This blog serves as a public forum for you to post your reactions to a broad range of texts--from Shakespeare's really uncomfortable early play Titus Andronicus to Alan Ginsberg's "obscene" poem "Howl" to the latest album from Kendrick Lamar. The conversation revolves around notions of cultural influence and how popular "products" get us to react to them and to the things they endorse.
R.U.R. is really weird for me, at least the first act was. I don’t know how I feel about the robots being made so similar to an actual human being. That creeps me out and I don’t like it. The play is different from most people’s thoughts about robots. When I think about a robot I think of it being made of metals with bolts and nuts and moving in a robotic and machine kind of way. The play actually describes the robots to look like an actual person and feel like an actual person. They have digestive tracts and a series of nerves and stuff just like a human. They also have a brain that is capable of many things such as remembering everything that's ever said to them. I would never picture a robot to be so similar to a human. The only things that stayed consistent with my “normal” robot is the fact that they have no soul, feelings, emotions, or pain. Helena is trying to fight for these robots for their rights. But there are no feelings to fight for. Because these robots seem just like humans anatomically, the League of Humanity is trying to liberate them. It’s just really weird that anyone would want robots walking around like humans to the point to where you can’t distinguish the two apart. Helena talks about infusing a soul into them but the way I look at it is, well you are extremely outnumbered by these things and if they were to have a mind and thoughts then wouldn’t they switch the roles around and make them be the slaves for the robots? This scares me because like Helena mentioned, the robots are replacing a lot of human workers. I feel like our society is not too far off of this thought or idea. Our robots aren’t necessarily as developed as these ones, but we have a decent amount of machines that do most of the work in factories instead of the men. Our society is doing this same thing to a certain extent. All of our new technology is replacing jobs for humans.
Despite being really weird and somewhat out there, I really found myself to enjoy R.U.R. I agree a lot with what Courtney has stated previously, regarding the personality/specifications of the robots in this play. It is strange, because the whole “man v. machine” debate going on today has us concerned about conglomerations of nuts and bolts taking our jobs—but I would be much more worried if our robots today were like the ones that Rossum created. The thing that really creeps me out is in Act I, when Domain is explaining the robots to Helena. He states that Rossum wanted to be a scientific substitute for God, and that working machines must not be happy or to fiddle. The entire concept of this play I feel is really relevant right now because of what I said earlier, the man v. machine debate. In Act II, the creepiness continues, as five years later the robots have seized power and for lack of better terms are striving to take over the world. It I mentioned that birth rates have halted, and essentially, no more living beings are being born. I believe it is also mentioned that the robots have control of industry and of most firearms, leaving the humans totally powerless in that situation. That thought in particular scares me. The thought of a machine becoming so advanced that it can take the place of a human mind or a human’s general presence in the world is frightening. As technology keeps getting more powerful, it is also getting smaller, allowing for greater changes in the world—specifically involving industry. In the early 1900s, I could see R.U.R. being classified as a science fiction play. As of now, in 2014, it seems like a world like this could not be too far off into the future.
This story isn’t one that I figured for a typical “robots taking over the world” story. The first thing that stuck out in my mind was in act 1 when Domain went on a rant that the robots will to everything for humans and therefore there will be no employment, yet no unemployment at the same time. In today’s world there is already a huge push for more jobs because unemployment rates are rising. However, this author already found a solution to that problem in his story of robots creating such a surplus of goods that there would be no need to work in order to buy anything. Domain seems to think that this way man can live for himself, or “perfect himself.” Robots would become the world’s slave and humans would essentially become lazy people that have nothing to do but preside over machines. Like any invention there will be people who are against the way the world is going, like Helena Glory. She supposedly works for a humanitarian effort on behalf of the robots. I found this ironic because even though the robots looked like humans, they did not act like them in the sense of our emotions and souls. What doesn’t make sense to me is why would someone care about a robots “human rights” if the robots themselves do not care about them in the first place?
