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Robotic Wonder

Twilight Phoenix

Captain
Captain
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Those who know me from the TNG subforum already know I'm obsessed with Data and androids in general ! I fell in love with robots, droids, replicants and all sorts of AI after I first read the manga Chobits and Asimov's robot short stories. As a teen, my role model in sciences was Susan Calvin, Asimov's recurring cyberneticist character. So that's pretty much a childhood passion !

Are there any other robot/android/AI fan here ? I don't think I'm the only one ;)
What made you an AI fan in the first place ? Who are your favourite robot characters ? Books ? Real life attempts ?
 
Well Tosk...maybe you could be a bit more talkative ? I feel like I'm doing the whole conversation XD
What did you like in particular ? Or disliked ?
I have to say I liked the sequel, but to me it never reached the original movie's level in terms of creativity. That being said, I've been amazed at how the atmosphere was close to the original movie's, with its beautiful contemplative music and unsettling moments.
Bringing Deckard into the plot was a bit cliché in my opinion. Let alone that detail, the whole plot about K and his identity was pretty well written, with suspense, uneasy moments and all the awful-yet-awesome elements a good Blade Runner movie should have.
Are you hoping for a third movie ?
 
Who doesn't love robots! Well except for the future humans they will enslave or kill but those people don't exist yet. My favorite robots would be:

1 Data:I became a fan of Trek and sci-fi because of TNG and Data was a important reason for that. I enjoyed how kind he was even though he didn't have emotions.

2 Arnold Terminator's:I liked him as the villian in the first movie where he was really scary and the second one where he was good but still scary as well.

3 Robert Patrick terminator: Scary because of how normal and regular he looked and as a policemen he works both as a metaphor for police misconduct or a twist on the friendly cop who isn't so friendly. Maybe he works because of both of those angles.

4 R2-D2 and Threepio: Great comic relief. Also you know you got something when you can care about a trash can with legs attached to it.

5 Bender:A robot with tons of vices but since it's a comedy he doesn't come off as evil.

6 Crow and Tom Servio: Just part of the greatest thing ever to exist on tv or America or the entire world.


Jason
 
Aside from R2, I know it's stupid but one of my favorite robots from when I was a kid was VINCENT from the Black Hole.
 
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As for human slavery, I don't know if self-conscious, sentient robots would be such a threat to humans. If not programmed with some sort of ethical program, probably. But with the proper program, I'd honestly be more worried about humans treating androids/robots as mere slaves than the reverse situation. One of my fav TNG episode is The Measure of a Man because it tackles so many topics, like personhood, conscience, robots rights...If androids like Data existed in real life, my nights would stay sleepless just thinking about the awful treatments they'd certainly face : forced prostitution, slavery, destruction when they'd be not productive enough...The thought itself is sickening...

Anyway, so far I'd say my fav androids/robots are :
1) Data, of course ! I mean...look at my avatar and signature XD
2) Andrew from Asimov's Bicentennial Man : I watched the movie as a child and I think it's what sparkled my love for robots ! Andrew is a lot like Data, as he wants to reach personhood and be more human.
3) Chii and Freya from the manga Chobits : basically the two sides of the same coin, they are domestic androids from a dystopian modern era in which PersoCom have become a must-have for most people. They're different to Data in the way they are built with programs to simulate emotions.
4) Elvex from Asimov's Robot Dreams : built by an unexperienced cybernticist, he has the abnormal ability to dream...
5) The Puppet Master from Ghost in the Shell : who doesn't love a self-conscious AI with plans for its counterparts ?
6) Joi in Blade Runner 2049 : actually an AI and not a robot, yet she struggles with the desire to be more human, like Data and Andrew.
7)Wall-E and Eve...because CUTENESS !!!
8) R2-D2 and Threepio, because childhood memories !
 
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You can count me as a fan of robots and androids. Thinking back, my first exposure to robots must have been Magnus, Robot Fighter back in the late 60s, which was one of my favorite comics, second only to Fantastic Four (which introduced the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android around that time). Then I saw Forbidden Planet, which featured Robby, one of the all-time greatest robots, and, shortly after that, Channel 56 started running Lost In Space, featuring the Environmental Control Robot, another classic robot character.

I read Asimov's short stories when I was young, but it wasn't until the mid 80s that a friend gave me Robots and Empire, which was essentially an extended conversation between Daneel and Giskard, another couple of great robot characters. This led me to read the rest of the Robot and all of the Foundation novels. Then came Data....
 
^^ That's one of the hundreds of things sitting in my Amazon Shopping Cart, waiting for its chance. :rommie:
 
We should note a few more cool ones:

1 Wall-E

2 The Cylons from Battlestar Galatica

3 The Transformers but mostly from the cartoons/toys and comic books more than the Micheal Bay versions.

Jason
 
On the comic book front, you have the Vision, Red Tornado, the Metal Men, and (on the villainous side) Ultron.

On film, you have such notable examples as:

Gort in the original DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

The Colossus of New York from the movie of the same name.

The original Westworld, with Yul Brynner as the Gunslinger

Colossus: The Forbin Project (which was a super-computer, not a robot)

And the original Stepford Wives.

Trivia: To my knowledge, the first movie robot appeared in THE MASTER MYSTERY, a 1919 silent movie serial starring Harry Houdini of all people. (Not as "The Automaton.")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_Mystery
 
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^^ And it looks like that is available on YouTube-- what survives, anyway.
 
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