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Hollywood films like "The Terminator" have contributed to Western Techno-/Robophobia.

  1. Technophobia, the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices and especially computers
  2. Robophobia, the fear of robots, drones, robot-like mechanics, artificial intelligence.

Im a pretty tech-savvy person: i watch every Apple keynote, every Samsung galaxy reveal, and every Microsoft developer conference.

But none of them gets me more excited than Boston Dynamics

I can't tell you how many times I've watched their videos of their robots.

But in the comment of all their videos, we get replies of SKYNET or some Terminator references.

Don't get me wrong, i will be the first to say I adore the Terminator series, probably have watched more of the films than i should when T2 was enough.

But one thing I've never done, without sarcasm, nor subconsciously is seen real advancement of robotics
In the same light as any film that has robots or Ai destroy all of humanity.

One might think im picking on Hollywood for always negatively portraying robots or i give them too much credit in igniting fear in western society that has to cause us phobia toward robotic, ai, and even the internet.

But i will argue that is exactly what has happened when not all of the world doesn't have that fear.

Japan, for example, see robots fictitiously like Patlabor like we see a Firetruck.


in the Gundam franchise, they are considered as weapons just like we view military tanks.

And because of their lack of robophobia in japan, they have great pride in robotics.


Their fictional portrayal of robotic has have them see a future where they can feel safe around them in the real world.



If the west does want to see robots be companions and aid alongside human, we should start with changing our media and portrayal of them.
 
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kingkaiser

Member
Japan has a severe demographic problem. To put it simple, they are running out of people and thus experience a harsh decline in competitive workforce while also denying foreign immigration. This leaves them with only one option…using robots. It’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off for them.
 

Lanrutcon

Member
im saying the west has nothing to fear.

and in the eyes of Japan, they're fictional portray of robots are not "weapon of war".

Gundams are literally portrayed as weapons of war in every single series. This is not debatable.

And obviously the west has nothing to fear from a new generation of war machines: the US would be the first to spend a trillion dollars on them. Japan would be like "oh look, we've invented a new robot that builds free housing for orphans"...5 minutes later some Texan will have strapped rockets to the thing and painted it in urban camo.

For home defense, obviously.
 
Gundams are literally portrayed as weapons of war in every single series. This is not debatable.

And obviously the west has nothing to fear from a new generation of war machines: the US would be the first to spend a trillion dollars on them. Japan would be like "oh look, we've invented a new robot that builds free housing for orphans"...5 minutes later some Texan will have strapped rockets to the thing and painted it in urban camo.

For home defense, obviously.


no that is not debatable.

what i am saying is there is a difference between portraying robots as weapons of war, controlled by humans...and portraying robots as self-aware weapons of human extinction that plauge western media

there are more portrayals as the latter than there's are robot seems like Astroboy is western media.

Gundam and parlor were probably incorrect examples when japan has many robots in media that nonviolent.
 
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Lanrutcon

Member
no that is not debatable.

what i am saying is there is a difference between portraying robots as weapons of war, controlled by humans...and portraying robots as self-aware weapons of human extinction that plauge western media

there are more portrayals as the latter than there's are robot seems like Astroboy is western media.

Gundam and parlor were probably incorrect examples when japan has many robots in media that nonviolent.

If you were trying to show examples of non-violent robots then maybe picking 50 ton death machines with enough weaponry to level a country was a poor decision.

Just a thought.

Also, Astroboy has a built-in machine gun. Cute little robot friend my ass.
 

Airola

Member
As long as people are thinking robots can eventually have consciousness and eventually deserve "human rights", I will be worried about the evolution of robot technology.
 
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Soodanim

Gold Member
Art imitates life
Life imitates art

We don’t need self aware robots, we have humans, self aware or not, programming and controlling the robots. That’s bad enough if not worse. At least robots follow logic in their genocide of Homo Sapiens.
 

nush

Member
One might think im picking on Hollywood for always negatively portraying robots or i give them too much credit in igniting fear in western society that has to cause us phobia toward robotic, ai, and even the internet.