R.U.R. was definitely strange, but actually very interesting and fun to read. I’m not sure if I found this play so interesting because of the story itself or because it seems as if our world, with all sorts of technology replacing men, is somehow going to end up like this one day. The beginning of the play was slow, with Helena just discovering what the robots are, how they are so human like, and the fact that they frighten her due to this. On page 9 in act one, while Domain is telling Helena about how Old Rossum first began making the beginning of the robot, he mentions that Rossum wasn’t attempting to make robots, he was trying to make people. Helena responds to this by saying “but you do make people.” That line really stuck out to me because throughout the rest of the play Helena is constantly trying to make the robot more like a person, even though she is criticizing him for it then. In the end it is due to Helena’s need to make the robots more like a human that drove the whole revolution. She just wanted to make the robots more like a man so they wouldn’t hate humans, but I feel Domain was accurate when responding “Nobody hates man more than man.” With Helena and Dr. Galls help the robots gained a sense of pain and emotion that lead them to feel anger and resentment toward their human masters, and they desired to be the masters of the humans. This whole “revolt of robots” is a newly popular subject as our technology becomes more and more advanced. Although in most revolt stories, the robots are just machines, this play makes the robot revolt way more terrifying using human like robots all with similar faces.
I thought R.U.R. was very interesting, mainly because I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live amongst robots. They would do a lot of the work, which would help the economy but would also take many jobs, which would hurt it. I also would think it’d ended up like in the movies where they try to take over the world. It’s so odd how closely similar they are to humans externally and mentally, but not internally. They are made with the simplest parts so they are cheaper and easier to use. That would be a definite positive if we had that kind of technology today! But I see where Helena gets the idea that she has to defend the robots. Since they are living things, shouldn’t they have equal rights? I believe it could go either way. They are only machines so what rights are there to protect, but at the same time, they are created to be humans so shouldn’t they be treated like it? It’s a very interesting debate that I’d like to get in on. I also found the beginning a little creepy when Domain tells Helena the story about Old Rossum. It’s scary to think that he wanted to be similar to God in which he would be the creator of all robots. It sounded like he wanted some sort of Armageddon, getting rid of all the humans so he could rule the world with his robot slaves? Sounds really messed up if you ask me. It’s so weird to think about too. No more humans and we have a planet of robots, that’s scary.
The first couple acts of Universal Robots by Karel Capek was intriguing and like always very odd. It was creepy that the robots were so life like and it’s scary to think that there could be technology that could create robots to resemble humans so much. It seems like this could easily turn in to a modern day horror film. Encountering such a robot in a modern day world would be scary once people realized that it was a robot and not a real person. So far this kind of reminds me of the movie I Robot. In the movie, they slowly try to incorporate robots into society and the robots do a lot of the jobs that humans used to do. Rossum wanted to try to fix society and make it so there would be no unemployment and people would not have to work to support themselves. The robots would do all the work and the humans would reap the benefits. The whole plan ended up backfiring in that in the second act, the robots had more or less taken over. They were trying to gain complete power but there were still humans resisting their power and trying to take back what was originally theirs. Not only did the robots have most of the power in society but they also had control of many industries and most of the weapons that could harm them. This is an interesting story so far.
Rossum’s Universal Robots reminded me a lot of the controversy about man vs. robot in this era. Domain spoke about how robots will take over the employment field and it will no longer be necessary for humans to work. I found this to be similar to events going on today because there is a lot of controversy about whether or not machinery should be so prominent in factories. Ultimately, increasing the workload for machinery will decrease the number of jobs available, which will lead to a substantial amount of unemployment. He stated that increasing the amount of robots would have positive affects on the price of living. Eventually people would no longer have to pay for items because there would be an abundance of goods. It seemed to me that Harry was only focused on greed and selling more robots and not the adverse effects of it. Even after the robots had begun revolting he was still adamant about expanding his factory and creating factories around the world to create national robots. It was ironic that the robots had started a revolution against the humans stating that they were better in all aspects compared to humans. I found it ironic because in the beginning Henry was very confident when telling Helena that the robots had no emotions or souls and there reason for existence was to work. I am interested to see how this story ends. I am wondering if in the end robots and humans come to an agreement to be equals.
