Robots: Starting with the Printing Press

This week's topic was really interesting to me, because I learned  and realized that my knowledge of robots was really small. My knowledge of robots really only comes from movies like "The Terminator" and "Transformers" and especially "iRobot." All three movies portray robots as evil and as good, but all three promote the idea that robots are a harm to humanity. More realistically in "The Terminator" and "iRobot."

If you follow the link and watch the preview for the  movie i Robot, you will see the ability and promotion of robots to destroy and harm human beings, even if it is against the robot code. I, Robot | KurzweilAI

An interesting point that was brought up was that technology really started with the production line, originating with the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, and even 400 years earlier by the Chinese. The ability of technology to then expand from printing production lines, to Henry Ford's Ford production lines. As well as Leonardo's early cyborg creation, which is also heavily found in "iRobot." Robots had taken on the form of friends or helpers, just like professor Machiko Kusahara touched on, yet in western films they turn on humans and end up being evil. 

I think the views of industrialization and the continuation of the use of robots causes distress for many people. As professor Machiko talked about, people were becoming apart of the machine, they were needed in order to help the machines function. They were replaced and continue to be replaced more and more today. Charlie Chaplin did a great job of representing this idea in his silent film "Modern Times", he was nothing more than a test subject to a machine in order to increase production. We went from a world of doing everything on our own, to a world of us relying on machines and technology every single day. As much as industrialization has helped us, do you think it has also established a fear? I believe it has, it only proves that we can be replaced. We are the ones creating these robots and yet once they reach a certain knowledge and potential could they become and invincible version of ourselves? Could they truly replace us?

~Claire Felix

Citations:

N/A, . I,Robot. 2010. Photograph. KurzweilAlNetwork, N/A. Web. 21 Oct 2013.

N/A, . I,Robot. 2010. video. KurzweilAlNetwork, N/A. Web. 21 Oct 2013.

Charlie Chaplin. N/A. Photograph. Dr. Macro, N/A. Web. 21 Oct 2013.

University, Harvard. "Literacy and the Printing Press."Peabody Museum. Peobody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, n.d. Web. 19 Oct 2013.

Society, Vermont Historical. An Early Printing Press. 2013. Photograph. Peabody Museum, Cambridge, MA. Web. 21 Oct 2013.

Robotics MachikoKusahara 1. YouTube, 2012. Web. 17 Oct 2013.