X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set to star Jackman and is be directed by Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition). The producers are Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter (who produced all three previous "X-Men" films), along with Jackman and his Seed Prods. producing partner, John Palermo. The film will be executive produced by Marvel Films' Kevin Feige. Leading up to the events of X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine – written by David Benioff (The Kite Runner, Troy) – tells the story of Wolverine's epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe. (1)
One of the things that I find really interesting about wolverine is that he is essentially human, however his bones are lined with adamantium, thus his human exteriors provides a mask for the metal beneath. I want to think of him as a loner who is fiercely loyal to his friends, but will just as soon claw your face off if you mess with him or those he's close to.
Co-creator Len Wein originally intended for Logan to be a mutated wolverine cub, evolved to humanoid form by the High Evolutionary. Cockrum said he considered having the High Evolutionary play a vital role in making Wolverine a human. He wanted Wolverine to be the age of a young adult, with superhuman strength and agility similar to Spider-Man. (2)
I think that the idea of having wolverine as an actual animal that has evolved into an anima/human hybrid is an interesting one- and isn’t so far away from reality seeing as humans have evolved from the apes.
Detroit - in the future - is crime ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphys body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of super villain Boddicker. (1)
What the main character “Murphy” essentially want to reclaim is his humanity. He has been unwillingly transformed into a machine for company profit. His objectives stems not simply from revenge, but from the desire to be Human again. His tragedy is that he will never be.
Robocop represents a dystopian society. The cyborg is an apt metaphor for the alienated and disenfranchised, denied human dignity, sexuality, or freedom in the face of programs and directives. Robocop does offer a glimmer of hope though. In the finale, Murphy has taken his helmet off and smiles. Having rediscovered his memories, he calls himself Murphy for the first time since becoming Robocop. He has finally reclaimed something of himself. (2)
A self-replicating machine is an artificial construct that is theoretically capable of autonomously manufacturing a copy of itself using raw materials taken from its environment. The concept of self-replicating machines has been advanced and examined by Homer Jacobsen, and in more recent times by K. Eric Drexler in his book on nanotechnology.(1)
When looking at the whole concept of nanotechnology, the idea of a Self-replicating machine, or organism appealed to me. The ideas that a machine creating another machine- is actually giving birth and therefore evolving is quite an interesting idea.
Samuel Butler proposed in his 1872 novel Erewhon that machines were already capable of reproducing themselves but it was man who made them do so, and added machines, which reproduce machinery do not reproduce machines after their own kind.(2)
Even though the ideas proposed by Samuel Butler dates back to 1872, his concepts still remains as strong and innovative today. A modern day example of a self-replicating machine in a science fiction movie would be the Matrix films whereby Agent Smith, (Hugo Weaving) duplicates himself to take on Neo, (Keanu Reeves).
Sources used within this post
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_machine (2) Erewhon By Samuel Butler
“Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometre. More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots.”(1)
Raymond Kurzweil spoke with BUSINESS WEEK Senior Writer Otis Port about nanotechnology, which may enable engineers to construct microscopic computers and robots, or nanobots, atom by atom. These machines could dramatically affect the future of human intelligence.
I found an article of Nanorobotics which is a form of artificial intelligence, in which the inventor Raymond Kurzweil did an interview. Ive highlighted some snippets that I found very interesting. For the full interview follow the link at the bottom of this post.
Q: Do you have any doubts that a superior intelligence will emerge in the next few decades?
A: No. It's inevitable. For example, nanotubes would allow computing at the molecular level. A one-inch cube of nanotube circuitry would be about a billion times more powerful than the human brain, in terms of computing capacity. That raw computing capacity is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve human-level intelligence in a machine.
Q: Won't we end up feeling like pets?
A: Those same nanobots that can scan the human brain will also provide a type of neural implant to extend human intelligence--expand your memory and improve your pattern-recognition capabilities. Ultimately, they will augment human intelligence quite profoundly as we go through the 21st century.
Q: If nanobots are controlling the brain, how will we know they're not fooling us with false signals?
A: Well, actually, another thing we could do would be virtual reality. If we had nanobots take up positions by every nerve fiber that comes from all of our five senses, they could either do nothing, in which case you'd perceive the world normally--or they could shut off the nerve impulses coming from our real senses and replace them with simulated impulses representing what you would perceive if you were in the virtual environment.
Q: Let's go back to machines that design new machines. Doesn't that mean they could evolve utterly different ways of thinking?
A: Sure. Once we have intelligent systems in a nonbiological medium, they're going to have their own ideas, their own agendas. They'll evolve off in completely unpredictable directions. Instead of being derived only from human civilization, new concepts will also be derived from their electronic civilization.
Q: There won't be a clear distinction between us and them?
