I hate cute anthropomorphic robots
OK, so the robots weren't particularly cute. But they were anthropomorphic. And I think that the episode in general was an extended version of what I hate about cute anthropomorphic robots.
Robots have already been invented and are around in today's world, folks. But they are built to look like machines that do a job, not like mechanical human beings. There will never be robots built to be ersatz human beings. Never. Because it is too difficult; because real human beings are better at pretending to be human beings; because if you had to design a robot to do a human-like job, you'd end up redefining the job specs to suit your available technology, not try and produce a robot that could pass for human.
Real robots with anything approaching artficial intelligence, when they are eventually made, will be stranger than we can imagine, not mannequins with chest bumps. So anyone who writes sf where the robots are in fact mannequins with chest bumps, be it Russell T Davies or James Patrick Kelly, loses my sympathy immediately.
(Just to be absolutely clear, it's not really the chest bumps I object to on fictional robots, let alone anywhere else that I encounter them. Bipedal robots, or robots with vision sensors only facing forwards, are as objectionable in my view as robots with chest bumps.)
I've been out of the UK now for almost eight and a half years, and so have missed the whole Weakest Link / Big Brother / What not To War phenomenon, so large parts of the episode were pretty much lost on me. But I think even if I had been around for the last few years, I would have felt the same sense of crashing disappointment. The future is going to be very different from now. In the very unlikely event that public entertainment in the year 20100 does feature robots with fake breasts, and eyes in the front of their heads, and two legs, I feel there may perhaps be other differences as compared with the present day.
Redeemed somewhat by the last five minutes, of course, and we'll just see if there is some convincing reason why the Daleks' plan had to involve creating cute anthropomorphic robots. I live in hope.
Robots have already been invented and are around in today's world, folks. But they are built to look like machines that do a job, not like mechanical human beings. There will never be robots built to be ersatz human beings. Never. Because it is too difficult; because real human beings are better at pretending to be human beings; because if you had to design a robot to do a human-like job, you'd end up redefining the job specs to suit your available technology, not try and produce a robot that could pass for human.
Real robots with anything approaching artficial intelligence, when they are eventually made, will be stranger than we can imagine, not mannequins with chest bumps. So anyone who writes sf where the robots are in fact mannequins with chest bumps, be it Russell T Davies or James Patrick Kelly, loses my sympathy immediately.
(Just to be absolutely clear, it's not really the chest bumps I object to on fictional robots, let alone anywhere else that I encounter them. Bipedal robots, or robots with vision sensors only facing forwards, are as objectionable in my view as robots with chest bumps.)
I've been out of the UK now for almost eight and a half years, and so have missed the whole Weakest Link / Big Brother / What not To War phenomenon, so large parts of the episode were pretty much lost on me. But I think even if I had been around for the last few years, I would have felt the same sense of crashing disappointment. The future is going to be very different from now. In the very unlikely event that public entertainment in the year 20100 does feature robots with fake breasts, and eyes in the front of their heads, and two legs, I feel there may perhaps be other differences as compared with the present day.
Redeemed somewhat by the last five minutes, of course, and we'll just see if there is some convincing reason why the Daleks' plan had to involve creating cute anthropomorphic robots. I live in hope.