Holidays and stuff... On Hiatus

I think I may have been on an unannounced hiatus, so sorry for any disappointment I may have caused for not posting as regularly as I used to.

But I will be back next next year as soon as the end of January  ^__^

So, have a Merry Christmas and a pleasant Hanukkah and a wonderful Kwanzaa!!!!

Early Signs of My Fascination with Robots: Part 1

The Dream

When I was in middle school, I dreamed that I made a friend with a robot in my middle school and spent the day with him, and then when it was time to go, I was sad because I was going to leave him and we already became friends. Could that be it? Could that be the basis for my fascination with robots?

Many years before this dream, I learned what a robot was from an electronic toy computer. This toy mainly taught spelling and math. But I first learned the word “robot” from this toy, and what a robot looked like. I was fascinated with the image; it looked like an alien from outer space but with square and rectangular body parts rather than round body parts. I knew that it wasn’t human. The robot had a square face and two antennae on its head, like a TV set. The antennae moved after it finished doing its dance (bend, stretch and jump).

I knew what a robot was when I was six or seven years old. The toy robot I drew for my second grade journal for school was definitely a robot. A small one, but, resembled a gold-colored robot with propellers on its head, a vertical, rectangular torso and wheels to get around. I forgot if it had a gun, but I drew it in the picture for 2nd grade.

So this dream that I had about the friendly robot at school must be the thing that sparked and strengthened my appreciation for the metal-man after the electronic computer and the robot toy. It is perhaps a deep psychological attachment to the type of thing that I befriended in the dream. In that dream it was possible for the robot to appreciate the company of human friends and be nice to them. In the dream he was nice to me and I admired his height and his strong metallic body, even protective if one could see that. A giant teddy bear, only it was a tall giant cube- bodied robot.

The Flashbulb’s song “Once Weekly”: Robot Maintenance?

A music band called The Flashbulb has an album titled Arboreal  and a lot of the music in this album is electronic and eclectic.  This song caught my attention, though.  It is titled "Once Weekly" and keeping that in mind as I listened to it, I imagined a specific scene about a--you might have guessed--a robot or android. 

When I listen to this song, it makes me think of a robot or android that is having a weekly maintenance check done. The electronic sounds in the music make me think of the machines and gadgets that are checking in on the robot/android’s vitals and function levels; eye lens, auditory sensors, main memory drive, the computer brain overall, limb and joint functions, battery levels (if the robot drives on this source of energy) to check for a battery replacement, that kind of stuff.

I have included the track "Once Weekly" in my iPod's Robot/Android Playlist, which is a playlist of music I listen to whenever I need a little inspiration in writing a robot science fiction story.  The track "A Raw Understanding" also makes me think about robots because of the electronic sounds in the music.

A New Robot Drawing of Mine, June 29th

A TV program inspired me to draw a robot, very different from other robots I've drawn.  Wednesday night I was watching a science channel (213) and was able to catch the last forty minutes of a program about practical advances in robotics. The program was an episode of a show titled “That’s Impossible” and this episode talked about the advances in robotic technology such as robotic exoskeletons, reasoning robots, fighting robots and autonomous robots. The exoskeletons that are currently under development are truly fascinating! I was so excited watching this show because it also touched up on the powerful reasons why autonomous robots would be dangerous. I especially loved the section of the program when robot fighters used for military purposes were discussed. If autonomous robot fighters were given the command to kill (and know how to do it), they can make decisions on their own and might decided that all human fighters are the bad guys. Just because it may be eventually possible to have autonomous robotic fighters doesn’t mean that it is the best idea. It would be great, but, their autonomous system needs to be perfected before mass-production is approved by both the military AND the government.

Anyway, about my new drawing… I was writing in my journal and robots were on my mind after that TV program, so I did a random doodle of what appears to be a robot with one of the cutesy Japanese designs (with the round big eyes and flat, almost-rectangular head). I was just going to draw the head, but then I drew the rest of the body, and even gave it joints. I think in my opinion it is the best drawing of a robot I’ve ever done so far, probably BECAUSE I drew joints for the elbows and knees.

Drawing by Amethyst Anne
June 29, 2011

Carl’s Jr. Commercial Features a Robot Trying to Eat a Burger!!

As soon as I find this commercial on YouTube I am going to share it!

In fact I should find more commercials that feature robots as the focus character.

There is an extended version of this commercial on the YouTube channel "CarlsJr", so check that out too if you want (I've included the link below).  I at least want to share the version of the commercial that I saw originally on television.  I don't remember the extended version being shown on telelvision; if you get a chance to see it, you will probably know why.  Nevertheless, I love the commercials because the robot is so human, even though physically it is clearly a robot.  This robot can't eat, but it's frustration and anger is apparent.  Aww.

 
Here is the CarlsJr YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/CarlsJr

Article on the 10 Most Technophobic Novels of All Time

Besides books about technophobia in literature, I should be reading the novels themselves that have this theme.  I've read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in high school, and I've read just about all of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.  I know there is a novel version of Blade Runner, and that it's based on Philip K. Dick's book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I do want to read Do Androids Dreams of Electric Sheep?  And now I know other novels I can read to broaden my knowledge of the different sides of technophobia because there is a list out there that can suggest these other titles.

