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| Technology mimics film when Apple released the iPhone 4 in 2010 with Startrek-inspired Facetime. |
This week,
I found the connection between the speed of dispersion for a particular media and
how this affects the perception of the beholder. In his essay “The Work of Art
in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin compared a painting to
a film. The beholder of a painting may sit and contemplate its existence, progressively
developing a meaning unique to the mind of the beholder. On the other end of
this spectrum is film, where each scene is on screen for only a few seconds
before a new scene is introduced, giving the beholder an opportunity to
experience only a reactionary response.
I will return
to the influence of film, but this week I also enjoyed how art was assigned
some sort of role. Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press gave art and
literature a chance to rapidly reach a wider audience than ever before. This led
to a regression in art’s dependence on the ritual and allowed art to have a
social role. Initially, films were the only form of video media to be available
to the mass public. The advent of the internet and smartphones gave the means
for film-making and distributing those films to the general public—creating viral
videos. To illustrate how video media can so easily shape culture, Woolshed Co.
put together six fake viral videos
that have been watched over 205 million times around the world, fooling many of
its viewers, so much so that their works have been on several news stations as
real stories.
Another thing I found fascinating
was Machiko Kusahara’s analysis on the difference between Japan’s and the West’s
view on robots. The first robot depiction in media came from Czech playwright
Karel Capek. Since then, Japan’s development of robots has been driven by humanoids
designed to help and coexist with
people. While a google on robots in the U.S. brings results describing military
robotic technology development or American fear of robots. I think that people
need to understand that new machines will always be “technically sweet” as J.
Robert Oppenheimer put it, and that we should “argue about what to do about it
only after [we’ve] had [our] technical success.” In the end, robots will be
designed to ease everyday life. The example I always return to is a future of
automated, flying cars that everyone wants, but everyone is too afraid to allow
to develop.
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| Honda's world famous humanoid. |
References:
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
“Honda ASIMO 1/8 Scale Figure Robot.” Japan Trend Shop, www.japantrendshop.com/honda-asimo-18-scale-figure-robot-p-455.html.
Hui, Mary. “You've Been Punked: Company Boasts of Experimenting on Us with Fake Viral Videos.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 July 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/12/company-fooled-world-with-fake-viral-videos/?noredirect=on.
O'Connor, Tom. “U.S. Replaces Soldiers with Robots in First Training of Its Kind.” Newsweek, 9 Apr. 2018, www.newsweek.com/us-military-replaces-soldiers-robots-first-its-kind-training-exercise-877635.
Oppenheimer, J. Robert. “J. Robert Oppenheimer Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/j_robert_oppenheimer_159316.
Pascale, Anthony. “Steve Jobs Invokes Star Trek (Again) While Unveiling 4th Gen IPhone – But Where Is Star Trek Mobile Video Chat?” TrekMovie.com, 7 June 2010, trekmovie.com/2010/06/07/steve-jobs-invokes-star-trek-again-while-unveiling-4th-gen-iphone/.
Solon, Olivia. “More than 70% of US Fears Robots Taking over Our Lives, Survey Finds.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Oct. 2017, www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/04/robots-artificial-intelligence-machines-us-survey.
The Woolshed Company. “The Viral Experiment.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 July 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccENfRThXOk.
Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics MachikoKusahara 1.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQZ_sy-mdEU.
Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics pt1.” YouTube, 15 Apr. 2012, youtu.be/cRw9_v6w0ew.
Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics pt2.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAZ8bo9T_Pk.
Andrew, I found your point on the different perspectives towards robots to be captivating. Throughout this lecture, I had not yet focused on how the value attached to robotics varies country to country and why this is a pivotal facet in understanding their influence on this world. I think it is important to contemplate the power of artificial intelligence in guiding our society forward. To what extent do we give robots control?
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