Universal Robots by Karel Capek really freaked me out I don’t like picturing robots that are so life like, it frightens me. Kind of like how Jurassic Park scared me as a kid the dinosaurs were so life like watching it made me feel like the stuff happening in the movie could really happen to me. In the play I felt like the more lifelike the robots were the more likely they could “take over the world”. If the robots were just nuts and bolts mean would be more likely to destroy the robots but with human like characteristics I feel like the robots would more likely be able to manipulate people. Man would also be less likely to destroy something that resembled himself. I agree with Courtney and how she says when she pictures robot she pictures them as metal like figures that move in those choppy was. But in this play the robots even felt human like. I think there defiantly a line between where were comfortable with robots and when they take it too far. This play took it too far. Reading this I pictured it as Karel Capek kind of throwing technology in our face and showing what will happen if we keep taking technology to the extreme. Maybe even predicting our own created downfall.
I found this play to be very interesting just like everyone else thought. My question is, are the speakers robots? When I read it, is made me think that they were talking like Seri (from the iPhone), in the way that it is very proper. Also, the poem reflects the growing technology that is happening around us. In Act 1, Domain tells about a Russian physiologist with the discoveries and growing technologies that came from there. I believe that we are progressing very fast in society with technology that jobs are getting replaced, and machine is doing all the work. It is no longer an industrial society that things are hand-made or people working the machines in the factories, but made from technologies that we created that only made us digress to laziness or no longer having a job. It is hard to pick whether technology is all good with some bad or vice versa. When Domain tells Helena about how Old Rossum first began making the robot, he mentions that he was not attempting to make robots, he was trying to make people. Helena responds to this by saying “but you do make people.” She wants to make robots more like humans so that robots do not need to hate humans. This reminds me of Planet of the Apes, where the actions that happened in the past that the humans treated something bad, and later back fired on them. This is being shown in the play, how the progressive amount of technology is being backfired onto the humans who created it.
The first word that comes to mind when I think about this story is "disturbing". Usually I don't have a problem with robots, because when you typically think about robots an image of wires and cogs comes to mind. This more electronic or mechanic picture isn't disconcerting because it isn't something that we, as humans, relate to very well. The problem with RUR is that the robots are depicted as being so organic. They are nearly indistinguishable from humans, to the point where some of the characters think that humans are robots and robots are humans. This is just unsettling. I got a sick feeling in my stomach when Domain was describing the process of how they're made- how livers, kidneys, and intestinal tracts are produced in bulk, how they just throw away defective ones like its nothing. I think that what disturbed me most, though, is what wasn't said. It was more like a thought I had that I didn't really want to have that kept popping up. The sad truth is that something like this could actually happen. If scientists happened to discover some organic material someday that they could transform into a humanoid, they most certainly would. Already there are robots being developed that can do remarkable things, things that once seemed impossible. The desire to progress with science is like Pandora's box- thirst for knowledge will almost always win over conscience, no matter the implications.
Acts 3 and 4: when reading the second part, I noted a couple of interesting sections. On page 74 (or page 124 that was written down), shows when Domain gets very irritated and says that he wanted to make man become the master and should not work for so little. “…for my own satisfaction. I wanted man to become the master. So that he shouldn’t merely live for a crust of bread.” It seems as if Domain wanted to make the lives of the humans easier and have the robots do everything so that no one else would have to. He goes on to say that he does not like poverty and wanted a new generation where there is none of that and everything is equal. I do not really like that idea because there will always be poverty in the world. I feel like we have to have poverished people in society in order to keep our social classes. This whole section focused on the idea of how Domain wanted man to be “unrestricted, free, and perfect” by not having to work and have the robots do it. In another section on page 76-77 (page 125 written), this is about when Dr. Gall came to confess that he changed the configuration of the robots so that they became stronger and superior to the human race. I believe that the world has gone so dependent of always advancing technology that sooner or later, the technology is going to dominate us and we will become inferior. Technology is very power and can go wrong as some point, just like in the story where Gall said that the robots hate humans.
