A Sister Blog is Coming!

I have wanted to start a Tumblr for a while now.  I’d like to share pictures or blog posts relating to robots on Cybernetic Dreams, but I didn’t know what and how, exactly.  It may be a bit more time-consuming, but I decided to start a Tumblr that also focuses on robots.  It will have reblogs and posts that pertain to what I already have discussed in this blog.

Once I have the new Tumblr ready, I will announce it and include a link to it in Cybernetic Dreams.  I think it would be nice to share my interest in robots, androids and cyborgs in ways other than writing.  The visual aspect of Tumblr will be fun, and it will supplement the topics of the blog  And also, I don’t have to worry too much about what pictures I am allowed to post on the Tumblr because they would be reblogs of posts/images, which is allowed there anyway.

I am hoping to get it started by the time autumn is over.

Transhumanism Might As Well Be In The Dictionary!!

I recently learned a new word while searching for more good books about the future of humans and robots.   The word is, "transhuman."

Y’know, like transvestite?  Transexual?  Transpose?

Transhuman.

I am talking about humans turning parts of themselves into machines.  It’s probably going to be a reality by the time I die of old age.  Or I could be wrong.  But at my age I can live just long enough to take advantage of robotic medicine (is that accurate to say?  Cybernetic implants/augmentation would be considered robotic medicine, right?  Is there a medical billing code for that?  Sorry, my new career path just sort of made me enjoy asking that question out of the blue.)

Someday there will be such medical procedures as cybernetic augmentation (aside from what the military may be experimenting with behind our backs).  Right now, these are what are known as prosthetics, and they are not augmentation—they are replacements for limbs that are lost or organs that need replacement as well.

I am a bit scared of the idea, even though to me it is an exciting, fascinating and rarely discussed topic.  To be honest I don’t enjoy thinking about my future too much, not when it comes to health.  I’m not so old, but I am not that young either.  Of course I’m going to feel like taking better care of my health.

But suppose the conversation of robotic replacements for lost limbs or sick organs did turn to cybernetic augmentation.  Currently robotic prosthetics although expensive, are replacements for lost parts.  But in the future, robotic parts may become an option along the lines of breast implants.  People will want stronger (and lead to faster) legs, or sharper eyes, or super hearing.

So…transhumanism.  Or trans-humanism, I don’t know what would be the correct spelling of these for now.  They both seem acceptable…

There are many films that tackle topics like this.  Transcendence and The Prototype are two of them being released this year.  I am especially interested in The Prototype (it’s more of an action/thriller story), but Transcendence I might wait to see later.  They are both good ways to start, or continue, the conversation about what happens to the person when the body is deteriorating but their mind is fully active.  Something else also: how this transfiguration will affect the people they know, and perhaps the people on Earth.

Of course, this is not the end of the conversation...

I want to come back to it again.

The New RoboCop Film, Released Today!!!

On January 12, I saw a trailer for the new RoboCop film for the first time and I gasped and my jaw dropped.  I had to cover my mouth closed with my hand to keep myself from breathing loud so I can hear the voice over.  That’s how excited I was.  I realized this was the RoboCop movie I was waiting for after seeing the original one two years ago.

I am very excited about this.  So excited!

I know there was a second and third film, but I will have to see those later, or not.  So to see a new RoboCop movie released this year…it’s as thrilling to me as when I found out about the I, Robot film in summer 2004.  That previous year I read Isaac Asimov’s collections Robot Dreams and I, Robot during and after my senior year of high school.  So of course, you may imagine how psyched I was to watch a movie based on the story collection.

Joel Kinnaman is the new RoboCop and he looks awesome!  By now, I’ve seen the two different trailers for the movie enough times that I even have a favorite part of the movie ad, like the part when RoboCop lands on the ground and then stands up, looking so bad-ass!  And then, what’s with the black paint job?!!  I don’t remember that happening in the original movie, but as this is a reboot of the RoboCop story, I am very curious to see what the darker suit will mean. I read the article about Joel Kinnaman’s RoboCop in the past Sunday Daily News, and now I have a better idea on when this black paint job is going to happen.  It is interesting, interesting indeed.  I wish I can say why, but I don’t want to be misleading just in case I’m wrong or inadvertently spoiling anyone.  I gotta see this for myself, you know?

