Week 3: Robotics and Art

There are two sides to robotics that we learned about this week. One side, the mass production aspect, was brought about by the industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s. The other side incoorperates more of an art aspect and therefore makes the robots more life-like. Two movies that I feel show an appropriate response that society has to industrialization and robotics are Metropolis (1927) and I, Robot (2004). The film Metropolis portrays industrialization as dangerous to the workers in society.

Scene from Metroplois when the machine that runs the city destructs and kills many workers.

Metropolis 1927

In todays world we rely heavily on robots and machines that mass produces things that we need in our everyday life. In an article from The Washington Post by Vivek Wadhwa he says that we are headed towards a jobless future. He continues to say "The technologies that make such abundance possible are allowing production of far more output using far fewer people."

Although the machines used today are not physically dangerous towards those who run them they are still dangerous in that they are taking away opportunites from those who need to find work.

I found the industrialization part of robotics to be interesting but I enjoyed learning about the art side of robotics more. One of my favorite scince-fiction movies is I, Robot so as soon as I started to read about robotics for this unit I immeditaly thought of it. Although some of the most innovative robots that have been created are not yet as sophisticated as those in I, Robot many people are not waiting to voice their concerns about more advance robotics. For example, Nicola Davis writes about the ethical issues brought about by robots saying that "artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionise our lives." Thinking about the artifical intelligence and life-like aspect of robotics made me wonder if further advancement in the field will be more helpful or harmful to the human race. In most robot movies, such as I, Robot, the robots turn against and attempt to take over the humans. I believe that this is just a popular science fiction plot and that robots could never actually take over the world. However, I do find advancements in robotics very exciting and we will just have to wait and see what happens with them in the future. For right now they are just learning how to walk and how to throw a ball so I think the human race is safe.

QRIO robots by Sony

Works Cited

Davis, Nicola. "Smart Robots, Driverless Cars Work – but They Bring Ethical Issues Too." The      Guardian. N.p., 19 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

"Metropolis Photo: Metropolis." Metropolis. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

"Metropolis: All New Restoration." Metropolis: All New Restoration. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Wadhwa, Vivek. "We're Heading into a Jobless Future, No Matter What the Government Does." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 July 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Winterstein, Daniel. "Searching for Intelligence in Edinburgh." • The Register. N.p., 5 Aug. 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.