I think “Rossum’s Universal Robots” says a lot about human nature. This play makes humans look really bad and it is debatable the entire play if the humans are the victims or the villains. During one part of the play, it says that humans hate humans. If humans were stones, then we would stone each other to death. This is a bold statement to make and it seems quite pessimistic. It is bold because it not only assumes that humans are inherently bad but also that all humans are this way. When the robots are standing together to revolt against and kill the humans, they state that war is necessary to be like humans. They say war and murder is in every history book. I also think it is interesting that when Alquist starts to give the robots feelings, he gives them feelings of irritability. Also, in the beginning of the play, the only sign of virtual emotion the robots show is anger manifested by gnashing their teeth. Why would robots only have negative emotions and why did Alquist decide to give them a negative emotion? Why not happiness instead of irritability? In trying the make the robots more human-like the first resort is to make them unhappy which says something about what the author of this play perceives as human nature. Also, Domain the main character is a selfish. He builds this huge, enormous business for the sole purpose of benefiting himself. He doesn’t care about what might happen to the world even in the end of the play when things become more serious. He only cares about himself all the time. I feel as though normal people would not just let this robot revolution happen in the world and dismiss it as an experiment that was personally interesting. Basically, this play shows that humans are naturally unhappy and selfish.
The final part of this play was disturbing just like the first couple acts. I can see writing a story about humans controlling something to do work for them or just something for humans to control. It is human nature to want to control something and use it for personal gain. What isn’t normal is building an army of robots to work for people and to serve them. Humans wouldn’t have to do any work. It seems to me that Karel Capek is crazy. In that time period who would think to write a story about robots that were made to serve people that end up revolting and taking control from the humans. The robots in the story are a lot different than the robots that we think about nowadays. The robots in the play are a lot scarier because they look like humans, and then Alquist gives the robots another emotion which influences the actions of the robots. Beings that have emotion sometimes can act on those emotions and during the time of the reaction, don’t think about what they are doing. This play shows that humans are flawed and one day those flaws may be the doom of the human race. Humans always want more and they want anything to make life easier. This though shows that humans are selfish and if we keep trying to improve technology that will do work for us, this may actually happen. Many humans know where the limit for being selfish is but there a few that don’t. I still have faith in humanity and if something like this were even thought of, there would be a lot of people to rise up against the idea and the person trying to carry it out. The play really makes me think that humans are naturally selfish.
Honestly this story was very interesting and kind of freaky at the same time which made it such a good story. When I picture a robot I think of the robots from the movie I-Robot but to make them look like humans, and actually manufacturing human body parts and organs and everything is just so messed up that its crazy. Domain is clearly wacked in the head, I talks about the different factory’s that make the human parts such as a spinning factory for human veins and arteries. A spinning factory! That’s like mid-evil sounding technology, I mean spinning veins like spinning thread?! That’s just messed up sounding! These robots are not even human even thou they look like them, even animals know that, they fear them and act strange around them because they even know its messed up. Domain makes it seem like he is trying to benefit everybody with his robots but in reality his mainly doing this for himself and his fellow co-workers. He’s more selfish then helpful for the human race. That’s clearly showed when the robots start to upraise against them and start to unload fire arms and basically turn against there creators and the humans.
This has been my favorite story that we have read. R.U.R. reminded me of the movie I-Robot. I thought this story showed the authors negative view on technology and the laziness of the human race. I disagree with many and although Domain acts seem selfish i believe he truly wanted to better the human race. The problems of this story only started when the robots were given emotions. I can’t help but wonder how different this story would have been if the robots were never given emotions. This could have possibly resulted in Domain taking on a more heroic title rather than the villain. I don’t agree that the point of human existence is to work. With the robots taking over the work of the world people would have more time to dwell in the pursuit of love, friendship and other things.
