i, farang
last night i became one of the last few people in bangkok to see i, robot. i enjoyed the movie a lot more than i thought i would, mostly because i had expected it to be an independence day type movie with will smith running around shooting everything. smith did do a lot of running around and shooting, but there was no i, robot will smith rap song intro and the movie as a whole better than most of his other efforts.
the imdb i, robot discussion board has focused a lot on whether or not such a thing could actually happen- with debates into free will and whatnot. i don't think free will plays a part in what happens in the movie- the robots were acting in accordance with the first law, that they cannot let humans come to harm through inaction, and as such can disobey the second law.
the robot sonny (a promotional plug for sony?) is different from the others because he has been given a second processor with the ability to contradict the first- so he has to think things through rather than just obey. he's also given moods which make him seem more human.
so is the premise behind the movie feasible? in one way yes, as i don't think free will is part of the equation. but in another way no- as the robots would need to be able to understand not only the world around them but also human behavior and the source of human thought/decisions- something which may never be possible.
posted by jeremy @ 3:24:00 PM
4 Comments:
Yesterday I caught the end of this program on BBC World talking about the possibility of free thinking robots. They mentioned that in twenty years from now the US military will have free thinking machines fighting with out direct control from humans, i.e they'll be given a mission and off they go... boom, boom, boom. I wasn't quite sure whether to believe this or not... ick.
it wouldn't be difficult to design something that shot anything that moved, but differentiating between targets and civilians would be a real trick- even most of our troops have trouble with that one.
I'm sorry but I'm lost as to what that movie has to do with your status as a farang. I've yet to see the movie but I think it's definitely a HUGE plug for the electronics giants, including Sony. Will Smith has the potential to be such a serious actor, I wish I understood why he chooses frivolous roles. Then again... it pays the bills.
-J. (Sleepy703@yahoo.com)
i could launch into a long diatribe comparing the perception of robots in the movie versus how farang are treated in thailand. but actually it has nothing to do with my status as farang... 'i, farang' just sounds good to me. =)
the movie has quite a lot of obvious promotional plugs in it, for example will smith wears converse shoes and comments on them a number of times. there's a fedex delivery (via robot of course) in the beginning of the movie, and there seem to be a lot of futuristic audis around.
not sure that i can see will smith as a serious actor... i keep thinking about him as the fresh prince of bel-air, rapping 'parents just don't understand'.
Post a Comment
<< Home