Showing posts with label Robot Dreams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robot Dreams. Show all posts

Monday, October 24, 2011

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.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

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.