A woman who works with AccreditedOnlineColleges.com sent me an article that might be of interest to me as well as some readers of Cybernetic Dreams.  It is called "10 Most Technophobic Novels of All Time."  The article and list include the two novels above that I've read, plus eight more.  I don't know if I will read all of them, but a few of them I should have read a long time ago, such as 1984 and Brave New World.  Each listed novel has a synopsis of the story and how it relates to technophobia.

Here is the link for "10 Most Technophobic Novels of All Time":

http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2011/10-most-technophobic-novels-of-all-time/

Enjoy! :)

Early Signs: Japanese anime ASTROBOY

When I was either eight or nine years old, my father introduced me and my sister to an old Japanese anime series called Astroboy, a robot boy with emotions who tries to promote co-existence between robots and humans while fighting the evil robots. My dad had VHS tapes of some of the episodes. He used to watch it when he was a kid.  He wanted to share it with us, and right away we loved it.  He knew we would enjoy it because it was from Osamu Tezuka, the same creator for Unico.  Unico was the very first taste of Japanese anime I had, maybe at age 5.  But I’m rambling now…

It was so fascinating that this Astroboy kid was a robot who displayed emotions, and back then I wasn’t so conscious to the idea that sometimes he had to fight against his own kind.  It would not be that the “evil” robot was evil; its creator had built it for sinister intentions, so it is not the robot’s fault that it is evil. Astroboy sometimes tried to fight the robot and defeat it without destroying it.

I need to find which episode is a good example of what I am talking about.  It's been a while since I've watched anything Astroboy.  Mabye YouTube has something?  I may even need to watch the first few episodes of Astroboy again to find the example.  And one of these days I'd like to sit my bottom down and watch the 2004 Astroboy series.  In my opinion it is has a very different atmosphere from the black and white 1960s version.  The music is very sci-fi too, and I believe the animation is beautiful and colorful.

For now, enjoy the intro to the U.S. 1960s Astroboy :)

 

iTunes + Robot Podcasts = Learning on the go!

Do you like iTunes?  Do you like robots?  Do you like podcasts?  If you answer yes to all three of these questions, do I have a recommendation for YOU!  I’ve recently found a great podcast that inspires me to do further research on my favorite science/science fiction topic: Robots!

The title is Robots: The Podcast for News and Views on Robotics. There are other robot-related podcasts, but I will check them out later. This podcast is the first one I found and there are so many episodes available. Each episode is around a half hour or around 45 minutes. The first episode I listened to was one with an interview with scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro, who created the Geminoid, a copy of himself. This episode is titled, “Androids, Human Presence, and the Uncanny Valley.” You have to listen carefully though, because Mr. Ishiguro is speaking on a phone and also he has a Japanese accent of course.

What I really like about this podcast is it has topics I am looking for. There are two episodes about Robot Ethics and two episodes about Science Fiction that include robots and androids. There is even an interview with David X. Cohen, who works on Futurama, and he will be talking about the show and his view of the future, according to the info on the podcast. I definitely have to check that out; I love Futurama even more because of the fact that robots and humans co-exist in the 3000s. Personally I can’t subscribe to this podcast because my seven-year-old desktop computer doesn’t have much gigabytes left to hold megabytes and megabytes of podcasts and music, but I’d like to check back on this podcast often and find a select group of episodes to download. It helps that the podcasts are free!

A realization about my science fiction…

I have actually known for a long while now that I need to do more research on robotics for the science fiction I plan to write and publish in the near future. I’ve read some of Technophobia!, and want to read David Levy's Love + Sex with Robots in the near future as well, in fact as soon as I can. But I need to be reading on actual robotics—what really makes machines work.

In the past I wasn’t very interested in engineering and the building and controlling of robots. I’ve only been interested in robots and androids that appear in science fiction. The author, of course, would throw in some words and phrases that indicate he or she knows a thing or two about robots and computers. I stupidly told myself, “I am not going to do that. I don’t have to. I just want to focus on the character of the robot or android.”

Well, to understand how a robot, android, or talking computer might respond to a human, or how its own thoughts develop and spark, I DO need to know the historical and scientific facts about how robots and computers work. What would it look like inside a robot’s head? If it were able to think and compute, where do all the chips and cables go? I need to learn about key words like circuits, cables and programming. I probably should have taken learning courses on robotics and artificial intelligence. Maybe when I have a safe amount of money set aside for that pursuit.

So here is what I feel like I need to do. I need to just go ahead and write down the robot stories I have in my head…….all seven or eight of them, or so.  Later when I have enough background information and can incorporate the knowledge into the stories, I can choose one and work on them one at a time. Knowing that they won’t be published for at least the next two years, I feel a little discouraged about this giant writing project.

But I want to do it.  I need to work harder.

Nao Robot

Futaba Humanoid Robot

I have to share this video as well. I like the music that is playing in the background; it enhances the wonder that comes from watching this video. With a remote control, this robot can walk in different directions, even do a head-stand! I've watched this video four times now and it still amazes me.

Watch what happens when it falls down ;D




www.robots-dreams.com

Fighting Robots Video

It's really short but I wanted to share it because the action is so cool :)