Blog #3 I, Robot

I, Robot was released on July 16, 2004, and was directed by Alex Proyas. This film stars Will smith, who is playing a "Technophobic" Chicago police detective named Del Spooner. I, Robot is set/takes place in Chicago during the year 2035. Attempting to help the world, a company called U.S Robotics, created a robot called the NS-5. Along with the creation of robots came three distinct laws. First, A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to be harmed. Second, a robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Spooner has to investigate the murder of Dr. Alfred Lanning, who worked for this robotic company. Throughout the movie Spooner believes that a robot has committed the crime, and attempts to prove that the robots are not as good as everyone portrays them to be.

The main idea portrayed in this film is, what if robots were an everyday thing to us, and eventually became smarter than the human race? The robots in the film were used to achieve daily tasks; helping human’s clean, cook, or even run inhalers to them when forgotten at home. The idea of the robots having emotions and dreams seems crazy to even consider. In the film, Dr. Lanning created Sonny, a NS-5 with the capability to go against the three laws of robotics. Sonny said he was able to dream, think, and have emotions. Spooner thought all along,that sonny was the bad robot. In the end of the film Sonny was not the bad robot. It was Vicki, a robot which became too smart and took control of all other NS-5 robots. Most technology can outsmart a human. We may think we know which technology looks dangerous, but sometimes it maybe the old out dated ones that we don’t even consider or the ones we use daily. Most humans use smart phones now, while using text messaging on a phone we often misspell words, and it corrects our misspellings. Most smart phones even have voice activation and can respond to our questions. Even today there are robots that perform major surgeries on humans. These different types of technology may seem safe now, but what happens when a real Dr. Lanning makes a phone that can dream, or one of the surgical performing robots messes up a procedure. The technology today is advancing so much, that one day they might be smarter than their own creators and the human race.  

In addition, the main character Del Spooner seems to be a normal man, although he has a hidden secret. Spooner was in an accident and in order to live, he would have to get his body reconstructed which meant half of his body would be made from prosthetics and mechanical parts. Spooner went through the procedure, and still acts predigest towards the robots, although he himself is part “robot”. Spooner treats the robots differently throughout the film; he doesn’t trust them and thinks that they are all bad. In today’s society people with prosthetic limbs are treated, for the most part, different than people

without prosthetic limbs. They are unable to participate in the Olympics; they have the “special” Olympics. Some think that it gives them an unfair advantage or they are afraid they would be hurt during the events. They are all human; all the same, just some may appear differently. This does not mean that they have an advantage or a disadvantage, so why treat them any differently.

        I, Robot may be set in the future but presents many topics that are happening in today’s society. This film is easy to watch and easy to get sucked into. Will smith is able to use his sense of humor to make the viewers want to watch the whole film. It may seem farfetched, that one day robots may out smart us, but in all reality it could be a possibility.