R.U.R. is really weird for me, at least the first act was. I don’t know how I feel about the robots being made so similar to an actual human being. That creeps me out and I don’t like it. The play is different from most people’s thoughts about robots. When I think about a robot I think of it being made of metals with bolts and nuts and moving in a robotic and machine kind of way. The play actually describes the robots to look like an actual person and feel like an actual person. They have digestive tracts and a series of nerves and stuff just like a human. They also have a brain that is capable of many things such as remembering everything that's ever said to them. I would never picture a robot to be so similar to a human. The only things that stayed consistent with my “normal” robot is the fact that they have no soul, feelings, emotions, or pain. Helena is trying to fight for these robots for their rights. But there are no feelings to fight for. Because these robots seem just like humans anatomically, the League of Humanity is trying to liberate them. It’s just really weird that anyone would want robots walking around like humans to the point to where you can’t distinguish the two apart. Helena talks about infusing a soul into them but the way I look at it is, well you are extremely outnumbered by these things and if they were to have a mind and thoughts then wouldn’t they switch the roles around and make them be the slaves for the robots? This scares me because like Helena mentioned, the robots are replacing a lot of human workers. I feel like our society is not too far off of this thought or idea. Our robots aren’t necessarily as developed as these ones, but we have a decent amount of machines that do most of the work in factories instead of the men. Our society is doing this same thing to a certain extent. All of our new technology is replacing jobs for humans.
ReplyDeleteDespite being really weird and somewhat out there, I really found myself to enjoy R.U.R. I agree a lot with what Courtney has stated previously, regarding the personality/specifications of the robots in this play. It is strange, because the whole “man v. machine” debate going on today has us concerned about conglomerations of nuts and bolts taking our jobs—but I would be much more worried if our robots today were like the ones that Rossum created. The thing that really creeps me out is in Act I, when Domain is explaining the robots to Helena. He states that Rossum wanted to be a scientific substitute for God, and that working machines must not be happy or to fiddle. The entire concept of this play I feel is really relevant right now because of what I said earlier, the man v. machine debate. In Act II, the creepiness continues, as five years later the robots have seized power and for lack of better terms are striving to take over the world. It I mentioned that birth rates have halted, and essentially, no more living beings are being born. I believe it is also mentioned that the robots have control of industry and of most firearms, leaving the humans totally powerless in that situation. That thought in particular scares me. The thought of a machine becoming so advanced that it can take the place of a human mind or a human’s general presence in the world is frightening. As technology keeps getting more powerful, it is also getting smaller, allowing for greater changes in the world—specifically involving industry. In the early 1900s, I could see R.U.R. being classified as a science fiction play. As of now, in 2014, it seems like a world like this could not be too far off into the future.
DeleteThis story isn’t one that I figured for a typical “robots taking over the world” story. The first thing that stuck out in my mind was in act 1 when Domain went on a rant that the robots will to everything for humans and therefore there will be no employment, yet no unemployment at the same time. In today’s world there is already a huge push for more jobs because unemployment rates are rising. However, this author already found a solution to that problem in his story of robots creating such a surplus of goods that there would be no need to work in order to buy anything. Domain seems to think that this way man can live for himself, or “perfect himself.” Robots would become the world’s slave and humans would essentially become lazy people that have nothing to do but preside over machines. Like any invention there will be people who are against the way the world is going, like Helena Glory. She supposedly works for a humanitarian effort on behalf of the robots. I found this ironic because even though the robots looked like humans, they did not act like them in the sense of our emotions and souls. What doesn’t make sense to me is why would someone care about a robots “human rights” if the robots themselves do not care about them in the first place?
