Nonhuman to Human Understanding the transition through plays and films Sidney Perkowitz Candler Professor of Physics Emeritus Emory University [email protected].

Nonhuman to HumanUnderstanding the transition through

plays and films

Sidney PerkowitzCandler Professor

of Physics EmeritusEmory University

[email protected]://www.sidneyperkowitz.net

Robots and the transition to human on stage and screen

For millennia people have told stories about nonhuman artificial creatures, some of which were nearly human or became human.

In 1921, the play R. U. R. introduced “Robots,” artificial beings that eventually become more human. R. U. R. was an immediate sensation and has been frequently staged. This year, it inspired Anthony Clarvoe’s play Gizmo, and a film called R. U. R. is due out in 2014.

In cinema, robots have appeared in some 600 films since 1920. Early on, Metropolis (1927) introduced a robot that undergoes a nonhuman to human transition, and many other such transitions have been presented in film since.

Why examine these transitions on stage and screen?

The existential reason is that robots mirror humans, and offer an oblique way to look at ourselves.

The pragmatic reason is that there are a lot of robots in the world and they are becoming more accomplished. We may need to think seriously about the dividing line between nonhuman and human, or between nonliving

and living.

There are many real robots, with more coming

There is now more than one robot per 1,000 people globally, and one robot per 100 people in the U. S. and Euro auto industries. The annual growth rate for robots averages 19% since 1988, whereas the human rate is only 1%. The robot to human ratio will only grow.

The seminal robot play, R. U. R.

For myself, I confess that as the author I was much more interested in men than in Robots. Karel Čapek, Saturday Review, 1923

Karel (L) and Josef (R) Čapek, who invented “Robot” from archaic “robota,” a serf’s obligation to work, and modern“robotnik,” worker – actually suggested by Josef.

Homage to Karel Čapek and R. U. R.

Honda’s robot ASIMO laying flowers at Karel Čapek’s bust

(Prague, 2003)

R. U. R. became the nameof my son Mike’s band

Capek’s gravesitein Prague

R. U. R.’s robots

Robots were not clanking machines, but made of pseudo-protoplasm that “behaved exactly like living matter [and] didn't mind being sewn or mixed together.” They were portrayed as near-human organic creations in the premiere and most other early productions.

New York1922

Prague1921

London 1924

Paris1924

Guild Tour Production 1928 - 29

The plot of R. U. R.

Robots are pseudo-organic and human-like but emotionless, manufactured only to work– like “a gasoline motor” says Domin, manager of the R. U. R. factory.

Taking pity, Domin’s wife Helena convinces R. U. R.’s head scientist to give the robotsfeelings. Now they resent their subservience. Their leaders call humans “parasites” and order the robots to “kill all mankind."

A lone human, Alquist, survives, but the robots can no longer make themselves. Alquist proposes to dissect one of a robot male - female pair to determine the process.

But Alquist finds each robot ready to die to spare the other, because they arein love. Alquist tells them “Go…Adam - Eve,” implying that they will found a new race.

Digital People

The messages of R. U. R.

Social realities of the time. Helena’s vision of robot-human brotherhood and the robot revolution read like the history of the Russian Revolution that created the Soviet Union in 1917, just before R. U. R. was written.

Replacing God with man. In 1923 Capek wrote: “[Rossum’s] dream to create an artificial man…is inspired by his obstinate desire to prove that God is unnecessary and meaningless.”

Dehumanization and humanization. Technology without morality can dehumanize. Tempered with morality, however, it can change unfeeling robots into fully feeling beings, leading after turmoil to a better version of humanity.

Metropolis expresses similar anxieties.

A seminal robot film, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

The city

The robot-like workers

The plot of MetropolisMetropolis is a future hi-tech city maintained by slave workers. Freder, son of Metropolis’ Master Frederson, loves the saintly Maria who leads the workers, andwants to help them.

To foil this, Frederson plots to replace Maria with a duplicate built by the wizardlyscientist Rotwang, who has created

a machine in the image of man that never tires…we have no furtheruse for living workers…the workers of the future – the machine men.

Rotwang turns his machine woman into a corrupt copy of Maria, who ignites aworker’s revolution as Frederson wanted.

But the worker’s issues are resolved, the revolt ends, and the film ends with atag line and a moral: “There can be no understanding between the hand and thebrain unless the heart acts as mediator.”

