You read in most of Isaac Asimov's book about the positronic brain, and see it in Star Trek with the character Data...I was just wondering, I know positrons are purely theoretical, but exactly is the theory behind them?

Positrons are just simply the antimatter verson of electrons. Nothing too complicated.

I've never understood how Asimov planned on harnessing the positron in the robotic brain. It would be a matter-antimatter explosion just waiting to happen.

I think I read somewhere that he just used it because it sounded good.

You can make positrons in particel accelerators. They have built traps to hold hundreds of antimatter particles already, and are working on making anti matter atoms. But its tricky stuff.

Invert:
Absolutely, it sounds more science fictional.

LOL, You know, though...Asimov is was really smart, and he definitely knew what he was talking about. But anyway, when was the whole idea of the positron developed.

The positron was first proposed by Paul Dirac in 1928, and first observed in 1932.

Observed, how do you observe something like that?

Cloud chamber. You can measure the mass of the particle and its charge by moving it through a magnetic field (how much it moves from a set field strength can determine the mass, and which direction it moves will determine its charge).

-AntonK

Neato!

It would be a matter-antimatter explosion just waiting to happen.
Indeed, I always wondered why there wasn't a massive explosion every time Datas head was cracked open in Star Trek TNG :D Did they ever explain it?

The idea behind the positronic brain was in fact based off the idea of the matter-antimatter interaction (or so I've heard). The interaction of the two does result in annhiliation, but also energy released. This was a synapse firing I believe. The brain wasn't necessarily made of anti-matter so much as made use of it. Specifically anti-electrons (positrons). Then again it is all just scifi

Asimov himself stated that, having read about positrons and their (at the time) super-short lifespans, he felt that they were analogous to neurons firing between synapses in the brain. He certainly had no intention of working out a full "theory"!

Data's being a "positronic robot" is derived entirely from Isaac Asimov, more or less as a tribute. Although he never wrote a Star Trek script or was ever involved apart from a single credit as consultant on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Asimov corresponded and got quite friendly with Gene Roddenberry (also Leonard Nimoy).

Trivial note: Many robots in fiction today are assumed or actually stated to be programmed with the Three Laws, something Asimov approved and was proud of. But, nobody is allowed to quote them in their original wording: that right he retained for himself.

positronic brain was a myth used by Asimov, as Carl Sagan mentions in one of his books regarding fiction, it was used probably because of what is in vogue at that point in time