ReplyDeleteR.U.R. was definitely strange, but actually very interesting and fun to read. I’m not sure if I found this play so interesting because of the story itself or because it seems as if our world, with all sorts of technology replacing men, is somehow going to end up like this one day. The beginning of the play was slow, with Helena just discovering what the robots are, how they are so human like, and the fact that they frighten her due to this. On page 9 in act one, while Domain is telling Helena about how Old Rossum first began making the beginning of the robot, he mentions that Rossum wasn’t attempting to make robots, he was trying to make people. Helena responds to this by saying “but you do make people.” That line really stuck out to me because throughout the rest of the play Helena is constantly trying to make the robot more like a person, even though she is criticizing him for it then. In the end it is due to Helena’s need to make the robots more like a human that drove the whole revolution. She just wanted to make the robots more like a man so they wouldn’t hate humans, but I feel Domain was accurate when responding “Nobody hates man more than man.” With Helena and Dr. Galls help the robots gained a sense of pain and emotion that lead them to feel anger and resentment toward their human masters, and they desired to be the masters of the humans. This whole “revolt of robots” is a newly popular subject as our technology becomes more and more advanced. Although in most revolt stories, the robots are just machines, this play makes the robot revolt way more terrifying using human like robots all with similar faces.
ReplyDeleteI thought R.U.R. was very interesting, mainly because I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live amongst robots. They would do a lot of the work, which would help the economy but would also take many jobs, which would hurt it. I also would think it’d ended up like in the movies where they try to take over the world. It’s so odd how closely similar they are to humans externally and mentally, but not internally. They are made with the simplest parts so they are cheaper and easier to use. That would be a definite positive if we had that kind of technology today! But I see where Helena gets the idea that she has to defend the robots. Since they are living things, shouldn’t they have equal rights? I believe it could go either way. They are only machines so what rights are there to protect, but at the same time, they are created to be humans so shouldn’t they be treated like it? It’s a very interesting debate that I’d like to get in on. I also found the beginning a little creepy when Domain tells Helena the story about Old Rossum. It’s scary to think that he wanted to be similar to God in which he would be the creator of all robots. It sounded like he wanted some sort of Armageddon, getting rid of all the humans so he could rule the world with his robot slaves? Sounds really messed up if you ask me. It’s so weird to think about too. No more humans and we have a planet of robots, that’s scary.
ReplyDeleteThe first couple acts of Universal Robots by Karel Capek was intriguing and like always very odd. It was creepy that the robots were so life like and it’s scary to think that there could be technology that could create robots to resemble humans so much. It seems like this could easily turn in to a modern day horror film. Encountering such a robot in a modern day world would be scary once people realized that it was a robot and not a real person. So far this kind of reminds me of the movie I Robot. In the movie, they slowly try to incorporate robots into society and the robots do a lot of the jobs that humans used to do. Rossum wanted to try to fix society and make it so there would be no unemployment and people would not have to work to support themselves. The robots would do all the work and the humans would reap the benefits. The whole plan ended up backfiring in that in the second act, the robots had more or less taken over. They were trying to gain complete power but there were still humans resisting their power and trying to take back what was originally theirs. Not only did the robots have most of the power in society but they also had control of many industries and most of the weapons that could harm them. This is an interesting story so far.
ReplyDeleteRossum’s Universal Robots reminded me a lot of the controversy about man vs. robot in this era. Domain spoke about how robots will take over the employment field and it will no longer be necessary for humans to work. I found this to be similar to events going on today because there is a lot of controversy about whether or not machinery should be so prominent in factories. Ultimately, increasing the workload for machinery will decrease the number of jobs available, which will lead to a substantial amount of unemployment. He stated that increasing the amount of robots would have positive affects on the price of living. Eventually people would no longer have to pay for items because there would be an abundance of goods. It seemed to me that Harry was only focused on greed and selling more robots and not the adverse effects of it. Even after the robots had begun revolting he was still adamant about expanding his factory and creating factories around the world to create national robots. It was ironic that the robots had started a revolution against the humans stating that they were better in all aspects compared to humans. I found it ironic because in the beginning Henry was very confident when telling Helena that the robots had no emotions or souls and there reason for existence was to work. I am interested to see how this story ends. I am wondering if in the end robots and humans come to an agreement to be equals.
