Week 3: Robotics + Art - In Our Own Image

Turner, Joseph mallard William. Rain, Steam and
Speed-The Great Western Railway. (1844)

Have you noticed how many robots in films and other forms of art have a close resemblance to humans? From Frankenstein to Sonny, robots given to us through the years appear to have some representation of humanity whether it is anatomically or behaviorally. These robots are usually not alone - they are usually part of a product line, and idea that stems back to the introduction of the assembly line made known by Henry Ford. The ability to create multiple copies of something started back with the onset of the Industrial age. But why is this? I think that our creation of robots is evidence of humanity's desire to become gods - we want the ability to create life.

Likewise, artists try to create life from their pieces of work, however the ability to produce identical copies of anything have led to what some call the loss of 'aura' in art. According to Walter Benjamin, "by making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence." Benjamin argues that because we are becoming more and more accustomed to seeing identical copies of pictures the same object, it does not allow for different interpretations of the same idea. Douglas Davis points out that this feared event never happened, and it can be seen in the many art forms that blossomed during the Industrial Revolution, such as Romanticism. One of the major art forms of the time and noted as perhaps the most emotionally driven, the Industrial Revolution allowed for a plethora of new perspectives of the same scene to appear, all based on the artists' impression of their environment.

The Industrial Revolution along with the advent of the assembly line helped lay the groundwork for our path to create multiple products with precision. The purpose for creating smarter and smarter machines stems from the want to make our own lives easier. For example, in the movie I, Robot, robots are made with the intention of serving humans while following Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics highlighted in his short essay "Runaround":

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. 

Our continuous desire to create life, specifically intelligent life, is seen with the production of smarter and smarter technology. This all began with the creation of simple machine, ones that require human interaction in order for them to work. These differ from modern "smart" machines - robots close to reaching autonomy. The reasoning for creating an 'artificial intelligence' stems from both the desire to to make our lives easier as well as the desire to create another thinking entity A great example is the IBM machine Watson as seen on the game show Jeopardy. This supercomputer soundly trounced the two human champions, which brings up the question of if/when the computer intelligence we have created will surpass that of humans. 

Watson dominates Jeopardy. 

Reference:

Asimov, Isaac. "Runaround." Astounding Science Fiction. 1942. Print.

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Shocked/Random House. 1936. Print.

Best, Jo. "IBM Watson: The inside story of how the Jeopardy-winning supercomputer was born, and what it wants to do next." TechRepublic. No date. Web. 18 April 2015

Davis, Douglas. "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction." Leonardo. Third Annual NewYork Digital Salon. 28(5): 381-386

Drum, Kevin. "The Robotic Revolution will not be a Rerun of the Industrial Revolution." Mother Jones. 30 Aug 2013. Web. 18 April 2015