From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) OT: A.I. (SPOILERS)
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 12:43:07 


Adam nicely summed up what was right and wrong with AI and said:

> And the whole "human hatred of robots" motif is a sf cliche which is
> poorly motivated here.  Supposedly humans need to cull the robots
> back to stop them from taking over, but why would anybody build
> robots capable of taking over?  For that matter, why would they
> build robots capable of living "unlicensed" in the wilderness?  (And
> the robots in the film are basically too stupid to take over,
> anyway.)

	This is one point I have to disagree with; it doesn't make
complete sense, but the Flesh Fairs seem much more plausible in the
general context.  Humanity is _dying_ and birth rates are on decline.
This is why Hobby think David will be such a great seller in the first
place.  The movie starts in a dying earth scenario, with hints that
the ice in 2,000 years is not unexpected.  Given that, no matter how
stupid the robots are, it should be easy to resent and hate them given
that they're likely to outlive the stagnant, increasingly infertile
mankind.  Alidss has always had a talent for entropy and dying earth
tales anyway.

	The other flaws you note I complete agree with, although Blade
Runner has its downs as well and gets a lot of (deserved) credit for
creating a whole kind of cinematic future, rather than the actual
story (which is, IMO, much less interesting than the one Dick told,
although that one would be harder to film).  

	The most interesting scene in AI is when David attacks the
first duplicate.  Whatever he is, at that point it's clear that he's
as capable of murder as a real child with that kind of strength.



--
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/