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Scott Huh DESMA 9 Week 3 Robotics + Art

The idea of the robot, according to Vesna, came out of theater as a response to mechanization of labor. In the past, assembly lines were solely manual labor done by humans. Before machines were created, humans were treated as if they were part of the machine. The idea of separating actions into pieces by having each worker do a single part of the production came from Gutenberg’s printing press. This was also reflected in Ford’s assembly line. The advancement of technology and computers was the starting point for replacing humans with machines in assembly lines. Chaplin and Lang’s criticism of the mechanization of workers relayed the fact that workers were being superimposed and replaced by machines.


The mechanization of workers reminded me of the movie RoboCop. This movie takes place in the future in old Detroit where crime-rates are at an all time high. The senior president of Omni Consumer Products (OCP), Dick Jones, signs a contract with the mayor of Detroit proposing to replace police officers with robots. The first test outcome of the product was a failure. However, unwilling to discard the idea of droids, OCP decides to transform the main character, Alex Murphy who was critically injured from a car bomb, into a cyborg. The most fascinating part of the movie was that RoboCop was entirely a “robot” with only a human brain and digestive system. RoboCop was a huge success in achieving things that human police officers could not. As a result, society went from being unhappy about the concept of cybernetics to being supportive. Although society fears artificial intelligence and the problems that may arise, judging from this movie, mechanization has, once again, improved the quality of life for humans. This one half-man, half-robot is just the beginning, but imagine the endless possibilities of industrialization of non-human robots.



Sources:

"Ford Installs First Moving Assembly Line 1913." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web.

"RoboCop (1987) - Synopsis." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web.

Szollosy, Michael. "Beware of Artificial Intelligence! Says (Some) Experts." Convergent Science Network. N.p., 25 Mar. 2015. Web.

Prescott, Tony. "No Need to Panic – Artificial Intelligence Has Yet to Create a Doomsday Machine.” Convergent Science Network. N.p., 3 Feb. 2015. Web.

Vesna, Victoria. "Industrialization, Robotics, Kinetics/Robotic Art." Lecture.

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