Those 80's movies reflected the fear that already existed during the cold war.

You had War Games in 1983, then you had that extended with a post apocalyptic Terminator in 1984 just as an example. Theres a load of 70's movies on this technophobia topic as well Westworld, THX1138 etc...
 

MHubert

Member
  1. Technophobia, the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices and especially computers
  2. Robophobia, the fear of robots, drones, robot-like mechanics, artificial intelligence.

Im a pretty tech-savvy person: i watch every Apple keynote, every Samsung galaxy reveal, and every Microsoft developer conference.

But none of them gets me more excited than Boston Dynamics

I can't tell you how many times I've watched their videos of their robots.

But in the comment of all their videos, we get replies of SKYNET or some Terminator references.

Don't get me wrong, i will be the first to say I adore the Terminator series, probably have watched more of the films than i should when T2 was enough.

But one thing I've never done, without sarcasm, nor subconsciously is seen real advancement of robotics
In the same light as any film that has robots or Ai destroy all of humanity.

One might think im picking on Hollywood for always negatively portraying robots or i give them too much credit in igniting fear in western society that has to cause us phobia toward robotic, ai, and even the internet.

But i will argue that is exactly what has happened when not all of the world doesn't have that fear.

Japan, for example, see robots fictitiously like Patlabor like we see a Firetruck.


in the Gundam franchise, they are considered as weapons just like we view military tanks.

And because of their lack of robophobia in japan, they have great pride in robotics.


Their fictional portrayal of robotic has have them see a future where they can feel safe around them in the real world.



If the west does want to see robots be companions and aid alongside human, we should start with changing our media and portrayal of them.

What would be the benefit of Robophilia?
 

Scotty W

Gold Member
This actually goes back further, to the original Frankenstein. Btw, do you know the subtitle of that book?
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
If you told me that skynet was active and just used social media to destroy mankind and the only terminator it ever built was a T-600 with rubber skin named Zuckerberg, I would believe you.

There are lots of "good robots" in western media. Johnny #5, Wall-E, Iron Giant, Data, Johnny Cab, and of course Lisa...

Ly3JBs6.jpg
 

UncleMeat

Member
If you told me that skynet was active and just used social media to destroy mankind and the only terminator it ever built was a T-600 with rubber skin named Zuckerberg, I would believe you.

There are lots of "good robots" in western media. Johnny #5, Wall-E, Iron Giant, Data, Johnny Cab, and of course Lisa...

Ly3JBs6.jpg
Was Lisa really a robot though? I thought of her as more of a Frankenstein's monster with magic powers but I guess a robot would be more sciencey.
 
Japan has a severe demographic problem. To put it simple, they are running out of people and thus experience a harsh decline in competitive workforce while also denying foreign immigration. This leaves them with only one option…using robots. It’s a bold strategy, let’s see if it pays off for them.
It is either that or shrink the population by other means. peak fossil fuel is around the corner.

Was Lisa really a robot though? I thought of her as more of a Frankenstein's monster with magic powers but I guess a robot would be more sciencey.
Wasn't she like a digital lifeform brought into the real world?
 
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Amiga

Member
Asimov and Philip K Dick were the biggest influence on this. pop culture in the 60's, 70's was full of this stuff.

and the fear of machines started way back with the beginning of programing. they could see then how machines could evolve. and theorized the possibilities if the machines got too intelligent.

and it's not a robot, but Frankenstein was an earlier story about man making an uncontrollable more powerful thing.
 
and it's not a robot, but Frankenstein was an earlier story about man making an uncontrollable more powerful thing.
The powers of Lisa are reality warper powers if I'm not mistaken. I'm kinda curious what the limits of physics are, depending on the actual limits it is conceivable a superintelligence might have similar powers in the real world with the right machinery.

A reality warp machine, hypothesized in fiction...
 
