Robots, Cyborgs & Al - Essay Example

Robots, Cyborgs & Al Affiliation Robots and cyborgs Introduction The word cyborg was derived from the cybernetic organism concept, which is a machine and human being combination. Robot are described as machines that might or might not resemble humans, they are mainly used in assembly industries as software programs. They are used to automate work, which would take a lot of energy and time when done using hands. Examples of robots that do not resemble human beings are the Google, while those resembling humans are the ASIMO. An android can be described as a robot or a synthetic organism that is designed to act and look likes a normal human being. The term android is used only on robots that look like humans, while the term robot is used on machines, which might look or might not look like humans. There are other examples of rising robots known as actroids, which do not exist in the science fiction realm, but they tend to resemble the human beings in their action and also their reception to input. In films like The Terminator, which have smashed awareness the public since their features have instilled a strong idea about human fusion with technology. Cyborgs are aggressive and contain a fantasy of being destructive and invisibility. However, this hyper violent creature is among the many types of fictional cyborgs that have become the main way for commercial films to present the cyborg condition. In films they have privileged the masculine figure which is mainly violent. When the cyborgs are staged in movies they show different ways of thinking in matters of sexual identity and gender. The software interfaced cyborgs created make the bodies of human beings obsolete when the human consciousness was downloaded onto a computer software they showed aggressiveness and their prowess is always improved thus can not go down and the only thing they can do best is kill because its strength physical not cerebral thus can not be controlled. However not all cyborgs are hyper masculine killing machines they are also used for other functions e.g. the terminator in terminator 2 is used as a surrogate father. Electronics technology capability certainly has caused fear which has been translated to massive bodies overpowering human characters. The cyborgs in films are also used to show the male spectacle and desire for masculine body. This not only culminates the sexual expression but also the brute force expressed by the cyborgs. This concept of externally forceful machinery was culminated in the industrial machinery in the early twentieth century. During this time the robot replaced the automaton due to the doubling of human beings mechanical knowledge. In most popular films have interfered with the strategies that existed during the Hollywood studio era they insist in the difference between their female and male characters it is argued that even in the contemporary science fiction films, where progeny occurs frequently create a strong sense of deference by establishing many barriers between their characters. Human beings have been involved in difficult liaisons with androids, cyborgs or rather humans from the future. It is said that in these films questions of sexual difference whose answer is no longer self evident. The principle pf difference between men and women still dominates in most misty films even when they go beyond mare sexual difference. Television being a media which allows more flexibility, by establishing more fragmented relationship with the spectator thus showing less concern with the convectional cinematic techniques of directing the spectators gaze in achieving the narrative closure theorist have pointed out that shifting sites of identification and open ended narratives allow more flexibility than conventional main stream cinemas do. Fear of the computers ability does not fully explain why films associate cyborgs with violence. Significantly muscle bound cyborgs are informed by a tradition of muscular comic super heroes, and like them their erotic nature is in the promise of the power they embody. Their physical height culminates not in sexual climax but in act of violence which substitute for sexual release. A scholar Steven Neale has written that violence displaces male sexuality in films and response to a cultural taboo against a homoerotic gays and that homophobia exerts a strong influence on cinematic techniques. Thus the physical height of cinematic cyborg culminates not in sexual expression but in brute force. The association between technology and violence is not unique to the twentieth century. Many people’s lives were radically transformed during the social upheavals of the nineteenth century industrial revolution where peoples lives were transformed .there were a lot of optimism on how machines would bring progress and a lot of anxiety about technology potential destructive powers. Fear caused by the machine was caused by the shear magnitude. They were often huge and loud and they, pumped, and turned with an aggressive persistence. Industrial age metaphors for representing technology persist in the information age. A good example is that computers are compared to the basis of their power which is term used to refer to physical strength but here it can mean a computers calculating speed or memory, which includes the ram and the processor. Violent, forceful cyborg imagery participates in contemporary discourses that cling to nineteenth century notions about technology. Mechanization has not always been conceived of a physically forceful. According to the historian roger Hahn, the ancient Greek period, the uniformed public conceived of mechanization as concealed and mysterious. More than a simple name changed separated robots from automata. Automata belonged to an earlier time when mechanization was a wonderful and entertaining mystery; robots belonged to the age of factories and mills, when machines forcefully announced their powerful presence. As per jean baudrillard argument, the world separates the analogy of man by these two artificial beings which are still equivalent. With this transition from automata to robots, the significance assigned to artificial beings underwent a change. Robots were no longer treated as charming mechanical novelties; rather, they were evaluated on the basis of what they were capable of doing, either for human being or to human being. During the 20th century machines were being replaced by systems depending on the intricate microelectronic circuitry. Our information age reintroduces a concept of technology as incomprehensible and hidden from view. Computer hardware contains microscopic parts concealed behind the computer screen, and for most people, how the systems functions remains shrouded in mystery. Although there are no secret societies that invest computers with magical properties, computer hardware expertise is nevertheless confined to train specialists, who often are themselves awed by the intricacy and hidden capacities of computers. However robots also play roles within the human society as machines used in performing different tasks. Human beings interact with these robots in the same way they interact with other machines, known as operator or rather control personnel. Thus developing some kind of relationship with the robots, this is the same as the type of attachment one may have towards his e.g. car. Nonetheless the relationship is uni-directional since they project their personality and character based on the powerful mechanisms. Machine like robots are totally different from the recent robotic and software agents developments that function in the wild rather than in lab. Such agents interact with human beings in virtual public places and communicate with them and each other in increasingly complicated ways most of those agents mainly to change the attitude and opinions of the human behavior. That type of technology is called persuasive technology where research of human-human social behavior is tested. The difference between persuasive and non-persuasive technology is that persuasive technology is a computing system that is made to change a person’s attitude or behavior. Computer persuasions functional triad ranges from technology as tools to media. Agents that adopt animate characters play roles that follow social dynamics so as to create relationship and invoke social responses with human beings. New technology is used in educational and therapeutic contents which include: agents that show aspects of human style intelligence, for example multi-modal interfaces that copy peoples verbal and non-verbal skills and social interactions. Such agent’s research has lead to a variety of different software and robotic systems which successfully relate with human beings .Lessons have been made involve computer technology so as to facilitate learning, collaboration and creativity among children. An example of this is the Nimis project where virtual words are created as places of imagination and interactive theaters where children create and explore their own stories. Conclusion Robots and cybogrs being a combination of both human beings and technology they express a great value of humans wisdom for they help man in his daily duties like carrying out of work which is lobour intensive and also multi-tasking. They are also a disadvantage because they lead to unemployment thus an increase in the level of dependency. Robot being machines which are controlled by programs, they can run for twenty four hours and seven days a week thus increasing the rate of production to meet the market demands thus increasing the income. Being like any other machine, robots require frequent checkup in order to keep them to the required standards of working. When they break down, they cause delay for production thus lowering the profits. They are also used in the film industry where they are used as characters in order to catch the eye of the viewers in a movie like transformers where their fiction is based on robots. It’s a major selling movie in the market to day mainly to the children. The movie portrays a wide rage of technology for the cars are meant to transform into soldiers who are determined to protect and guard their home earth from external invasion. References Benford.G,Malartre.E(2008),Beyond Human: living with robots and cyborgs,Nolo Books Buker,Derek K, (2002)The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers’ Advisory,ALA Stores Hamilton.J(2010), Robots and Androids,ABDO Books Mag.Y,Robots: (2008 )From Everyday to Out of This World,Kids Can Press Ltd Salami.R, (2011)Robots Haiku,Nolo Books, Read More