Week 3 Robotics & Art

While watching the “Robots will invade our lives” Ted Talk, I noticed how robots and similar technologies are becoming a larger part of society as a whole with self-driving cars, robotic cleaners, and delivery services. Brooks mentions how when it comes to robotics compared to the timescale and development of computers we are still in the late 1970s and 80s. This idea made me feel both excited and anxious at the same time because I believe this development is a double-edged sword. Robots are already doing amazing things, but also if they are able to do everyday tasks, will they replace human workers? 





In Benjamin’s writing, he talks about the surgeon and magician analogy comparing it to how a “painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, the cameraman penetrates deeply into its web” (3). I believe this idea relates to robotics as it fills both the roles of the painter and the cameraman. Robots can coexist with humans but also attempt to be humans when they simply cannot. They can also act as a tool of communication of something like a film or picture can communicate something to its viewers. 



Although I would love to say society has responded to industrialization in a positive way, the Pixar movie Wall-e can illustrate how society has responded in a more negative way as humans no longer live on earth as trash has taken over. The robot Wall-e has been prompted to compact and organize all of the trash.




Ackerman, E. (2019). IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 2022, from https://spectrum.ieee.org/home-robot-control-for-people-with-disabilities. 

Atkinson, R. D. (2019, October 15). Robotics and the future of production and 

work. Robotics and the Future of Production and Work. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://itif.org/publications/2019/10/15/robotics-and-future-production-and-work 

Benjamin, W. (1936). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

Retrieved 2022. 

Brooks, R. “Robots will invade our lives.” TED, Feb. 2002, 


    https://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_robots_will_invade_our_lives?language=en

Terminator. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/Terminator. 


Wall-E. (2008). IMDB. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/. 






Comments

  1. Thessa Malau'uluApril 17, 2022 at 9:32 PM

    Hi Megan. I really enjoyed reading your blog post this week. I agree that humans have not responded to industrialization in a positive way. The future is exciting with robots gaining more knowledge but like you said, will they eventually take over all our jobs. Automation is something I am very passionate about representing (specifically on the waterfront) and it is cool to hear other students' responses to this issue. Thank you for sharing!

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