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 there’s 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