I guess everyone watches movies. Mainly movies are created in the homeland of movie industry, Hollywood. Hollywood has a very big influence on us people, and their movies usually move our fantasy. In the world of movies names like Terminator, Iron Man and I, Robot are famous. What is common in them, why do they fit into our topic? Well, they are all about robotics, transhumanism.
This is what really interests me. And maybe all guys at my age love robots. Why? They are “only” man-created piles of iron, who are able to execute our commands. But these creatures are man-made, showing our power. They have a thousand types, and we use them on many fields of life. Still, how do robots act in the movies? Well, there is one thing that almost all movies show: the singularity.
Now comes the question: what is singularity. In this meaning, singularity is the state when a robot starts to think, to create new things and starts to have feelings. What comes after this? Maybe the robot starts to recreate itself, invading Earth and make all people their slaves, or simply try to live like a real human.
Our first movie definetly claims that robots would use their knowledge to turn against us. This is the Terminator. According to the story… A T-800 Model-1 cyborg assassin (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent to Earth to kill a woman, who is eventually the mother of John Connor, the head of the human rebels who fig
ht against Skynet, a man-created army computer. According to the latest part of the series, they are not doing very well, since Skynet sends more and more robot warriors, and in the end John Connor is caught and reprogrammed by Skynet…
As I mentioned, there are both cyborgs and robots in this pretty complicated storyline. A cyborg can be a human with robotic parts, or a robot with organic parts. Model-1 is a robot covered in skin, but the inside of it is completely made out of metal.
We have a question here. Is it possible that singularity actually happens? And if so, would robots turn against their creators, humans? Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil claims that by 2045, robots will be smarter than humans. Kurzweil claims that according to Moore’s law, computers are doubling in memory capacity every 18 months, coming from this, he beleives, by 2025, comuters will be as intelligent as humans. Many other scientists back in the past claimed the same, and also thought this event would bring the end of human life on Earth…
Our second movie introduces us a peaceful robot, who wants people to accept him as a human. This is the Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams. In the movie, Andrew, is a household android, a human like robot, purchased by a family to help around the house. Soon they realise that Andrew is not an ordinary robot, unlike other mass produced robots, he has creativity and even has feelings.
The story follows Andrew’s life through two centuries, as he tries to fit into society. He finds his perfect woman in the grandchild of his original owner.
And from here Andrew wants to be a human from outside and inside
. A robotspecialist inventor helps him to change his robotic parts to organic ones, and Andrew chooses to have human blood to be able to grow and become old just like his life partner. In the end of the movie Andrew becomes very old and moments after he dies in the hospital, the president of the USA announces that Portia, his life partner is officaly accepted as his wife and Andrew is offically a human…
There are a few questions coming up. Can a robot be like a human? Is it healthy and ethical that a human and a robot has too close relationship? Well, transhumanism exists, but I haven’t heard about „transrobotism” yet. However, if a man can have robotic parts, why couldn’t a robot get organic parts? No one said it is useful, but still… Robot-human relationship is definitely not natural. There are other movies dealing with this, but it’s kinda wierd that a robot falls in love with a human being. I’d rather hear „I love you” from the mouth of a flesh-blood human, not from a robot.
If you hear movie title „Iron Man”, the steel-suited Tony Stark comes to your mind, however, Iron Man is not called like this because of his suit.
A millionare genius inventor Tony Stark (played by Robert Downe
y Jr.) is being injured by one of his own-created missiled during a trip to Afganistan. A piece of iron is stuck in his body near to his heart and an electromagnet is built in h
is chest to keep the sharpnel in place and prevent it from hurting Tony’s heart. With this, Tony Stark literally becomes a cyborg. The electromagnet is also an energy reactor, which produces enough energy for the Iron Man suit. With this, Tony saves the world, eliminates the evil. At the end of the third movie, the sharpnel is removed and so the electromagnet.
Have you seen The Avengers – Ultron’s Age? Ultron
is an artifical intelligence created by Tony Stark himself (however, this is only true in the film universe – it was only for giving a reason why Tony takes on the Iron Man suit after Iron Man 3 – in the comics it happened in a completely other way) and later Ultron turns against the Avengers who must stop this powerful beast.
We have arrived to the last movie. The Avatar. It is about Jake Sully, who in exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs decides to take the 
main role in a mission in the far away Pandora. The plan is that Jake tries to fit into the community of the native humanoid Na’vi people with the help of an avatar identity, and then the human can drive off these natives to mine the precious resources found on this nice land. So, Jake manages to make friend with the Na’vi, and falls in love with a beautiful alien, In other words, he doesn’t really want to destroy these creatures who really like him and care about him. However, the restless Colonel doesn’t like this at all, making Jake to take a stand; resulting in an epic battle for Pandora.
Transforming human identity into an avatar is a goal of scientists, and many are working on it. An avatar could represent a person any time anywhere in the world, there would be literally many of you, all thinking with your brain. Creepy, isn’t it? However, to transform your identity, they have to transform your soul, too. which is not possible today.
To sum up the topic, I would like to express my opinion to all the things mentioned here. Robots are very interesting creatures, they can be used for many things. Still, the thought that they may start to think on their own and rise against us is frightening. Will it happen? No one knows, personally, I hope not.
Making yourself an avatar is also under developement. But as I wrote, transforming someone’s soul is not possible. Without soul, an avatar is not really you, since it won’t have the same feelings and simply the knowledge of your brain stores is not enough to represent you.
And about transhumanism: having a superstrong robot-arm is a cool idea also being connected to the Internet, but I would rather be myself, weak in body strength and not knowing everything, but still I would be ME, unhackable, flesh-blood ME.
Article by: Benjamin Bartha-T.
ERASMUS + Future NEWS 