Cybernetic Dreams Update: New Website Picture

I have decided to update the main picture for Cybernetic Dreams.

I think it will bring a new feel to the blog.  I drew this robot as a possible robotic representation of my second computer (thus my title for it is I Am #2), which I've had for one year and three months now.  His power-on light is blue, so that is the color I used for his CPU, eyes and mouth.

 

I used the stipling style of coloring to make him look sort of 3D. I used a black marker for the head and neck, and I used a gray marker for the oulines.  The black and gray background was colored digitally with #2 himself on the setting of crayon.  I don't know how well it will work for some viewers.  I amazed myself though.  To me, he almost comes alive.

It seems unfinished, though.  When I decide to color the picture more, I can make another update. 

I Am #2 by Amethyst Anne
March 7, 2013

A Combat Robot Show on the SyFy Channel

I still need to see the movie Real Steel, but I am kind of excited about this new show.  It's titled, Robot Combat League.

For once, the SyFy network is actually airing a show that focuses on robots.  But it is not just any robot.  No.  It’s going to show combat robots.  Robots made for fighting.

Fighting for the entertainment of humans.

In a way, I kind of don’t like that idea at the same time.  I don’t like to see two robots try to destroy each other.  At least when humans do it in sports like boxing and wrestling, they don’t try to kill each other, and yes there will be injuries.  But do robots know when to quit the damage?  Maybe if they had some sort of “damage gauge” built into their visual sensors, they’d tell when the other one is losing and it’s time to stop fighting.

Mega Man X would not want to see this.

What helps me easily deal with this oil-shed is that the combat robots don’t really have faces.  They may have something on their heads that resemble eyes, or one eye, but that is all.  

I’m going to give this show another chance, but otherwise I’m not sure if I want to waste any more hours watching people waste awesome perfectly-built robots.  They would do best at a science show and be operated to “air-fight” so as to not damage the other robots. Why is the act of physically fighting so entertaining to us humans?  Is it because we don’t like to do it ourselves but it is rather fun to see other people—or robots—do it instead?  Has our violent culture gone too far?