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Pinocchio: Difference between revisions
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"A.I. reinforces a theme often expressed in SF stories about artificial people: all too often, humans, freed from the moral restraints prescribed (though not necessarily followed) in human relationships, will exploit androids unethically. In one of the classics of the genre, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a novel which shares theme and to a large extent setting with A.I. (that is, a world ruined by people), a snippet from a television ad appeals to the perverse needs of the audience: "--duplicates the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern States! Either as body servants or tireless field hands, the custom-tailored humanoid robot--designed specially for YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS, FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE"."<br /> | "A.I. reinforces a theme often expressed in SF stories about artificial people: all too often, humans, freed from the moral restraints prescribed (though not necessarily followed) in human relationships, will exploit androids unethically. In one of the classics of the genre, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a novel which shares theme and to a large extent setting with A.I. (that is, a world ruined by people), a snippet from a television ad appeals to the perverse needs of the audience: "--duplicates the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern States! Either as body servants or tireless field hands, the custom-tailored humanoid robot--designed specially for YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS, FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE"."<br /> | ||
"By likening androids to American slaves, Dick is suggesting that the tendency to use others predates the invention of robots and is, in fact, as old as coercive behavior itself, which must be very old indeed since slavery is such an ancient human institution."<br /> | "By likening androids to American slaves, Dick is suggesting that the tendency to use others predates the invention of robots and is, in fact, as old as coercive behavior itself, which must be very old indeed since slavery is such an ancient human institution."<br /> | ||
"Though A.I.'s humans are detestable, some of its pseudo humans are not. Gigolo Joe protects David and even pilots him to Manhattan, a very dangerous act considering that it is a Mecha-free zone and he is a fugitive. Teddy the Supertoy truly loves David and has the sentimentality (and, it turns out, the foresight) to save the lock of hair that David clips from Mommy. The tradition of robots exhibiting behavior that is more humane than that of the humans who made them is common in SF, the most popularly known examples occurring in Isaac Asimov's robot stories and in the "person" of Lt. Commander Data of Star Trek: the Next Generation. Because they are imprinted via programming, Asimov's humanitarian Three Laws of Robotics have tended to be more powerful than the Ten Commandments that free-willed humans violate with impunity, but programmed or not, they have contributed to SF's many positive robot role models, up to and including the evolved Mechas that appear at the end of A.I. In fact, one of the most important elements in the more human than humans robots is that they appear to transcend their programming (or actually do transcend it), so that their actions are clearly laudable choices rather than programmed reflexes."<br /> | "Though A.I.'s humans are detestable, some of its pseudo humans are not. Gigolo Joe protects David and even pilots him to Manhattan, a very dangerous act considering that it is a Mecha-free zone and he is a fugitive. Teddy the Supertoy truly loves David and has the sentimentality (and, it turns out, the foresight) to save the lock of hair that David clips from Mommy. The tradition of robots exhibiting behavior that is more humane than that of the humans who made them is common in SF, the most popularly known examples occurring in Isaac Asimov's robot stories and in the "person" of Lt. Commander Data of Star Trek: the Next Generation. Because they are imprinted via programming, Asimov's humanitarian Three Laws of Robotics have tended to be more powerful than the Ten Commandments that free-willed humans violate with impunity, but programmed or not, they have contributed to SF's many positive robot role models, up to and including the evolved Mechas that appear at the end of A.I. In fact, one of the most important elements in the more human than humans robots is that they appear to transcend their programming (or actually do transcend it), so that their actions are clearly laudable choices rather than programmed reflexes."<br /> | ||
"Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics require absolutely that robots subordinate any ego that they might have to the needs of humans. Fictional robots in this tradition may be created in the image of humans, but without the human penchant for egotistical behavior--what the Dalai Lama, a man who might be said to preach a human version of Asimov's laws, calls "an exaggerated self-centeredness" (Dalai Lama 4) incompatible with human happiness. If Asimov's robots and their descendents have the advantage of knowing in whose image and for what purpose they were created, humans do not necessarily have the same advantage."<br /> | "Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics require absolutely that robots subordinate any ego that they might have to the needs of humans. Fictional robots in this tradition may be created in the image of humans, but without the human penchant for egotistical behavior--what the Dalai Lama, a man who might be said to preach a human version of Asimov's laws, calls "an exaggerated self-centeredness" (Dalai Lama 4) incompatible with human happiness. If Asimov's robots and their descendents have the advantage of knowing in whose image and for what purpose they were created, humans do not necessarily have the same advantage."<br /> | ||
"When asked in the opening scene by a Black colleague (and who would appreciate the moral quandary more than a descendent of slaves?) whether it is ethical to create a robot-boy whose sole purpose is to love a human unconditionally and forever, he answers (with an ominous roll of thunder in the background), "Didn't God create Adam to love him?""<br /> | "When asked in the opening scene by a Black colleague (and who would appreciate the moral quandary more than a descendent of slaves?) whether it is ethical to create a robot-boy whose sole purpose is to love a human unconditionally and forever, he answers (with an ominous roll of thunder in the background), "Didn't God create Adam to love him?""<br /> | ||
