New Robot Anime Found: Casshern Sins DVDs

I was curious about this anime DVD. I’ve never heard of or read about it, but I saw it on Amazon.com months ago, though at the time there was no info about what the anime was actually about.  Then all of a sudden I get an e-mail from Amazon alerting me about new anime DVD releases, and one of them was this one called Casshern Sins: Part 1.  I am so glad I know what it’s about now.  I really, really, REALLY want both Parts 1 and 2.  Wanna know why?  You might probably know.

The main character is called a “cybernetic assassin.”

I wanted to call one of my original sci-fi characters a cyber-assassin, and I still don’t know if I want to call him a cyborg or an android.  Casshern Sins apparently beat me to it.

I’m so excited about it! I feel bad about indulging in instant gratification, but I might just go ahead and buy Part 1 already!  Part 2 will have to wait.  I told myself I will have a break from ordering from Amazon.com for two months, but part of me says “Get it now and enjoy it because later this year you may not have enough time, let alone be financially comfortable, to feel good getting this thing.

Sigh. I want to get both DVDs now, but they are expensive.  Besides, I still have Ishinomori’s Android Kikaider the Animation to finish as well as 009-1 and the eight Cyborg 009 episodes to digest. Ack, too much good stuff.  I can’t have everything, I know, but fuck it, I don’t buy every single thing I see, so I’m still very good with my self control.

Casshern reminds me so much of Mega Man X with his white armor.   :3 

Link:  http://animereviewers.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/casshern-sins-review/

Watched Android Kikaider the Animation, Episodes 5 and 6

It's been a while since I watched Android Kikaider the Animation, so I wanted to watch episodes 5 and 6.  I really loved episode 4, and so far, episodes 4 and 5 are my favorite ones. 

I recentely found out when visiting the blog Black Sun that there is a link at the bottom of the page for the website called www.generationkikaida.com/ and the picture for it had what I thought was someone dressed up like Kikaider.  So I went to that website and I learned in the archives for 2002 that Kikaida was actually a live action TV show before Shotaro Ishinomori made the anime.  I forgot, was Android Kikader a Japanese manga series also?  I need to look that up.

Ha ha, I didn't know that it was live action before, so I learned something new.  But I 'm going to stick to the anime.

I would really like to write my reflections on the episodes of that anime that I watch, but they will have to come later.  I especially want to write one for episode 4, since it brings up a lot of interesting issues that the characters Jiro and Mitsuko are individually realizing.  In this episode, titled "Mirror,"  Jiro, the android, still doesn't know what he looks like when he transforms into Kikaider.  Near the end of the episode he does get a chance to look at his own reflection, and he doesn't like what he sees.  Okay, I should save this for another separate post.

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.

Post Delay

I will have the next post up within a few days or less.  I am putting my research on a short hold, so maybe I can catch up on posting about my progress after some time.  There was a lot of good reading the past week from David Levy's Robots Unlimited: Living in a Virtual Age.  I read chapters ten to thirteen.

I want to finish the next post offline so that I can use spell-check.

And unfortuately I couldn't have a good reading of The Coming Robot Revolution.  It was a library book and I had to return both of them.  I spent too much time on David Levy's book, so I will have to wait to borrow it again from the library later.   I won't take the book out of my list of reading, though.  It will stay there, but  it will be switched from its place in the list.

I found my drawing of my toy robot!

I said I would try to find the drawing of my old toy robot I did in second grade.

Ugh, my writing was so crappy at that age.  I'll transcribe it letter for letter (you can guess which words I spelled wrong).

Here it is:

If I could go to a toy

store and choose any toy I

wanted, I would choos a toy

robot, Because it's my faivriot

toy.  I like it. My sister likes it

too.

I just also want to say that the toy robot did not have the words "Super Robot" on its chest.  I wrote that in there because I wanted to be creative and give it a name.  Heh.  ^,^ 

Technophobia…more reading July 6

I read more of Technophobia! and it’s still so fascinating. I think it is the most important book I ever chose for my research. It has just what I need: robots, androids and cyborgs and their history in science fiction. There were some explanations about machines and artificial humans in science fiction that were not limited to the following titles: The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Metropolis (1927), We (1924), H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, and E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909).

