Lieutenant Commander Data, played by Brent Spiner, is a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) television series and in the four films based on The Next Generation. Designed and built by Doctor Noonien Soong, Data is a sentient android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the starships USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E. His positronic brain allows him impressive computational capabilities. However, he has ongoing difficulties understanding various aspects of human behavior and is unable to feel emotions or understand certain human idiosyncrasies. However Data is given an emotion chip in Star Trek: Generations. He is not able to control his emotions until later on. Data is in many ways a successor to the original Star Trek’s Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in that the character offers an “outsider’s” perspective on humanity. (Wikipedia)
Robots categorized as: Fiction
The Terminator
The Terminator has become a central reference in our present day idea of robots. The story of the machine warrior from the future seems to be capable of generating ever new action movies.
Astro Boy
Astro Boy is a Japanese manga character, created by Osamu Tezuka. Asto Boy is a central character in Japanese manga and still hugely popular.
In the futurist science fiction world of Astor Boy humans and robots live in co-existence. In the story Astro Boy was created by Doctor Tenma to replace his own son, who was killed in a car accident. Astro Boy was created in the child’s image and after a detour was raised by a loving legal guardian.
In the fiction Astro Boy is often discriminated for being less than human, but the plot shows him only to be good and kind and proves his discriminators wrong. Astro Boy uses his powers for good and is a sympathetic and charming character.
Not surprisingly Osamu Tezuka drew inspiration to Astro Boy from the classic story of Pinocchio.
The Astro Boy universe has a fundamentally different underlying mythology than most western robot mythologies. Astor Boy is first and foremost the hero of the stories and although he often battles robots gone berserk the stories cast a positive view on robotics.
Metropolis
In the classic and hugely influential silent movie Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang, the evil scientist Rotwang creates an evil robot substitute for the peaceful character Maria. Maria urges the working lower class not to revolt against the aristocratic upper class but to find a common ground. She is kidnapped and substituted with the robot-Maria that creates revolt and devastation in the city of Metropolis.
When the revolting mob realizes the devastation created by the robot-Maria, they burn her at the stake.
In Metropolis the robot was originally made by Rotwang to do good and replace the workers in their hard work. The power of the robot nonetheless falls into the hands of an evil mind and is used for a personal vendetta, threatening to destroy a whole civilization in the process. The robot is used as a heartless infiltrator; an instrument created for good, but one that easily falls into evil misuse.
The Three Laws of Robotics
The Russian science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1942 formulated his Three Laws of Robotics in the short story “Runaround”. The three laws have to a large extent been adopted by fiction writers. The laws have also been used as guidelines for real robotic production and in formulating ethical guidelines for robot human interaction.
The laws are:
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 any orders given to 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.
Ma fille Francine
An anecdote tells that around 1640 philosopher, mathematician, scientist and writer Rene Descartes made an robotic woman he called “ma fille Francine” – my girl Francine – which could performed somersaults on a tightrope and which was later was thrown into the sea by a frightened ship captain who believed it to be a satanic device.
Though probably not true Descartes holds a tremendously important role in the development the philosophy, science and math that have paved the way for future developments in the field of robotics.
Golem
The golem is a creature made from dirt, clay or dust which is invoked into life by mystical powers by holy persons. The myth of the golem is rooted in Jewish folklore and mysticism.
According to the Talmud the first golem was actually Adam. Made of clay, he was a golem until God breathed life into him.
A famous tale claims that rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (c. 1520 –1609) around 1600 created a golem to protect the Jews of Prague from anti-Semitic attacks.
Although the tales of golems often describe the golem as being made to protect his creator, there are also stories where the golem becomes uncontrollable and dangerous. This mythology can found again in stories like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.
B9
In 1997, the Earth suffers from overpopulation and natural resource depletion. Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart), their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright), Will (Billy Mumy), and their friend and pilot, Major Don West (Mark Goddard), are chosen to travel on the Jupiter 2 to Alpha Centauri to colonize a habitable planet discovered in that system. After the Robinsons are placed in suspended animation, but before the launch, staff medical doctor / foreign double agent Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) sneaks aboard on a sabotage mission. He reprograms the ship’s robot B-9 (voiced by Dick Tufeld) to destroy the ship shortly after it leaves Earth. He becomes trapped during launch, however, and his extra weight throws the Jupiter 2 off course, causing it to encounter a meteor storm. The robot’s rampage causes the ship to become lost. (Wikipedia)
Robby
Robby the Robot is a 6-foot, 11-inch tall mechanical suit designed for an actor to wear, to play the part of a robot. It was originally designed for the 1956 MGM movie Forbidden Planet, and quickly became a science fiction movie and television icon. As Forbidden Planet was inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, Robby’s character was inspired by Ariel, the sprite in the play. An important feature of Robby was an unalterable command that he was not to inflict fatal harm upon human beings. This comes into play near the end of the film, where Robby is commanded to kill the monster, but cannot do so because it comprehends that the monster is an alter ego or extension of Dr. Morbius. (Wikipedia)
Bumblebee
Bumblebee’s primary function in the original Transformers animated series and comics was to serve as the “young” character with whom the youthful viewing audience could identify, and he would befriend the Autobots’ primary human ally – the young son of the Witwicky family (Buster in the Marvel comic – see issue #1 – and Spike in the cartoon) – to this end, a concept that persists into the 2007 live-action film. Although a well-known character because of this, Bumblebee is quite unusual in that, unlike many other Transformers, his name has not been re-used and applied to unrelated characters throughout the ensuing twenty years of Transformers media, due to the loss of the trademark until recently. His role as the “young yellow character”, however, has inspired other Transformers characters with the same role such as Cheetor and Hot Shot. (Wikipedia)