"This heavy-handed example of hubris shows what in this film damns the human race. Professor Hobby, like Victor Frankenstein before him, believes he can play God; so too do all of the humans who have contributed, consciously or not, to the global warming that in A.I. dooms life on the planet. In A.I. humans have squandered Eden and made a mockery of the stewardship which they have interpreted as God-given dominion and license."<br /> | "This heavy-handed example of hubris shows what in this film damns the human race. Professor Hobby, like Victor Frankenstein before him, believes he can play God; so too do all of the humans who have contributed, consciously or not, to the global warming that in A.I. dooms life on the planet. In A.I. humans have squandered Eden and made a mockery of the stewardship which they have interpreted as God-given dominion and license."<br /> | ||
"David's obsession with his unreality is the core of the film; the underground world of Rouge City is the place where technology and the Dionysian meet. Martin's cruelty, the Flesh Fair, and the Mecha body parts dumping so reminiscent of Nazi atrocities are evidence that "when manipulated by humans--adults or children--toys embody all the temptations and responsibilities of power." Finally and most importantly for Professor Hobby and A.I., "when toys come alive as beings created by humans (usually male), they replicate 'divine' creation and imply vital possibilities for human creativity while arousing concomitant anxiety about human competition with the divine. These creations also threaten human hegemony". Professor Hobby, despite his Geppetto-like vest, is what Kuznets calls the "bad toy maker." Imagine the scene in which David is provoked to violence when he returns to his maker's lab and is addressed by a perfect duplicate of himself as you read Kuznets' description: "the atmosphere that surrounds the bad toy maker can make the toy shop a fiercely threatening place to be". As soon as they are endowed with sentience and self-consciousness, both robots and toys become us, even when we choose to ignore this fact. To be a plaything is to be objectified; to be a self-conscious plaything is to be abused."<br /> | "David's obsession with his unreality is the core of the film; the underground world of Rouge City is the place where technology and the Dionysian meet. Martin's cruelty, the Flesh Fair, and the Mecha body parts dumping so reminiscent of Nazi atrocities are evidence that "when manipulated by humans--adults or children--toys embody all the temptations and responsibilities of power." Finally and most importantly for Professor Hobby and A.I., "when toys come alive as beings created by humans (usually male), they replicate 'divine' creation and imply vital possibilities for human creativity while arousing concomitant anxiety about human competition with the divine. These creations also threaten human hegemony". Professor Hobby, despite his Geppetto-like vest, is what Kuznets calls the "bad toy maker." Imagine the scene in which David is provoked to violence when he returns to his maker's lab and is addressed by a perfect duplicate of himself as you read Kuznets' description: "the atmosphere that surrounds the bad toy maker can make the toy shop a fiercely threatening place to be". As soon as they are endowed with sentience and self-consciousness, both robots and toys become us, even when we choose to ignore this fact. To be a plaything is to be objectified; to be a self-conscious plaything is to be abused."<br /> | ||
"Since it is very clear in the film that humans are directly responsible for doing themselves in and for taking every other species down with them, the robots' nostalgia for the human past does not make a whole lot of sense, especially since these mechanical beings seem capable of a depth of feeling that no human in the film ever shows. We are told that humans had "spirit," some ineffable quality or faculty that robots lack, yet the evolved Mechas form a post-human just community that compares favorably with Collodi's just community and that contrasts vividly with the out of control selfishness and irresponsibility of their human forebears....In this respect, A.I. is consistent with what Brian Aldiss said in a 1997 interview in Wired (quoted on "The Kubrick Site") was Kubrick's belief that androids would "'be an improvement over the human race'"."<br /> | "Since it is very clear in the film that humans are directly responsible for doing themselves in and for taking every other species down with them, the robots' nostalgia for the human past does not make a whole lot of sense, especially since these mechanical beings seem capable of a depth of feeling that no human in the film ever shows. We are told that humans had "spirit," some ineffable quality or faculty that robots lack, yet the evolved Mechas form a post-human just community that compares favorably with Collodi's just community and that contrasts vividly with the out of control selfishness and irresponsibility of their human forebears....In this respect, A.I. is consistent with what Brian Aldiss said in a 1997 interview in Wired (quoted on "The Kubrick Site") was Kubrick's belief that androids would "'be an improvement over the human race'"."<br /> | ||
"Collodi's Pinocchio is not a utopian novel, but by positing a world in which responsible boyhood and adulthood are possible, it distinguishes itself from works like A.I., in which maturation is purposely and systematically denied. Ironically, the production schedule for A.I. would have been more leisurely had it been filmed in a world where growing up is impossible. According to Dustin Putman, the film was shot in 20 weeks rather than a year because Haley Joel Osmet was maturing too fast for comfort."<br /> | "Collodi's Pinocchio is not a utopian novel, but by positing a world in which responsible boyhood and adulthood are possible, it distinguishes itself from works like A.I., in which maturation is purposely and systematically denied. Ironically, the production schedule for A.I. would have been more leisurely had it been filmed in a world where growing up is impossible. According to Dustin Putman, the film was shot in 20 weeks rather than a year because Haley Joel Osmet was maturing too fast for comfort."<br /> | ||
"A.I.'s disturbing and somewhat incongruous conclusion marks it as a dystopia of childhood, a world in which perpetual childhood leads to endless frustration."<br /> | "A.I.'s disturbing and somewhat incongruous conclusion marks it as a dystopia of childhood, a world in which perpetual childhood leads to endless frustration."<br /> | ||
"[P]aternalistic totalitarianism treats everyone as if they were children and treats children as chattel." | "[P]aternalistic totalitarianism treats everyone as if they were children and treats children as chattel." | ||
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