Important themes came up too, all and more of which I want to explore:

• Robots who want to be human, loved

• Master creates artificial slave------------slave dominates master

• Humans will be enslaved by technology

• Redefining what it means to be human

This is a quote from the book that I found to be a very important one:

“The gothic myth of artificial humans—the golem, the homunculus,

and the Frankenstein monster—will transform into robots, cyborgs,

androids, and clones of science fiction.” (Dinello, 46)

I read E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” in a Science Fiction class that I took at Cal State University Northridge. It was the only time in my college career at CSUN that I would be able to take the class. “The Machine Stops” was the first story we read. Of course not all the stories and novels we read were about machines or robots, but that class opened up my eyes to other topics that science fiction can explore and ask questions about, and introduce possible answers to them (therefore creating more questions). “The Machine Stops” was especially a good piece because it introduced the topic of all humans being completely dependent on machines to live, and all these machines were controlled by this one huge machine that everyone’s living quarters are a part of.

Personally I am a bit afraid of growing technology myself. The most hi-tech thing that I own is my purple iPod Nano. I don’t need an iPhone or an Android Phone, or whatever other multi-purpose phones people use for reasons other than for talking. I have a cell-phone for that. I found out from a an ad on TV that there is an iPhone App that can turn off the house lights, or close the garage door while you are away, in case you forgot to turn the switch earlier.  I mean, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???

Red Tornado from the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold

The first time I watched Batman: The Brave and the Bold (and was INTERESTED in it at all), I saw a red-colored android character who seemed to be Batman’s ally. He was fighting another android who was evil, I guess (I don’t remember too many details since it was months ago since I saw this episode). But at the end of the episode, this android, known as Red Tornado, and Batman, had a conversation about the battle that went on earlier that day.  Red Tornado built that other android, but he had to destroy him because he turned evil (destructive), and it was the right thing to do. He realizes that, but somehow he also felt…sad.  Batman asks him if he will be alright. Then Red Tornado answers, “Why wouldn’t I be?” meaning that since he is a robot (I prefer to call him an android because he is a humanoid robot), he wouldn’t have emotions that would bother him. So Batman leaves him alone. Then as Red Tornado is left to himself, it would appear that he is shedding a tear. Even his facial expression shows a degree of sadness. I thought about those moments in the cartoon for a long time after I watched the end of that episode.

The title of that episode is “Hail the Tornado Tyrant.” I looked up the cartoon on YouTube earlier this week.  Red Tornado builds another humanoid robot, in a similar likeness of his own image. I haven’t seen the whole episode, and I don’t know how, or if, I’ll be able to. Sigh. I can’t do a full analysis of the episode now if I haven’t watched it in its entirety, but it is clear that the end of this episode, Red Tornado became a fast fan favorite of mine. I learned that the Batman comic book series is DC, not Marvel (I always confuse which character is which, except for X-Men and Iron Man). So if I had to have a favorite DC comic book character, it would have to be Red Tornado—simply because he is a humanoid robot.

Should Red Tornado be called an android or a humanoid robot? Well, in my opinion, he apparently sounds like a robot, but he has a mostly human form. I noticed I use “android” and “humanoid robot” interchangeably, and should I worry, does it matter?  In almost every sentence he speaks after someone talks to him, he says words like, “observation” and “declaration” to classify the statements he makes. That characteristic shouts “I’m a robot.” But gosh, in terms of behavior, he sure is human-like.  I don't think he realizes that he is already capable of having emotion, namely love.  He just doesn't recognize it.
     Sorry.  I get carried away...

Here is a link to a webpage about the voice actor for Red Tornado, Corey Burton.  You can also hear a sample of his voice:
Behind the Voice Actors.com--------Corey Burton

Technophobia----reading the book so far…

I feel bad because for a whole week I didn’t read any of the library books. I only felt like reading them when I knew I would be able to sit down for at least two hours at a time.  I finally got around to continue reading Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology by Daniel Dinello.

Right now I am done reading the first chapter "Technology is God."   I found it really fascinating and scary that technology and religion could eventually be combined to form some sort of principle for enhancing life: eventually everyone will replace their organic bodies with artificially created ones, and leave their biological selves behind. I read about the “Extropians”, who are people who believe in enhancing life through “technological expansion,” as Dinello explainds.  I guess being limited to living less than 100 years in the nature-given organic body is undesirable.

Why do people want to live forever?

This book is pretty heavy reading. I mean, it’s great, and eventually I might buy a copy for myself so I can re-read it if I need to. But it gets depressing because it makes me think about my own mortality. I am 25 and I still have so much to live for, but I know I’m not going to live forever. I’m even afraid of my life being cut short by a gun shot or a car crash. Will my parents still be alive in a time where hearts can rebuild themselves or an artificial brain can send signals to the body to stop the process of aging, or reverse it?

I am writing about these thoughts because I always believed that there is a life after death, an afterlife stage. But perhaps another form of afterlife is life after having a biological body. Afterlife could now mean becoming a robot, the human brain being put into a mechanical body. Is that “cyborganization”, or would this person still be a robot? Is humanity still there?

I will have to review my notes and read more of this book carefully, of course.