Talk:Robots in fiction

Folks, I'm not sure exactly who should be listed here. I'd say definitely manufactured "machine persons" (what is generally called a "robot"). I'd say definitely manufactured organic persons (like the "robots" of R.U.R. and the Replicants of Blade Runner. Do we want computer persons like HAL, Colossus, and Wintermute/Neuromancer to go here?

I would definately nominate Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw, and R2D2 & C3PO from Star Wars -- WojPob

''So add 'em to the page, already. :-) ''

I can't believe that I'm contributing to this (not that I haven't in my time read science fiction, and I'll admit to knowing who all those robots listed above ARE), but I object to 'famous' and think it should always be 'robots in literature' or 'english-language poets'. As soon as you put 'famous' on a page dedicated to inventors of plumbing fixtures someone comes along and adds his comprehensive list of inventors of plumbing devices and it ceases to be 'famous.' Just call it 'robots in literature' and I'll promise to go away :) --MichaelTinkler

Serious objection here or just goofing on us?? I'm certainly willing to listen to this if serious. Thanks.


 * a serious objection to the use of the word 'famous', which is always (honestly!) vitiated by additions of lots and lots of minor characters and/or leads to squabbles about the meaning of 'fame'. People have started lists of 'famous physicismts' and 'famous novelists' only to be inundated with names.  So as a practice I think wikipedia is better off with " noun in literature" rather than "famous noun in literature". --MichaelTinkler

Behold! Page has been renamed Robots in literature. Thanks for your input.

Is film considered literature? If so, does animation count? I nominate Doraemon and the Iron Giant. How about Bicentennial man (Robin Williams) and the robots in the recent movie AI, and Johnny 5 in 'what's that name' movie.

I'd like to see the names in chronological order. That would give a brief history on how the concept of robots evolved overtime. Alphabetically order is okay too, but not as good.

Second that motion! (Lots of robot stories in the late 30s for some reason; curious what was in the air then. My guesses would be that the Depression, Taylorism, and changes in industrial production would have to have been an influence, but would defer to someone more knowledgeable about the period.) - RjLesch.


 * Problem is, we  always know where to put something on the list in alphabetical order, but might not have a good enough idea of chronological order offhand. Alpha is easier. If we can, I'd advocate having  both lists (alpha and chronological). People can add things to the alpha list on the fly, and the pedants can come along later and add them to the correct spot on chronological.


 * And I'd like to see the Taylorism entry for Wikipedia if anyone feels up to writing it.

In 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' film Klaatu was the alien, the robot was Gort. Is this also true in the book?

Maybe this page should be renamed Robots in Fiction or Robots in Science Fiction. That would cover books, films and TV. --Stephen Gilbert

Cylons -- Battlestar Galactica (according to the novelizations, Cylons were simply humanoid aliens wearing mechanical armor. Don't know if this was true in the TV show, but this is the literature page...)

The way I remember this is... The decision was made to make the Cylons inorganic robots for TV because of rules existing at the time specifying a maximum number of people who could be killed on TV per hour. If the Cylons were machines, we could blow away thousands of them, no problem! I think the leader of the Cylons was supposed to have been the last remaining organic Cylon of the race who originally built them.

If this can be verified, I would _love_ to see it mentioned in the Cylon article. Rules giving an actual number for the "maximum number of people who could be killed per hour"... beautiful. :)


 * They're definitely robots in the 2003 remake of BSG. Ausir 14:20, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)