ReplyDeleteUniversal Robots by Karel Capek really freaked me out I don’t like picturing robots that are so life like, it frightens me. Kind of like how Jurassic Park scared me as a kid the dinosaurs were so life like watching it made me feel like the stuff happening in the movie could really happen to me. In the play I felt like the more lifelike the robots were the more likely they could “take over the world”. If the robots were just nuts and bolts mean would be more likely to destroy the robots but with human like characteristics I feel like the robots would more likely be able to manipulate people. Man would also be less likely to destroy something that resembled himself. I agree with Courtney and how she says when she pictures robot she pictures them as metal like figures that move in those choppy was. But in this play the robots even felt human like. I think there defiantly a line between where were comfortable with robots and when they take it too far. This play took it too far. Reading this I pictured it as Karel Capek kind of throwing technology in our face and showing what will happen if we keep taking technology to the extreme. Maybe even predicting our own created downfall.
ReplyDeleteI found this play to be very interesting just like everyone else thought. My question is, are the speakers robots? When I read it, is made me think that they were talking like Seri (from the iPhone), in the way that it is very proper. Also, the poem reflects the growing technology that is happening around us. In Act 1, Domain tells about a Russian physiologist with the discoveries and growing technologies that came from there. I believe that we are progressing very fast in society with technology that jobs are getting replaced, and machine is doing all the work. It is no longer an industrial society that things are hand-made or people working the machines in the factories, but made from technologies that we created that only made us digress to laziness or no longer having a job. It is hard to pick whether technology is all good with some bad or vice versa. When Domain tells Helena about how Old Rossum first began making the robot, he mentions that he was not attempting to make robots, he was trying to make people. Helena responds to this by saying “but you do make people.” She wants to make robots more like humans so that robots do not need to hate humans. This reminds me of Planet of the Apes, where the actions that happened in the past that the humans treated something bad, and later back fired on them. This is being shown in the play, how the progressive amount of technology is being backfired onto the humans who created it.
ReplyDeleteThe first word that comes to mind when I think about this story is "disturbing". Usually I don't have a problem with robots, because when you typically think about robots an image of wires and cogs comes to mind. This more electronic or mechanic picture isn't disconcerting because it isn't something that we, as humans, relate to very well. The problem with RUR is that the robots are depicted as being so organic. They are nearly indistinguishable from humans, to the point where some of the characters think that humans are robots and robots are humans. This is just unsettling. I got a sick feeling in my stomach when Domain was describing the process of how they're made- how livers, kidneys, and intestinal tracts are produced in bulk, how they just throw away defective ones like its nothing. I think that what disturbed me most, though, is what wasn't said. It was more like a thought I had that I didn't really want to have that kept popping up. The sad truth is that something like this could actually happen. If scientists happened to discover some organic material someday that they could transform into a humanoid, they most certainly would. Already there are robots being developed that can do remarkable things, things that once seemed impossible. The desire to progress with science is like Pandora's box- thirst for knowledge will almost always win over conscience, no matter the implications.
ReplyDeleteActs 3 and 4: when reading the second part, I noted a couple of interesting sections. On page 74 (or page 124 that was written down), shows when Domain gets very irritated and says that he wanted to make man become the master and should not work for so little. “…for my own satisfaction. I wanted man to become the master. So that he shouldn’t merely live for a crust of bread.” It seems as if Domain wanted to make the lives of the humans easier and have the robots do everything so that no one else would have to. He goes on to say that he does not like poverty and wanted a new generation where there is none of that and everything is equal. I do not really like that idea because there will always be poverty in the world. I feel like we have to have poverished people in society in order to keep our social classes. This whole section focused on the idea of how Domain wanted man to be “unrestricted, free, and perfect” by not having to work and have the robots do it. In another section on page 76-77 (page 125 written), this is about when Dr. Gall came to confess that he changed the configuration of the robots so that they became stronger and superior to the human race. I believe that the world has gone so dependent of always advancing technology that sooner or later, the technology is going to dominate us and we will become inferior. Technology is very power and can go wrong as some point, just like in the story where Gall said that the robots hate humans.
