Bicentennial Man

Back in 1999 I watched a movie called Bicentennial Man. I remember enjoying it quite a bit, but I was also surprised to find out it was based on a novel by Isaac Asimov called The Positronic Man.

Before this movie, I'd read some of Isaac Asimov's short stories. I still retain a good memory of them, they were fun to read and there were so many, but at the time I was big on Star Trek, so my whole Sci:Fi world was dominated by that singular continuing story.

Well, by the time 1999 came around I'd grown up a bit. I turned 18, got ready to head out into the working world (For about half a year), endured the buildup to Star Wars Episode I and the ensuing disappointment, and had been ready to expand my horizons. So I looked it up and found it was part of the "Robots" series of books by Isaac Asimov.

I had previously read the entire "Foundation" series of books, while my friend Greg read the "Robots" series, but I never dedicated the time to reading it. But this movie surprised the hell out of me, in a good way.

I mention it now because I rented it via Netflix and watched it for the first time with Nikki. She loved it, and I remembered how much this movie really moved me, now and back then. It also reminded me of a Re:sound episode I listened to via podcast just a few weeks ago, Resound #44: The Fake Docs Show.

I believe the second story in starts talking about the near future, where robots begin to replace parents in Australia as caretakers due to a negative backlash against parents and parenting's negative affects on business and productivity. "Robbies" were beginning to raise children. The whole story was very freaky, it sounded just professional enough to be believable (which was the point of the whole Re:sound episode) and just scary enough to really set off my internal shudder mechanisms.

Listen to this Re:sound podcast, then watch Bicentennial Man. There are quite a few parallel questions regarding the role of robots and technology in today's society. Will we all end up like this?

Reality 1440x900 by ~pyxelated on deviantART

Anyway, the whole point was to relay that I was blown away (again) by Bicentennial Man, and that it's aged well and is still apropos to today, and our near future.

That is all. :)