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Those of you familiar with the 2003 anime know how Drake (Lamp) was always spearheading rallies and protests against AI robots . . . Well, it's here, folks: people concerned with robots who would be capable of being our intellectual (and emotional?) equals - or better.

At the annual South-x-Southwest (SXSW) festive in Austin, Texas, a (small) group has been chanting "AI Say Goodbye" and encouraging people to go to stoptherobots.org to create a coalition of people who want development of an Astro-level robot (intellectually speaking - not in terms of strength and firepower) to be curtailed, or greatly controlled/contained.

http://www.infowars.com/rage-against-the-machines-sxsw-anti-ai-protest-to-stop-the-robots/

I find this fascinating. There are some valid points being made, but I think more damage has been done to the US economy by moving manufacturing jobs to other countries. Don't know about you, but I think a real is worth the risk! Especially if cha: oversees everything instead of

I think the terminator movies, as well as Colossus the Forbin project have inspired this fear. Maybe IBMs Watson could deflect some of that.

There's a movie I always used to watch as a child and it is somewhat similar to the Atom/Astro storyline.
It's called AI and it's about a robot created after a woman's son falls into a coma before becoming paralysed. It's set in a world where human-like robots are commonplace. The woman realises she no longer loves the robot and abandons him where he meets an adult robot who each experience the end of the world.

Point, I think that intellectually and humanely intelligent robots would be supercool to exist and I believe most of the fear for them comes from movies where humans have relied entirely on robots being able to help them when of course this shouldn't really happen. ^^

Alternatively there's a movie - the title has escaped me - about a man who creates a robot that starts off looking a bit like O_rrin from the 2009 movie, but eventually learns about humans and simultaneously becomes more human in that he gets skin and an appearance - that happens to look like Robin Williams hinthint - and begins to want to be a real human.

So perhaps people are afraid that robots will develop morality and want to become equals with humans, because lets face it that most humans will see robots as below them.

I think the problem is that, because Atom/Astro is aimed towards younger audiences adults don't take it seriously despite the countless amount of content in the franchise that gives a whole lot more truth than some of the robot movies aimed for adults. Perhaps that's why there's so much dislike to the whole idea.

You're talking about "The Positronic Man", based on the novel by Isaac Asimov. After Tezuka (actually, BEFORE him), Asimov is IMHO the most important SF author in the field of robotics. Honda named their robot after him.

The movie AI is very interesting in that the robot's story is such a parallel one to Atom's. I tried to envision a crossover between AI and Astro, but it ended up being a retelling of the movie plot using Tezuka characters.

BTW, I think that the human vs robot issues raised in the Atom manga and anime was really Tezuka's way of commenting on the human condition, IE: racial problems.

Another thought.. the new movie Chappie also explores this issue.

I remember in high school, maybe around 2009, having a conversation with a girl who genuinely thought that AI robots would immediately destroy the economy. Like, she was vehemently against the idea, thinking AI = immediate takeover. It was really intriguing. Never since then have I ever encountered another person who thought that AI robots would be a danger outside of the usual I, Robot apocalypse jokes.

I think robots are the last things we need to worry about, especially robots, rather than certain humans taking our jobs. I would elaborate, but that would be a political discussion.

As far as robots conquering humanity, I suppose it all hinges on who develops the AI, and for what purpose. It seems nearly certain that most Japanese robots will be developed to serve man , though not as meals for aliens. While it may seem good intention to create robots to help in health care, elder care, etc., how does it make the patients feel to know that their care has been given to robots, because humans are too busy or other reason to care for them?

off topic: why is cha: not on the main selection of smilies? I just now learned of its existence!

In Japan's case it is the rising population age and lack of enough healthcare workers that is putting robots on the job. The Japanese are quite accepting of robots however.