Topic: Robot Tutorial
We Love them, Crave them, and occasionally, Fear them. The week, we dive in to the topic of Robots,
both what they mean to us in Fiction, but also in real life, and perhaps where
does the fact and fiction blend together or doesn’t? Robots are really cool though.
How Define a Robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a
computer— capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. Typically, Robots can appear human in nature,
but come in many shapes and forms. We
almost always see them as tools, rarely as individuals and almost never as
people. In our real world, they’re
basically machines that do specialized mechanical tasks, as opposed to
calculations or executables like a computer; but we expect these machines to be
piloted by a computer, or atleast act based off one, but can also be
piloted/controlled by humans directly.
Robots in Real Life
In our modern world, we adore and want Robots. The ideal for modern society is to have
Robots do all the hard and difficult physical tasks for us, while we do either
less, or nothing at all. It’s a dream
world, as I’m certain we’ll still very much be a part of interacting and being
a part of the world, but it will take some time to get even close to it.
As it is now, our common modern days Robots can be found in
a number of places:
Our Home – Rombas and other vacuum robots
Hospitals – there are some robotic surgery machines
Food Service – There are some robots that actually make your
good, while others clean dishes
Farming – There are some robots and automation in the
Farming Sector
Warehouse and Factories – For years, we’ve been simplify
tasks for robots to do for us that would otherwise be too dangerous, to
difficult, or too slow for a human to do.
But in a number of our warehouses, it’s robots that managing the
inventory, stacking and putting it away as necessary.
Military – Various Drones and bomb disposal robots exist to
aid the military and keep humans out of harm’s way.
Uncanny Valley
The Idea of the Uncanny Valley is this notion that as
things, particularly robots, are particularly less human, we tend to like them
a lot more, but as time goes on, and the Robots become more human in quality
and nature, we tend to like them a lot less, to the point of down right hating
them. But as time continues, and robots
get more sophisticated and advanced, our like for them begins to rise once
again. The low point, when humans
actually start dislike and are disgusted by the robot is like a valley, and
thus where the term comes from.
The notion as to why we like them when they aren’t that
human, is that their human like qualities stand out much easier, and we tend to
imprint ourselves on to the robots, allowing us to empathize with them. It’s why R2D2 is one of the most popular
Robots in fiction, despite having very little human characteristics in form and
shape. This is why Robots tend to look
simple in nature in cartoons, and early robots aren’t too human on any
particular level.
Conversely, when we try to make human like robots, we tend
to dislike them, and are even hateful of them.
The reason for this is that when we get to more human looking robots, as
humans, we’re able to see the difference and able to notice when something
isn’t quite right. It could be the way
they move, the texture of their skin, their little gestures, and potentially
even their eyes. It looks off and we
can’t put our finger on it. When it’s
less human looking, we’re willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, even see
its positives more than its negatives.
Its why I think some models and actors look too good, and it’s off
setting to me, like they look too good.
Eventually, as the robots get more life-like and
sophisticated, the elements that once made us hate the robots begins to
disappear, as the boundary begin to disappear and the human qualities are like
our own.
This Uncanny Valley is also seen in a lot of early Computer
Generated Graphics and Video Games, as the graphics attempted to catch up with
technology, they got to a period where they didn’t look quite right, and even
when they look good, they still don’t feel right, and don’t quite look like
they belong. Compositing, along with the
artists making said graphics, have gotten a lot better over time, so that in
some cases, it’s hard to tell what’s read and what’s not.
Robots in Fiction
Robots in fiction come in lot of different stories, but
typically always come in one of a few flavors.
They’re almost always in Science Fiction, though they can appear in
other fantasy settings, though usually portrayed as a Golem or some sort of
fictional machine. Typically, Robots get
broken down in story to a hand full of different stories, usually based on how
human to how robotic they are:
·
Robots, but fundamentally human – These are
robots that can have an advanced AI that lets them think and feel, even learn
and come to love/empathize. They have
almost all the characteristics of a human, save that they are a robot at the
end of the day.
·
Top Tier AIs – These are robots that have super
sophisticated AI, but aren’t exactly human, or still have cold/logical
thinking. They’re often portrayed as not
being human, and thus are subservient to humans, rarely showing true emotion,
or emotions they shouldn’t have been able to develop.
·
A mix of Human and Machine – they are robots
that can display some human qualities, but are typically only mimicking the
natures of Humans for the sake of humans.
They still think cold and logically, but can process the world around
them to some extent. They tend to lack
more human qualities, save for what the writer wants to imbue the character
with.
·
Total Robot – Pure robots at the end of the day,
without an ounce of humanity built in to them.
These robots tend to be villains, like Hal9000 from a Space Odyssey
. While not always evil, they are
typically the antagonist.
Famous Robots:
·
R2D2 (Star Wars)
·
Bender (Futurama)
·
Bishop (Aliens)
·
Johnny 5 (Short Circuit)
·
The Terminator (Terminator)
·
HAL 9000 (2001 A Space Odyssey)
·
Optimus Prime (Transformers)
·
B-9 (Lost in Space)
·
Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet)
·
Rosie (The Jetsons)
·
Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
·
WALL-E (WALL-E)
·
Sonny (I, Robot)
·
Vision (Marvel Comics)
·
Baymax (Big Hero 6)
·
Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Pitfalls and Triumphs of Robots
·
Robot AI vs Sentience – At what point are Robots
truly sentient beings, and at what point are they robots? It’s a question that gets asked a lot of
Robots. Most popularly in Ghost in the
Shell, an anime franchise that asks if you’re a fully cyber person, are you
actually a human, or were you ever actually a human to begin with?
·
Robot Racism – Typically, there is a disgust for
Robots, not being seen as humans and merely as tools, but because of their
human qualities and potential characteristics, they can be conflated for actual
humans, and thus you get to an issue of ‘Coding’. Coding is the notion that you’ll graft on
qualities of humans or society on to something else, whether intentional or
not. Thus you can look at something and
see that it’s coding for something else, because it helps either ground your
world or paints a picture for you quickly.
In the case of robots, Robots aren’t human, as where humans are, so when
people are racists against robots, it’s because they’re lacking certain human
characteristics, which tells us that the writer or directors believe that these
are qualities that make up what humans are.
Thus when you look for allegories in modern society, you can code that
behavior, or lack of it, on to another person/race/people.
Homework:
Big Hero 6
Bicentennial Man
CIRO Almubot Battlefield I, Remote Controlled Robot