The RoboCop reboot film will be released today.  I won’t see it today, but I’m so excited about it I’d like to see it soon after!  Did I mention I was excited?

And there is another robot-themed movie coming out later this year: the fourth Transformers movie from Michael Bay.  My sister got me into the Transformers franchise in the middle of last year, and now we have one more Transformers film to watch before we’ve caught up to where the fourth movie is next.


I have a bit of an itch to write my own review of RoboCop 2014, and if I do pursue this task I may have to wait at least two weeks after its release in theaters to post it on Cybernetic Dreams. As the film will be dealing with morality and ethics I am bound to have something to say about these in response/reflection after viewing the film. In the meanwhile I will try not to read other reviews of the film, although if there is a source or two I admire I might mention what they say and credit them to further illustrate my points.

Should I watch the original one again too?  I’ll have to rent it somewhere (iTunes may be my hope because Blockbuster is gone and I am NOT going to use Netflix gosh darnit!).

Who else is excited about the new RoboCop?

Reading Robots Unlimited, Chapters 10 through 13

Sorry, I haven’t updated Cybernetic Dreams for a few weeks. I believe in time’s opportunity cost, and when I wasn’t reviewing and typing, I was still researching. Now that I am taking a short break from the research, I can update on my latest readings on my research on robots.  I focused especially on the chapters of Robots Unlimited that talk about robot consciousness and robot ethics and rights, chapters 12 and 13 respectively.

I am pleased that there is at least some discussion on cyborganization (specifically “brain augmentation”) in Robots Unlimited, when the author David Levy talks about Professor Kevin Warwik and his “leading the world’s attempts to create a cyborg,” and I wanted to take note of what Levy says about Warwik’s ideas about the cyborg.

“He uses the verb ‘upgrade’ to emphasize the superiority of cyborgs over humans. The upgrading process enhances human capabilities by adding whatever computing power and/or memory and/or AI resides in the electronics embedded in the human body. The cyborg brain, eventually, will be part human and part machine…” (Levy 410)

I was thinking about my cyborg story when I read this because I want to better understand what it means for my cyborg protagonist to have cybernetic enhancements, to live and to fight. My second cyborg story, which I might have to work on later because of a lack of plot, will benefit from this description of the cyborg, including this definition, which I think is its primary meaning:

“a human with one or more mechanical or electronic device implanted in his or her body to enhance the human’s capability.”     (Levy 409)

I find that word “enhance” very provoking. It comes up once in each of the quotations from the book that I included here. Cybernetics not only can preserve a person’s life for medical reasons, but cybernetic implants can improve the person’s ability, whether it’s sight or speed or thinking power. It makes me think of the video game coming up later, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, in which this game’s main protagonist Raiden is a cyborg, and a bad-ass looking one at that. Wait a minute, I think I did mention this video game in an earlier post, but it’s just still fascinating to me.  Did Raiden willingly become a cyborg or was he forced into the cybernetic enhancements in order to survive?  It sure gives him some sick cool abilities!

I loved the chapters on Robot Consciousness (Chapter 12) and Robot Ethics and Robot Rights (Chapter 13). I spent the most energy and note-taking on those two chapters. And I don’t often think about the rights of robots and their treatment, in terms of social treatment and medical (maintenance) treatment. I wanted to know more, and I had to look up the bibliography for the Ethics chapter and found a website with an article called “Humanoid Robotics: Ethical Considerations,” written by David Bruemmer. It’s found at this page: http://www.inel.gov/adaptiverobotics/humanoidrobotics/ethicalconsiderations.shtml .  I read the whole article and I was in awe.

A lot of what David Levy and David Bruemmer say in their writings inspire me to write short stories about humanoid robots— androids, I prefer to say—that deal with ethical issues surrounding themselves and their clients. I know I am reading these books and articles so I can have a better understanding of the subject of robots, androids and cyborgs when I write the novels that feature them. However, in terms of material for short stories, this information is the most I’ve ever had, and there will be more. Will I ever write a short story again where the main character is human?

Sometimes I wonder if I should ever get into the robotics field. Nah, I don’t need to. But it would be nice to meet people who are in that field, if I just wasn’t so damn shy to meet these robotics professionals.