Digital People

The robot that turns into Maria

Good Maria + robot = bad Maria

The real Maria – saintly and innocent

The copied Maria –treacherous and lascivious

Rotwang’s robot

The robot’s transformation, nonhuman to human

The transformation

The messages of Metropolis

Social realities of the time. Still within the era of the Russian Revolution, Metropolis is concerned with the divide between the ruling class and the working underclass.

Replacing God with man. Metropolis has extensive religious references and symbols though they do not seem to explicitly raise the issue of Rotwang as God-like creator.

Dehumanization and humanization. The robot-like workers are mistreated in the name of technology. Rotwang’s science means to replace them with robots, but he also transforms a mechanical robot into a (seeming) human – yet a debased one.

Metropolis and R. U. R. explore the gamut of robotic possibilities and the dividing line between nonhuman and human. Together, the play and the film ask whether humanity’s creations can outdo nature, and whether humanity’s own moral standing gains or loses by creating these beings.

And together, the play and film offer different methods to change nonhuman to human, as do other plays and films.

Nonhuman to Human on Stage, 1921 to 2012

R. U. R. (1921). Robots are manufactured from synthetic protoplasm in humanform but without feelings. When emotion is added, they become fully alive, undertake a violent world-wide industrial revolution against humanity, andfound a new race.

* By Anthony Clarvoe. World premiere, Penn State Centre Stage, April 13, 2012.

Gizmo (2012).* “Gizmos are flesh mechanisms, manufactured toserve. We see three generations, of increasing fluency and superficial semblance to humanity.…As to the people: this is a slaveholding society.” Operating in a corporate world, instead of violent revolution the gizmos quietly cultivate humanity’s dependence on them.

Nonhuman to Human on Screen, 1927 to 2012

Metropolis (1927). Rotwang’s mechanical robot does not look human, but by an electrical and chemical process that transfersappearance and “heart,” it becomes a physically perfect butmorally debased version of the real person Maria.

Prometheus (2012).* Weyland Industries has developed an 8th

generation human replica, David, who says “I can make yourorganization more efficient. I can carry out directives thatmy human counterparts might find…distressing…I understandhuman emotions although I do not feel them myself.”

*Directed by Ridley Scott.

David

Transforming nonhuman to human through the years

The monster, Frankenstein (1818, 1931): human brain and body parts + electricity

Robots, R. U. R. (1921): synthetic protoplasm + emotion

Bad Maria, Metropolis (1927): machinery + human “heart” + electricity and chemistry

Commander DataStar Trek (1987 on)

DavidA. I. (2001)

Roy BattyBlade Runner

(1982)

Officer Murphy/RoboCopRoboCop (1987)

SullaGizmo (2012)

Today’s fictional synthetic humans are madeof artificial materials and contain computerbrains that provide cognition but not alwaysemotion. One exception is RoboCop, a cyborgthat combines a metal body with a human brain.

DavidPrometheus (2012)

What have we learned about nonhuman to human transitions?

Replacing dead body parts in Frankenstein with artificial parts has made the transition less monstrous and more believable.

To humanize a robot it is not enough to add an “emotion chip” to a “logic chip.” The functions are linked in real brains and that connection needs to be understood.

In RoboCop, a real brain in a metal body adds judgment and feeling to superior physical abilities. Beyond “nonhuman” and “human,” the interesting future category may be “hybrid transhuman.”

Some fictional robots, such as generations of gizmos and the child robot David in A. I., evolve toward humanity. This follows Alan Turing’s idea that it would take much effort, like raising a child, to make an intelligent machine. Is David in Prometheus the “grown-up” David from A. I.?

Metropolis, Prometheus, Gizmo, A. I. and other works consider the emotions that natural and synthetic humans might feel toward each other. “Can a synthetic human love and be loved”? may be one crucial test of a true nonhuman to human transition.

Thank you

References

Horáková, J. “Looking Backward at the Robot.” In Research and Education in Robotics: EUROBOT 2011, Communications in Computer and Information Science, Vol. 161, D. Obdržálekand A. Gottscheber, eds. (Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg, 2011), pp. 1 – 9.

Perkowitz, S. Digital People (JHP/National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2004).

_________ Hollywood Science (Columbia University Press, New York, 2010; Kindle edition, 2010).

_________ “Representing Robots: Theater First, Film Later.” National Academy of Sciences Science and Entertainment Exchange. Aug. 2, 2012. http://tinyurl.com/98djxb9

_________ “The First Robot.” Wonders and Marvels, in press. http://tinyurl.com/6prmra

Turing, A. M. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Mind 59, 433-460 (1950).