ReplyDeleteI think “Rossum’s Universal Robots” says a lot about human nature. This play makes humans look really bad and it is debatable the entire play if the humans are the victims or the villains. During one part of the play, it says that humans hate humans. If humans were stones, then we would stone each other to death. This is a bold statement to make and it seems quite pessimistic. It is bold because it not only assumes that humans are inherently bad but also that all humans are this way. When the robots are standing together to revolt against and kill the humans, they state that war is necessary to be like humans. They say war and murder is in every history book. I also think it is interesting that when Alquist starts to give the robots feelings, he gives them feelings of irritability. Also, in the beginning of the play, the only sign of virtual emotion the robots show is anger manifested by gnashing their teeth. Why would robots only have negative emotions and why did Alquist decide to give them a negative emotion? Why not happiness instead of irritability? In trying the make the robots more human-like the first resort is to make them unhappy which says something about what the author of this play perceives as human nature. Also, Domain the main character is a selfish. He builds this huge, enormous business for the sole purpose of benefiting himself. He doesn’t care about what might happen to the world even in the end of the play when things become more serious. He only cares about himself all the time. I feel as though normal people would not just let this robot revolution happen in the world and dismiss it as an experiment that was personally interesting. Basically, this play shows that humans are naturally unhappy and selfish.
ReplyDeleteThe final part of this play was disturbing just like the first couple acts. I can see writing a story about humans controlling something to do work for them or just something for humans to control. It is human nature to want to control something and use it for personal gain. What isn’t normal is building an army of robots to work for people and to serve them. Humans wouldn’t have to do any work. It seems to me that Karel Capek is crazy. In that time period who would think to write a story about robots that were made to serve people that end up revolting and taking control from the humans. The robots in the story are a lot different than the robots that we think about nowadays. The robots in the play are a lot scarier because they look like humans, and then Alquist gives the robots another emotion which influences the actions of the robots. Beings that have emotion sometimes can act on those emotions and during the time of the reaction, don’t think about what they are doing. This play shows that humans are flawed and one day those flaws may be the doom of the human race. Humans always want more and they want anything to make life easier. This though shows that humans are selfish and if we keep trying to improve technology that will do work for us, this may actually happen. Many humans know where the limit for being selfish is but there a few that don’t. I still have faith in humanity and if something like this were even thought of, there would be a lot of people to rise up against the idea and the person trying to carry it out. The play really makes me think that humans are naturally selfish.
ReplyDeleteHonestly this story was very interesting and kind of freaky at the same time which made it such a good story. When I picture a robot I think of the robots from the movie I-Robot but to make them look like humans, and actually manufacturing human body parts and organs and everything is just so messed up that its crazy. Domain is clearly wacked in the head, I talks about the different factory’s that make the human parts such as a spinning factory for human veins and arteries. A spinning factory! That’s like mid-evil sounding technology, I mean spinning veins like spinning thread?! That’s just messed up sounding! These robots are not even human even thou they look like them, even animals know that, they fear them and act strange around them because they even know its messed up. Domain makes it seem like he is trying to benefit everybody with his robots but in reality his mainly doing this for himself and his fellow co-workers. He’s more selfish then helpful for the human race. That’s clearly showed when the robots start to upraise against them and start to unload fire arms and basically turn against there creators and the humans.
ReplyDeleteThis has been my favorite story that we have read. R.U.R. reminded me of the movie I-Robot. I thought this story showed the authors negative view on technology and the laziness of the human race. I disagree with many and although Domain acts seem selfish i believe he truly wanted to better the human race. The problems of this story only started when the robots were given emotions. I can’t help but wonder how different this story would have been if the robots were never given emotions. This could have possibly resulted in Domain taking on a more heroic title rather than the villain. I don’t agree that the point of human existence is to work. With the robots taking over the work of the world people would have more time to dwell in the pursuit of love, friendship and other things.
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