Week 3: Robotics and Art

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Poster for Blade Runner

Today, robots have become a part of our daily lives, even if we don't notice them. Despite their modern presence, however, I am personally interested to see where robotics advance to in the future. Fortunately, I'm not the first person to be interested in this, so there are numerous pieces of media which depict others' interpretations of our future. One great example of this is the movie Blade Runner, which takes places in a future where synthetic humans (called replicants in the movie) are used as a labor force in developing new worlds for humans to live on. These replicants are artificially created to be just like humans so they are basically hyper-advanced robots made from biological materials and which have their own consciousness and intelligence. While it would take incredible science and technology to develop "robots" like this, it would also take an incredible amount of artistry to make them so close to being human. 

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A Blade Runner testing a person to
see if they are a replicant
However, as amazing as this technology would be, it raises many questions about where the line is between technology and humanity. In the movie, replicants are basically treated as slaves and banned from being on Earth. Because of this, society views replicants as robots, despite the fact that they have consciousness and intelligence. Similarly to how current technology like drones are seen simply as robots, Blade Runner depicts a future where humans continue to treat technology in the same way, regardless of the advancements and complications which go along with it.  

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Poster for Altered Carbon
Another television show, Altered Carbon, shows a possible future where humans have developed a technology which stores human consciousness in a digital form. It also takes place hundreds of years in the future so there are numerous other technological advances which have gone along with that. Altered Carbon does a great job at building its world, specifically how society reacts and interacts with technology as it advances into the future. While there are many benefits of advancement, there are also dark sides to technology which we, as humans, will always need to be careful of. 






Sources:

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Prism Key Press, 2010.

Kalogridis, Laeta. “Altered C.” Altered Carbon, Netflix, 2 Feb. 2018.

Lipson, Hod. “Building ‘Self-Aware’ Robots.” TED. TED2007.

“San Francisco Robotics Society of America (SFRSA).” San Francisco Robotics Society of America (SFRSA), www.robots.org/.

Scott, Ridley, et al. Blade Runner.


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