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?

Adding more readings to my list…

The following books will be added to my list of books I will be reading during the course of my journey towards understanding robot science fiction. Incidentally they are short story collections from Isaac Asimov. :3

• Robot Visions, short story collection by Isaac Asimov

• The Rest of the Robots, another short short collection by Asimov

• "The Positronic Man" (well, it’s one short story, by...you guessed it...Isaac Asimov)

I already said that I wanted to start reading Robot Dreams again, though. Gosh, I am giving myself too much to read. I have other things I should be reading too, it’s just that I am so passionate about robots/androids/cyborgs in science-fiction that I want to read as much as possible about it, especially from Isaac Asimov himself.

A Brief Switch from reading Non-fiction to reading fiction

As much as I want to continue reading Technophobia!, I really want to start reading the Isaac Asimov collection of short stories Robot Dreams. The last time I read any of it was sometime in 2003, so I was a senior in high school. It’s been seven years and now I can read this book again with more maturity and curiosity than before.  I am hoping to writing about my thoughts about my favorite story or stories from this collection, whichever one(s) really make me feel like I need to share it.

The first story in the collection is “Little Lost Robot.”  I remember I liked that one, so soon I will read it and see if I can notice more things, since I've read more about robots in science fiction.

Reading Technophobia!: I understand the movie I, ROBOT, better now…

I was reading more of my self-appointed acquired reading for my research: the book by Daniel Dinello titled Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology. I’m glad I got back to it. It is my own copy of the book, now, since I had to return the other copy at the CSUN library. This way I don’t have to rush through reading it, and I can underline the text and write in the book if I need to. I still take notes in my notebook for this self-assigned research project.

Last time, I left off at a part of chapter three, right before “Cybernetic Perfection: The Laws of Robotic Obedience.” I felt so giddy reading this section because I figured it would go into Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

“Asimov’s robots, as they developed in more than forty stories and

several novels, became more caring, more sensitive,

more human than humans.” (Dinello, 65)

I guess these robots don’t necessarily have to look human in order to be “more human than humans.” Even emotion gets the better of us humans sometimes, and with a controlled understanding of emotion, robots could prevent situations from getting worse (such as in a strong argument or trying to teach a human a new skill).

What I want to focus on now though is the section of chapter three that made me have to share what I learned from it. I’ve seen the movie I, Robot (2004) several times by now. I can’t believe I didn’t think about this next idea, but at least I am aware of it and will watch the film again with this deeper understanding. The new models of robots are supposed to keep their human masters safe, right? I didn’t think more about this around the part when the NS-5s are glowing red and telling the humans to return to their houses and obey the new curfew. It seems that the robots’ goal is to control the humans and keep them inside their homes so that the robots can live as they want as well as “serve” their human clients. This goal may also help the robots rule the city, and then the planet.

“Freedom permits humans to make mistakes, so the humanoids eliminate freedom.”

(Dinello, 70)

These humanoid robots are being too helpful in preventing crime and injury for the humans. It is too much control over the humans because they don’t have the freedom to exit their house, or cook their food or even go to work. In short, the NS-5s would be keeping the humans from themselves.

Humans make mistakes. For the new model servant humanoids to take the humans’ chances to make mistakes is like taking away their humanity.  I’d understand that the humanoid robots (I really want to call the NS-5s androids) would want to protect the humans so that they don’t get harmed, or harm each other.  But it would go too far.  In the film, I thought that the robots were being evil and just wanted to take over the city.  Now I understand that the NS-5s had been ordered to make the city a place where the robots do everything for the humans to the point where the humans can’t do anything.   I didn’t take into account that the Three Laws of Robotics used in these new robots were designed in them to be exaggerated and subtly turned into laws that would affect humans in a negative way, namely human freedom.

Watching I, Robot again will be very different next time, I can see...

I am also interested in the topic about humans’ racism towards robots and humanoids. Dinello mentions and discusses titles like Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and the film Blade Runner, and even titles I don’t recognize such as the film Creation of the Humanoids and the novel Fairyland (1995). Even one of my other favorite robot films A.I. Artificial Intelligence has a racism issue towards robots that I didn’t identify in such a deep level, until reading what Dinello says about it in Technophobia!.  Now I want to read these unfamiliar titles and watch the unfamiliar films, because I am inspired to further investigate for myself what racism against robots means to the robots, in whatever degree they are affected by that racism.

Welcome!

Welcome to Cybernetic Dreams, my new blog.


My favorite type of science fiction is stories about robots, androids and cyborgs, and I want to write novels that feature such characters. I haven’t done much research on these topics yet. I haven’t had the right motivation for looking up on artificial intelligence and cybernetic implants (and generally robotics), other than wanting to write science fiction.

I am extremely fascinated with these topics and would still like to research them to expand my knowledge on my favorite futuristic characters. So I decided to write a blog to capture and gather my thoughts on the research process. I will update this blog every one to two weeks. I will mainly be reading some non-fiction books I borrow from libraries, but I’ve also recently bought some Japanese anime DVDs featuring cyborg or android characters. There are also science fiction magazines that I read.

I have issues of two different science-fiction magazines: Science Fiction & Fantasy and Asimov’s Science Fiction. There are two really good stories in these magazines that I read and almost brought me to tears. They are such bittersweet, beautiful tales. I had to stop subscribing to Asimov’s Science Fiction because I meant to only sub to one, but I tried out both of them and liked the bi-monthly SF&F better. One day I’d really like to submit a novelette to one of these magazines.

I’ve read the original I, Robot, which is actually the short story, “Little Lost Robot” in the collection of Asimov’s stories titled I, Robot. I also read another of his collection called Robot Dreams. Maybe I should reread them, now that I am at least eight years older than when I read them the first time. I can read them with a shaper fascination, learning and pondering these stories and speculations, so that I can incorporate what I’ve learned into my own writing.


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I’m so excited……!!!!!!