A: No. But remember, this will be emerging gradually from within our own civilization. It's the next phase of our own evolution. It's only a threat if you believe things should always stay the same as they are today.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science, which aims to create it. Major AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents," where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions, which maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. (1)
Most applications for artificial intelligence have involved things like search engines: tasks of mind numbing complexity that require sound judgment. But lots of robot designers are attempting to create machines that mimic animals.
An example of this is the Sony Aibo robot dog. It can programmed to respond to a specific name. The camera within the dog enables him to see and can be wirelessly connected to a computer, allowing you to see the world through his perspective. The software can also be changed so that he becomes a puppy, complete with crying and demanding behaviour.
In exploring the concept of the computer becoming an extension of ourselves we can put forward the following statements by J Handke, who is the author of ‘The Structure of the Lexicon’ states that:
“Irrespective of the enormous differences between the human mind, and the presently available computers. Machines are not capable of parallel processing this means that while the human brain is able to establish up to 10,000 connections between each of its several billion processing units. While presently available networks at best realise a few hundred fully connecting units.” (2)
Handke states that there are enormous differences between human and machines and the way in which we communicate and interact cannot be equated in the same way. The computer isn’t a substitute for the human mind and it is not capable of human relationships.
He continues that unlike the human mind the computer is incapable of the kind of intellectual depth and breadth of the brain and is no substitute for human interaction, emotion or for human identity; as perceived and understood in its current complexity. It is not possible to replicate the extraordinary ingenuity and capacity of the mind into a cold electrical mechanism. And when one considers the other personal elements of the human mind, e.g. argument, expression, logic, morals, ethics and human identity. The concept of a computer having human identity becomes obsolete. (3)
I think that these are very interesting ideas that have been put forward. I can see both sides to the argument, on the one side how can a machine possibly process the elements of the human mind and all its complex aspects. But on the other hand with the development of technology there have been AI that have been created that can learn, and take onboard new information.
Sources used within this post
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence (2), (3) Handke, J, (1995), The Structure of the Lexicon: Human Versus Machine, Published by Walter de Gruyter.
A cyborg is a cybernetic organism (i.e., an organism that has both artificial and natural systems). The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. (1)
Sherry Turkle talks in-depth about the whole concept of man being fused with machine;
“The concepts of the computer as a calculating piece of machinery has now been superseded, as human being have become interconnected with modern day technology. This raises the question of whether or not people are living their lives through the computer. The distinction between people and machine is becoming more difficult to define.” (2)
This is an interesting idea as she talks about the line between what is organic, and what is machinery is beginning to blur. She uses Darwin and Freudian theory on dreams and relates it to computers. Dreams and Beast were the test objects for Freud and Darwin, and the test object for modernism. In the past decade the computer has become the object for post modernism.
“It confronts us with an uneasy sense of kingship. After all we too behave, interact and seem to know, and yet are ultimately made of matter and programmed DNA. We think we can think. But can it think? Could it have the capacity to feel? Could it ever be said to be alive?” (3)
An example of this, is that of the film I robot (2004), which is primarily an exploration of the concepts. It is set in Chicago in the year 2035, where humanoid robots are as common as cars. Will Smith plays a homicide detective who encounters a robot who thinks he can experience emotion, even love and is able to respond and interact with people and the external environment in a humanlike way. (4)
I feel that it is important to point out that the term “cyborgs” shouldn’t be associated with mass murdering killer robots. It also has strong applications within modern medicine, which demonstrates a variety of pairings between organism and machines. An example in real life would be metal or plastic joint replacements e.g. hips and pacemakers used in cardiac operations.
The ideas that have been explored raises questions about the possibility of this happening in the future and whether computerised machines have the capacity to operate, interact and feel? Can they ever be human?
Sources used within this post
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg (2), (3) Turkle, S, (1997), Life on the screen, Simon & Schuster. (4) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343818/plotsummary
The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic 2029, when Los Angeles has been largely reduced to rubble and is under the thumb of all-powerful ruling machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a member of the human resistance movement, is teleported back to 1984. His purpose: to rescue Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will lead the 21st-century rebels against the tyrannical machines, from being assassinated before she can give birth. Likewise thrust back to 1984 is The Terminator (Schwarzenegger), a grim, well-armed, virtually indestructible cyborg who has been programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor. After killing two "Sarah Connors" who turn out to be the wrong women, he finally aims his sights at the genuine article. (1)
I found the whole concept of the cyborg very interesting- the fusion between man and machine whereby you can literally strip away his skin to reveal electronics is an interesting idea, and relates to the original quote of Marshall McLuhan.
One of the things that I find really interesting about wolverine is that he is essentially human, however his bones are lined with adamantium, thus his human exteriors provides a mask for the metal beneath. I want to think of him as a loner who is fiercely loyal to his friends, but will just as soon claw your face off if you mess with him or those he's close to.
