PART A - An exploration of Robotic movies
A1. List your top 6 robotic based movies.
Ensure you provide a brief overview of how the robots have been used and
portrayed in the movie. Below is an example for the movie Terminator
Example - Terminator.
Two robots (cyborgs) from the future come
back in time to determine the future of the human race. One is to help maintain
the survival of the human race in the future. The other is developed by a
computer system to assist in the eradication of humans. Both have extreme
strength, self repair capacity, ability to make independent decisions and can
also communicate easily with humans that is yet to be seen in any real life
robotic technology.
Robo-Cop
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit,
evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city
government to privatise the police force. To test their crime-eradicating
cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed
confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his
body to support their untested Robo-Cop prototype. But when Robo-Cop learns of
the company's corrupt plans, he turns on his masters.
WALL-E, short for Waste Allocation Load
Lifter Earth-class, is the last robot left on Earth. He spends his days tidying
up the planet, one piece of garbage at a time. But during 700 years, WALL-E has
developed a personality, and he's become extremely lonely. Then he spots EVE, a sleek and shapely probe sent back to Earth on a scanning
mission. Infatuated WALL-E embarks on his greatest adventure yet when he follows
EVE across the galaxy.
Chappie
In the near future, a mechanised police
force patrols the streets and deals with lawbreakers- but now, the people are
fighting back. When one police droid is stolen and given new programming, he
acquires the ability to feel and think for himself. While the robot, named "Chappie" puzzles out human behaviour, the
authorities begin to see him as a danger to mankind and order; they will stop
at nothing to ensure that Chappie is the last of his kind.
Pacific Rim
Long ago, legions of monstrous creatures
called Kaiju arose from the sea, bringing with them all-consuming war. To fight
the Kaiju, mankind developed giant robots called Jaegers, designed to be
piloted by two humans locked together in a neural bridge. However, even the
Jaegers are not enough to defeat the Kaiju, and humanity is on the verge of defeat.
Mankind's last hope now lies with a washed-up ex-pilot, an
untested trainee and an old, obsolete Jaeger.
I, Robot
In 2035, highly intelligent robots fill
public service positions throughout the world, operating under three rules to
keep humans safe. Despite his dark history with robotics, Detective Del Spooner investigates the alleged suicide of U.S. Robotics founder Alfred
Lanning and believes that a human-like robot murdered him. With the help of a robot expert, Spooner
discovers a conspiracy that may enslave the human race.
Robots
In a world of sentient robots, striving
young inventor Rodney Copperbottom wants to work for the
consultative Bigweld, whose Bigweld Industries makes spare robot
parts. But Bigweld has just been deposed as company head by the villainous
Phineas T. Ratchet, who wants to make all robots submit to
profitable forced upgrades. In this animated adventure, Rodney and his friend
Fender go underground to fight Ratchet's evil plans.
PART B - SCIENCE FICTION OR NOT ?
B1. Documentary - Future of Robots. As a
class, watch the following documentary titled 'Future Humanoid Robots - From
Fiction to Reality'
B2. Hollywood movie - Class choice of
Robotic movie
As a class, you will pick a 'Block-Buster'
movie which has a robotic focus. After you have watched the movie, please
complete the essay question below (point 3) and add it to your website.
You may use IMDB (Internet Movie Database)
to research the movie your class may watch, see the following links.
B3. Essay Question - Science Fiction or
Not!In 500 to 800 words, discuss whether the film industry has depicted the
reality of robots, or are they simply basing their material on science fiction?
Marking guide (see assessment for more
details);
- Provides a detailed discussion on whether the film industry has depicted the reality of robots, or if they are basing their material on science fiction.
- Discussion is a minimum of 500 to 800 words
- Reference to a minimum of 4 movies is required.
- Your justification is linked to relevant articles, case studies or research. It is envisaged that a minimum of 4 articles/case studies are utilised.
Resources for Essay
The following websites will give you some
information to get you started. Feel free to use other sources to gain further
information.
