Topic 82: The Triumph of the Machine

Carol:

I Sing the Body Mechanical

 One of our recent guilty pleasures has been the daily ritual of watching 2-3 episodes of Battlestar Galactica.  Marc likes the show because of the strong acting and the West Wing-like political and diplomatic intrigue, but frankly I get a little chill thrill whenever those Cylon “Toasters,” not the humanoidish ones but the big metal ones, come clanking Terminator-style into a scene. They are just the latest of a long line of robotic villains (and heroes) that have fascinated me since I began reading Isaac Asimov and watching science fiction as a kid. 

I just want to get it over with right now. Science fiction titles.  I think titles are important, the punchy or punny ones that pull me right in.  My two favorites are: Philip K Dick ‘s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” which was adapted into a pretty good movie Blade Runner; and, Ray Bradbury’s “I Sing the Body Electric,” which he cleverly stole from Walt Whitman and which was made into a movie with the blah title The Electric Grandmother. For simplicity, Asimov wins with I, Robot, which has the slightest hint of un-ease in the idea that a robot could develop the ego to consider itself an “I” even though the reader knows it was programmed to follow Asimov’s 3 Laws: don’t harm a human, obey a human unless it contradicts the first rule, protect your robotic self unless it contradicts the first two rules. (source: Wikipedia) A book titled We, Robot would be even scarier because of its whiff of collective, connected ego…legions of Toasters marching goose-step to annhiliate their Creators. See, titles are important, Megan.

Since the annual Oscar buzz has started, here are my favorite robot movies. They are old,   i.e. no high tech shimshammery, no digital manipulations, just clever photography. Both films have been re-made with modern special effects and inferior artistry.

The first is the 1927 Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang. The only literal robot in the movie is the evil Maria, created in the likeness of the human, good Maria.  But, underneath the city of Metropolis is the hidden world of gigantic machines tended by shifts of automaton-like workers. Robots who look like people may be scary, but people who act like robots are a nightmare. (See Night of the Living Dead.)

The other is the 1950’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. The robot here is a primitive-looking tin can giant, and the film is built around shadows and camera angles that elongate the alien Michael Rennie and his robot sidekick Gort. No  fancy computer enhancements, just great cinematography enhanced by our own imaginations.

Who or what is evil?  Can we really trust the Cylons? Will machine triumph over man? So say we all,

  Klaatu Barada Nikto 

 

Sources:

Isaac Asimov’s 3 Laws. Wikipedia.  

Metropolis. IMDB.  

The Day the Earth Stood Still. IMDB.

 Megan:

The "Triumph" of Machines

The book from which we draw the titles for these essays was published long before computers became a daily part of our lives, but at the time of its initial publication (1917) the Industrial Revolution was more than 100 years old: the assembly line, sewing machines, trains, tractors and automobiles had already changed forever the way people lived. And for better or worse, many of us wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for some machine somewhere – whether it was a threshing machine that allowed a farmer ancestor to feed his family, or a steamship that brought immigrant relations to this country, or the incubators and oxygen tanks that kept me alive after a difficult birth. Some people argue that these mechanical and electronic advances work against nature, and I certainly have said the same from time to time. But I know I’m lucky to be alive to say it.

D.H. Lawrence wrote a poem by the same name (again, after our book was published) in 1930, in which he laments the ruination of the countryside brought about by the machine:

    for one sad century
    machines have triumphed, rolled us hither and thither,
    shaking the lark's nest till the eggs have broken.

I’m not going to use this space to criticize life saving technology, but perhaps it is appropriate to question the value of machines that are used not as tools, but as toys. Televisions, game systems like Nintendo, X-Box and Playstation, and computers (used outside of work) serve only to keep us still and passive on our beds or couches, entertained perhaps, but spending hours, days and eventually years inactive in our bodies and minds.

I believe the triumph of the machine has been to convince (Western) humanity that it is indispensible, essential to our survival. The computer has certainly done that. I have lived without television, and without game systems, but how can I live without a computer? I need it to stay informed, to stay connected, to apply for jobs. Five years ago when I was searching for jobs, although most postings were online, half the applications still had to be mailed (this was in England). That is no longer the case.  If I chose to distance myself from this machine, I fall behind, might miss a new development, miss an opportunity. How did I come to believe this?
   

    And at last
    all these creatures that cannot die, driven back
    into the uttermost corners of the soul,
    will send up the wild cry of despair.

Source:

Lawrence, D.H. "The Triumph of the Machine." 1930.