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People aren't going to like what I'm implying, but continuing as as a biological species is pointless after a certain point in technological development. 9 months of gestation, lots of resources whether that gestation is natural or not, followed by years of training and passing of information are required to make a function human being. And even then we are just fragile meatbags. All that can be replaced, speeded up, and made nearly immortal with technology and at a subconscious level we all know that is inevitable. I'd argue the biologically-influenced memetic aspect of humanity is in absolute terror right now.

You could take the idea of "transhuman dread" from how normal humans view Astartes in 40k and apply that to the fear of robots, or generalize it to a primal fear of being overtaken by a superior competitor that invalidates your purpose. It would be similar to fear of predation, but even more basic and universal. So we get these depictions for a similar, if not the prototypical, reason we get horror movies about hockey-masked monsters stalking a bunch of sex-crazed teens.
 

Stuart360

Member
I think the problem when we are talking advanced AI, or very advanced AI in the future, i dont see how somehing like The Terminator couldnt happen. Of course that doesnt mean it WILL hapen, and in all reality probably wouldnt happen, but it COULD happen.
 
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People aren't going to like what I'm implying, but continuing as as a biological species is pointless after a certain point in technological development. 9 months of gestation, lots of resources whether that gestation is natural or not, followed by years of training and passing of information are required to make a function human being. And even then we are just fragile meatbags. All that can be replaced, speeded up, and made nearly immortal with technology and at a subconscious level we all know that is inevitable. I'd argue the biologically-influenced memetic aspect of humanity is in absolute terror right now.

You could take the idea of "transhuman dread" from how normal humans view Astartes in 40k and apply that to the fear of robots, or generalize it to a primal fear of being overtaken by a superior competitor that invalidates your purpose. It would be similar to fear of predation, but even more basic and universal. So we get these depictions for a similar, if not the prototypical, reason we get horror movies about hockey-masked monsters stalking a bunch of sex-crazed teens.

Unless hard nano is viable, biology will continue to exist in newer forms. And even if hard nano is viable, it is bound to take far more energy than biology to create those atomically precise delicate gears and cogs. A molecular perforation of a cell and cells can often repair themselves, even if bombarded by random atoms or radiation knocking off atoms and breaking molecular machines all over the place the cell can withstand massive damage and still function. But just a few strikes and I think many an atomically precise would likely clog up and stop functioning.

And this does not mean that we need to continue with cycles of birth and replacement. Biological immortality should be possible. And newborns could be printed at adult shape and with accelerated neural stimulation likely trained within months. That is if biology is not used to create 3d inorganic computing elements that can download new states in a matter of seconds.

You have to realize that right now most inorganic machines depend at the end on us organic humans to maintain and repair them. But future designed life can operate and maintain inorganic machinery at the level of atoms, with the cells directly interacting and repairing any damage or wear and tear of the inorganic constructs.

Look at a rainforest it can exist for millions of years. Some species have remained unchanged it is said for tens of millions of years, even single organisms have lasted for tens of thousands of years. The lineage of the cell has been around for over a billion years. No other line of machines has lasted as long, and we have to understand that the limits of evolved biology need not apply to intelligently designed unevolvable synthetic biology organisms.
 
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Out of context, yes, i agree. But these fictional robots do not subconsciously ignite phobias to japan.

There's a difference between one society's first thought of robot as a T 800 from Terminator vs another societys first thought if a robot as Astroboy.

PCoz8yZ.png


All im saying is robotics, technology and ai in the Americas is rooted in fear where as a place like japan those things not so much.
 
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daveonezero

Banned
I'd be more in favor if it wasn't funded by the democidal maniacs controlling the worlds most powerful militaries funding all the research.

The Department of Defense is not about defense and it isn't a good thing for any one in the world that they are developing these death machines.
 

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
I love robots but It's 2021 and I still dont have a robot, robot cyber arms on myself or a K9. I'd even settle for the bullets from Runaway (Tom selleck film..) just for some semblance of something futuristic..

My 80's/ early 90's dream is dying by the day here

Hurry the fuck up, science!

What DO I have? Alexa tells me the weather, then locks up. Awsome.
 
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