-Science fiction robotic laws need a realitycheck
Robotics Essay
There has been considerable discussion as
to whether the film industry has depicted the reality of robots or whether they
are basing their material on science fiction. However, due to the exaggerated
nature of robots, their capability to encapsulate humanistic qualities and
concepts, as well as the misuse and strongly illegitimate use of robots which
are all displayed in recent films, it can be stated that the film industry are
basing their material on an external source rather than the depiction of robot's
reality.
Primarily, robots capabilities in movies clearly contradict Asimov’s three laws of Robotics. This is depicted in the
movie ‘Matrix’, in which the machines clearly disobey the first two laws; they
intentionally set to destroy the human race including Zion (the last human
city); are blind to any human orders and will not stop until the human race
is extinct. It can also be specified that whilst the machines do somewhat abide
by the third law, because they do ‘protect their own existence’, they fail to
fully submit to this law as it does ‘conflict with the first two laws’. This
contradicts however, with Paul MacCready, founder of the military Robot company
AeroVironment, who states in the article ‘Robotics and the 3 Laws’, that ‘All
robots who are manufactured should at very least abide by Asimov’s 3 Laws, and
is especially important in militaristic endeavors. This is further explored in
the recent movie ‘Terminator: Genisys’ where the ‘friendly’ terminator that was
Sarah Conner’s guardian, although technically disobeying the second law as he
didn’t obey Sarah’s commands, it was justified as his sole purpose was to
protect her, demonstrating the multi-faceted nature of robots depicted in
movies.
Furthermore, the advancement of robots are
clearly exaggerated and misrepresented in current movies. Today, robots are
recognised as compliant machinery blind to the world and its inhabitants, not sentient beings. However, movies for
example ‘Robot’s’ portray the anthropomorphic state of robots, displaying
human-like qualities such as emotions and human physical traits, which are yet
to be created. This represents again, the over-stepping of the metaphysical
barrier between the human-robotic realms. Despite Baxter, a revolutionary new industrial
workbot from Rethink Robotics, there are no robots capable of actually
thinking, feeling or independently performing with such precision and fluidity
explored in the movie ‘Robots’. Despite it being a ‘cartoon’ movie created by
Disney, it does not properly justify the reality of robots in today’s society.
The idea of humanistic values in movies such as Robots is negatively supported,
evident in an article by space.com. They suggest that ‘danger can arise when
humans push robots beyond their current limits of decision-making.’ This can also
‘lead to mistakes and even tragedies involving robots on factory floors and in
military operations.’ Therefore, not only do these movies represent a false
ideology, but are a warning to the possible consequences of robotic/human
interactions.
On the other hand however, while robots can
be used for good and are seen as a positive influence, illustrated in ‘ WALL-E’,
they are also depicted as human ‘killers’ with an instinct designed to wipe out
the human race - not translated in today's society. This is explored in the Star Wars Series, where the evil
‘droids’ who are deployed by the dark-side of the force are tasked with the
operation of destroying the Jedi race. What is particularly alarming is that
unlike most military robots today, they were not controlled through code or
some external source, but rather could think for themselves and made their own
decisions. This however, does not translate to reality and an article entitled
‘The future of robots’ by Recon Robotics stated that the company plans to
‘remain in full control of all our military robots, as we believe self-thinking
machines (although not designed yet) may become too powerful in the future. We
prefer the comfort and security of a human controlled machine.’ However, a news article by Mar Raibert from ‘Boston
Dynamics,’ another leading robotics company, believes otherwise. In fact, he
firmly believes that if robots had the same abilities as humans emotionally and
thought-wise, that could greatly improve robotic standards and could actually
create greater peace, as the robots would be allowed to make their own informed
decisions, instead of being mindlessly controlled by humans.
On balance, whilst it may be somewhat
correct that robots in movies are based on reality, due to their exaggerated
capabilities, ability to think for themselves and display human emotion and
their clear contradiction of Asimov’s three laws of robotics, there is clear evidence
that robots in movies are predominantly based on science fiction.
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