I found my drawing of my toy robot!

I said I would try to find the drawing of my old toy robot I did in second grade.

Ugh, my writing was so crappy at that age.  I'll transcribe it letter for letter (you can guess which words I spelled wrong).

Here it is:

If I could go to a toy

store and choose any toy I

wanted, I would choos a toy

robot, Because it's my faivriot

toy.  I like it. My sister likes it

too.

I just also want to say that the toy robot did not have the words "Super Robot" on its chest.  I wrote that in there because I wanted to be creative and give it a name.  Heh.  ^,^ 

Technophobia…more reading July 6

I read more of Technophobia! and it’s still so fascinating. I think it is the most important book I ever chose for my research. It has just what I need: robots, androids and cyborgs and their history in science fiction. There were some explanations about machines and artificial humans in science fiction that were not limited to the following titles: The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Metropolis (1927), We (1924), H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, and E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909).

Important themes came up too, all and more of which I want to explore:

• Robots who want to be human, loved

• Master creates artificial slave------------slave dominates master

• Humans will be enslaved by technology

• Redefining what it means to be human

This is a quote from the book that I found to be a very important one:

“The gothic myth of artificial humans—the golem, the homunculus,

and the Frankenstein monster—will transform into robots, cyborgs,

androids, and clones of science fiction.” (Dinello, 46)

I read E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” in a Science Fiction class that I took at Cal State University Northridge. It was the only time in my college career at CSUN that I would be able to take the class. “The Machine Stops” was the first story we read. Of course not all the stories and novels we read were about machines or robots, but that class opened up my eyes to other topics that science fiction can explore and ask questions about, and introduce possible answers to them (therefore creating more questions). “The Machine Stops” was especially a good piece because it introduced the topic of all humans being completely dependent on machines to live, and all these machines were controlled by this one huge machine that everyone’s living quarters are a part of.

Personally I am a bit afraid of growing technology myself. The most hi-tech thing that I own is my purple iPod Nano. I don’t need an iPhone or an Android Phone, or whatever other multi-purpose phones people use for reasons other than for talking. I have a cell-phone for that. I found out from a an ad on TV that there is an iPhone App that can turn off the house lights, or close the garage door while you are away, in case you forgot to turn the switch earlier.  I mean, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???

Red Tornado from the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold

The first time I watched Batman: The Brave and the Bold (and was INTERESTED in it at all), I saw a red-colored android character who seemed to be Batman’s ally. He was fighting another android who was evil, I guess (I don’t remember too many details since it was months ago since I saw this episode). But at the end of the episode, this android, known as Red Tornado, and Batman, had a conversation about the battle that went on earlier that day.  Red Tornado built that other android, but he had to destroy him because he turned evil (destructive), and it was the right thing to do. He realizes that, but somehow he also felt…sad.  Batman asks him if he will be alright. Then Red Tornado answers, “Why wouldn’t I be?” meaning that since he is a robot (I prefer to call him an android because he is a humanoid robot), he wouldn’t have emotions that would bother him. So Batman leaves him alone. Then as Red Tornado is left to himself, it would appear that he is shedding a tear. Even his facial expression shows a degree of sadness. I thought about those moments in the cartoon for a long time after I watched the end of that episode.

The title of that episode is “Hail the Tornado Tyrant.” I looked up the cartoon on YouTube earlier this week.  Red Tornado builds another humanoid robot, in a similar likeness of his own image. I haven’t seen the whole episode, and I don’t know how, or if, I’ll be able to. Sigh. I can’t do a full analysis of the episode now if I haven’t watched it in its entirety, but it is clear that the end of this episode, Red Tornado became a fast fan favorite of mine. I learned that the Batman comic book series is DC, not Marvel (I always confuse which character is which, except for X-Men and Iron Man). So if I had to have a favorite DC comic book character, it would have to be Red Tornado—simply because he is a humanoid robot.

Should Red Tornado be called an android or a humanoid robot? Well, in my opinion, he apparently sounds like a robot, but he has a mostly human form. I noticed I use “android” and “humanoid robot” interchangeably, and should I worry, does it matter?  In almost every sentence he speaks after someone talks to him, he says words like, “observation” and “declaration” to classify the statements he makes. That characteristic shouts “I’m a robot.” But gosh, in terms of behavior, he sure is human-like.  I don't think he realizes that he is already capable of having emotion, namely love.  He just doesn't recognize it.
     Sorry.  I get carried away...

Here is a link to a webpage about the voice actor for Red Tornado, Corey Burton.  You can also hear a sample of his voice:
Behind the Voice Actors.com--------Corey Burton

Technophobia----reading the book so far…

I feel bad because for a whole week I didn’t read any of the library books. I only felt like reading them when I knew I would be able to sit down for at least two hours at a time.  I finally got around to continue reading Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology by Daniel Dinello.

Right now I am done reading the first chapter "Technology is God."   I found it really fascinating and scary that technology and religion could eventually be combined to form some sort of principle for enhancing life: eventually everyone will replace their organic bodies with artificially created ones, and leave their biological selves behind. I read about the “Extropians”, who are people who believe in enhancing life through “technological expansion,” as Dinello explainds.  I guess being limited to living less than 100 years in the nature-given organic body is undesirable.

Why do people want to live forever?

This book is pretty heavy reading. I mean, it’s great, and eventually I might buy a copy for myself so I can re-read it if I need to. But it gets depressing because it makes me think about my own mortality. I am 25 and I still have so much to live for, but I know I’m not going to live forever. I’m even afraid of my life being cut short by a gun shot or a car crash. Will my parents still be alive in a time where hearts can rebuild themselves or an artificial brain can send signals to the body to stop the process of aging, or reverse it?

I am writing about these thoughts because I always believed that there is a life after death, an afterlife stage. But perhaps another form of afterlife is life after having a biological body. Afterlife could now mean becoming a robot, the human brain being put into a mechanical body. Is that “cyborganization”, or would this person still be a robot? Is humanity still there?

I will have to review my notes and read more of this book carefully, of course.