This Future Enthusiast Wants Out If I Am Forced To Have A Robot Butler!

Salve Omni!

I consider myself a future enthusiast, a geek girl with her eyes fixed towards the future...fingers crossed that it looks a lot like Star Trek!! I love my Science Fiction, and try to get my fill every which way I can. These days, it has been mainly in the form of movies, TV shows and DVDs revisited. You see, I've got lots of time on my hands, and it proves to be such a wonderful escape from the sucky reality of everyday living (I think I've now stared at and analyzed every inch of the walls in my TV room!)

With that being said, I have to wonder...why, oh why, do robots creep the crap out of me? Oh the irony! And, of course, if we take a cue from a lot of the present Science Fiction stories and movies, the future will be littered with them! Science Fiction Author, Isaac Asimov, created the Three Laws of Robotics; pertaining to the idea that humanoid robots may someday work and exist in close proximity to human beings. These laws, written as a moral code for our mechanical friends, would be uploaded into their programming at the time of assembly, and must be followed at all times in order to exist in our human world...because they would have some degree of free will.

One of my favorite TV series is Red Dwarf. If you haven't seen it, you must immediately! IT IS THAT GOOD! But I digress...In the show, one of the main characters is an android named Kryten. Though he is such an asset to the crew, and although I love the way his character is written into the show, no matter how many times I watch the show, and no matter how many times I laugh while watching his silly antics, he still creeps me out. Not just Kryten, but ALL robots. Yes, even WALL-E.

Oh, the bitter irony! Yes I am teased constantly by everyone who knows me well, and knows how passionate I am about my Sci-Fi.

"How can someone so obsessed with Science Fiction be so afraid of robots?" I hear that a lot! The answer is...Easily my friends, because I am always over-thinking the situation.

I blame the movie, Short Circuit (okay, I realllly feel old now). My parents and I used to watch the first film together, and, from an early age, I realized that I analyze things far too much. Must be the result of my crazy scientific brain! Here is this cute, clunky and lovable (hah!) robot, simply named, Number 5, who is created as a military experiment. Number 5 becomes self-aware after a power surge, wandering out into the real world. He would later reject his military programming as he evades re-capture. As my parents laughed at this comedy, I remember wondering, what if he malfunctions? The tank rollers for feet that he uses to maneuver around--what if he goes crazy and uses them to run over Ally Sheedy? Not to mention the scary metal limbs - does anyone else think about the possibility of being strangled to death? Robots are made of metal and weigh considerably more than humans do. That's enough to frighten the hell out of me!

Cut to present day. New technological advances have taught us one thing...that scientists are working on creating artificial intelligence with the hope that one day it will be fully capable of independent thought. A very scary thought! I am immediately reminded of our computers and smart phones. It seems as if the smarter our software and apps and devices become, the greater the viruses and hacking and errors become. I am certain that even a smart home, controlled by a sentient computer, would be capable of getting a virus; or could be hacked. And then...it all shuts down...or malfunctions...and if you're lucky...it won't kill you.

I'm all for the future of technology, but if society dictates that my home comes equipped with a robot butler, I think I'll just have to spend most of my waking hours at the local bar, telling my troubles to the trusty old robot bartender. I'm sure he'll understand.