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24
Jul 04
Sat

I, Robot

As much of a sci-fi fan as I am, I must confess that I have not read any of Asimov’s novels. A non-fiction work, a few short stories, but I’ve never read the classic Foundation series, nor I, Robot.

When you take the work of a venerable science fiction writer, turn it into a Hollywood movie, and cast Will Smith as its lead, you’re bound to go in with low expectations. As such, I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually quite a good movie, even though I assume it’s probably nothing like the novel on which it is based.

The movie is set 30 years in the future. I really liked how the sets are a blend of futuristic technology and gadgets, while still showing the streets are not exactly paved with gold, with lots of retro touches included (in the 2030s, retro means the 2000s). Nonetheless, it’s a very pretty picture, filled with biometrics, LCDs and voice-controlled computers.

I’ve read that Asimov spent a lot of time dealing with how humans might interact with robots. He never pushed the “robots take over the world” scenario, feeling it was too clichéd, but instead looked at how his famous Three Laws of Robotics might ensure a beneficial existence with robots. Of course, Hollywood has to be more exciting than that, and ths movie does allude to Asimov’s “Zeroth” law (as in 0th) in what happens towards the end of the film. You won’t want to know what the Zeroth law is if you don’t want spoilers.

The plot is fairly predictable and the themes familiar if you’re a sci-fi buff. Nonetheless, Will Smith keeps things entertaining. (Incidentally, James Cromwell, who plays Dr Lanning in the film, has had a good run. He’s invented the warp drive, and now he’s invented robots that dream.) It’s a fun watch, if you don’t try and nit-pick it to pieces.

For me, a future with NS-5 type robots is definitely more than thirty years away. We have automated vacuum cleaners, dancing robots and robot pets. The Robocup competition, currently played with Aibos, has the long-term objective of creating a team of human-sized robots that will be able to compete with a World Cup winning side within around 50 years. For a robotic butler however, things are more than a few years or even decades off.

It’s always dangerous to predict what will happen with technology. History has repeatedly shown people get things wrong. For example, you might say that if you told a person fifty years ago that people could affordably travel across the globe in under a day, they would think you’re crazy. Or if you told a person twenty years ago, all the information in the world was virtually available at everyone’s finger tips via something improbably called “Google” (I mean, how non-futuristic does that name sound?), they would have laughed.

Still, it seems a lot of the super-technologies we can concieve of today don’t look achievable within our lifetime. I would place robots with artificial intelligence in the same category as a world government and planetary colonisation. It’s more complex than something like holography or commercial space travel (which are decidely attainable), but not as exotic as transporter technology (dealing with visible amounts of physical matter) or faster-than-light travel which I would bet significant amounts of money won’t be achieved in our lifetime.

The thing is, as rapidly as modern technology is progressing, each additional step of technology corresponds with an exponential increase in scientific complexity. Theoretical science is quite advanced, but applied sciences, which are constrained by physical processes, lag quite far behind.

Something like near-perfect voice recognition, which has been worked on for decades, would constitute for me a major technological breakthrough. AI is several orders of magnitude harder than that. As such, many of the improvements over the last few years since the Internet became mainstream are more evolutionary than revolutionary. For example, wireless technology permits all sorts of applications. Yet, wireless communications are just protocols and radio waves, nothing revolutionary. It’s the major technological breakthroughs that are the exciting ones and apart from the possibility of commercial space travel in the near future, there aren’t many I can think of on the horizon.

I really wish I could take a peek 20 years into the future. But who knows? I may look back on these journal entries after that amount of time and be forced to recant these words. I sure hope so.

  11:50pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Movies  •   •  Tweet This  •  Comments (2)

This post has 2 comments

1.  Pete

Interesting, I’d like to check I, Robot out. Although I have to agree that Will Smith as the lead didn’t inspire me at the start.

Your comments remind me of a textbook I had in computers in high school. I always knew our school was underfunded, but I still remmeber a paragraph that read “Advancements in technology are changing the way we live. Don’t be surprised that in your lifetime, you will be able to go to your local library, sit at a terminal, and look up any book in the entire collection.”

2.  van

i think I, Robot is actually a collection of short stories, but it’s been a very long time since i’ve read any of his works, so i may be totally off the ball on that one.

anyway, great entry and great site. i just came across it today via The Fix, and you’ve got something good going on.

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