, perhaps none more perplexing that Toasty, the Talking Toaster, a domestic appliance with an artificial intelligence whose sole function was to make ... toast. Alas, Toasty's personality was so relentlessly optimistic, so unremittingly perky, that the ship's crew felt it necessary to dump Toasty at the bottom of the deepest, darkest storage cupboard, and then left him there. Was this cruel?
	Life on Mars Ten years ago, the European Space Agency began a programme to select astronauts for a forthcoming one-way trip to Mars. After an exhausting selection period, the chosen astronaut would then be launched towards Mars, land on the surface and then attempt survive on food packs whilst attempting to build a new home on the planet's surface, until a rescue mission could be put together. Many feel, myself included, that this is a suicide mission and would do more harm than good to the prospect of exploring another planet. What do you think?
Living with Aliens Way back in nineteen seventy seven, a radio astronomer working at the Big Ears Radio Telescope at the Ohio State University, picked up what looked very much like a message from an alien species. This became known as the Wow event, so called because the astronomer, Dr. Jerry Ehman, wrote *Wow!* in the margin of the computer printout. How would you react if we were contacted by an alien species? How do you think the world would react? Do you think we've already been contacted by aliens?
	iRobot 6. Seventy five years ago, Science Fiction Author Isaac Asimov wrote the Three Laws of Robotics, which are: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws Are these laws sufficient? What other laws would you create to ensure that robots didn't run amok? Feel free to be as creative/imaginative or just downright silly as you wish.