By Request

Going to try something for my second post. I was asked to post a couple of Comp papers I wrote. Seems a couple of Professors think I have writing talent. I'll post in portions so it doesn't become too difficult (or too long) to read. Kind of appropriate for the subject seeing as much of my favorite Sci-Fi was published in 'serial' form.

Ray Bardin

A. Davis and D. McWhorter

GE117, Composition 1

7 Aug 2011

 

The Impact of Science Fiction on Modern Technology

"            For many years, Science Fiction writers have been considered to be dreamers and ‘hacks.’ However, many of our modern concepts and modern tools of technology came from these dreams. Many of our ideas behind robotics and robots, in general, came from writers like Isaac Asimov, who presented legal, philosophical, and human rights (well, robot rights) questions in his book of short stories, ‘I, Robot’. Medical science has also benefited from Science Fiction; lasers, robotic prosthesis, and other useful instruments have come from the dreams of these writers. Advances in design and deployment of telecommunication and computing devices, and even our modern concepts of Cyberspace and the Internet, owe much to Science Fiction. Many, if not all, self-proclaimed geeks (and nerds) have been exposed for years to Science Fiction in books, movies, and on television. The fantasies presented in these works have been a catalyst for conceptual designs that have become realities in the last decade. Science Fiction writers have had a major, positive impact in various fields including robotics, medicine and telecommunication devices.

            In the 1920’s, a Czech playwright named Karel Kapek coined the word ‘robot’ from the Czech word for ‘slave’. While Kapek’s robots were genetically engineered humans, the term became more closely associated with automatons, or mechanical men. Since then, people have used a variety of words to describe robots: Android for human-like robots, Cyborg for a combination of human and robotic parts, and Robot for the worker-bees of mechanical society. Writers like Isaac Asimov and his book, ‘I Robot’, and various movies and television shows like “Terminator” and “Star Trek” affect our perception of robots. Very few people born before 1980 in the Americas have not heard of Commander Data from televisions “Star Trek: Next Generation”. Data, as an android construction with a ‘positronic brain’, symbolizes what most people think of as a ‘robot’, essentially a humanoid with gears and metal inside a plastic skin. In their basic form, robots are no more complex than some simple machines. Most take their instruction, not from a special ‘brain’, but from a computer program connected from outside the body. "   

  So that's enough for a teaser. Tune in next time for more. As always, comments and insights are welcome.