[drone-list] A sampling of robots in popular culture

Gregory Foster gfoster at entersection.org
Tue Nov 20 19:05:08 PST 2012


Today, Syfy announced it has wrapped production on the first season of  
"Robot Combat League," gladiator-style matches featuring 8-foot tethered  
robots controlled by human operators.

Entertainment Weekly (Nov 20) - "Giant boxing robots reality show unveiled 
by Syfy -- EXCLUSIVE":
http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11/20/robot-combat-league/

The article mentions another "robot combat show" announced by Discovery  
Channel in April produced by James Cameron ("Avatar", "Titanic") and Mark 
Burnett ("Survivor") called "Robogeddon":
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/11/james-cameron-to-create-robogeddon/

Steven Spielberg has committed to filming an adaptation of Carnegie Mellon 
Robotics Ph.D Daniel H. Wilson's text _Robopocalypse_:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robopocalypse

I'd like to suggest these are somewhat interesting sociocultural  
reflections of HRW's admirable though perhaps Quixotic call for the  
banning of killer robots.  What is this desire people have to see robots  
smash each other?  How does that comport with the desire people have to be 
frightened about robots annihilating the human species (as evidenced by the 
uncounted books and films that revisit that theme)?

Finally, what is the nature of the gap or disconnect between the latter  
and the very real work to create Lethal Autonomous Robots? Might it have  
something to do with the former?

ymmv,
gf

-- 
Gregory Foster || gfoster at entersection.org
@gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/

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