Guest Post – Hollywood’s Harmless Robots?

Guest blog written by Rob Marsh, webcomic publisher (December Sun) and robot take-over paranoid.

Do you trust this robot?

Hollywood has a long and sordid reputation of promoting amoral values and twisted worldviews, but perhaps the worst propaganda introduced from the land of cinema is the pernicious lie of the robot as harmless, loving companion.   Although Hollywood occasionally puts up the false front that robots are evil ('The Day the Earth Stood Still', the 'Terminator' films, etc) robots are, for the most part, depicted in movies and television as loyal, faithful, trustworthy companions (and even in regards to films such as the Terminator, Hollywood presents a warped depiction that killer robots that can be conveniently reprogrammed to be loyal friends that wear leather jokes and make amusing quips when they cause destruction.)

But of all of the pro-robot propaganda to come out of Hollywood, one of the most disturbing trends (for this writer in particularly) is the nefarious inclusion of large, loveable bubble-headed robots and presenting these mechanical deviations as "companion and friend" to the character of the TV show or movie.

The Sico II is one such model of deceptively adorable robotics (as an aside, let us debate the potentialpronunciation of this robot.  Is that pronounced "Sicko", as in, a demented, perverted individual, or instead pronounced "psycho", as in Anthony Perkens killing people?).

Per TVArces, the Sico II model robot has made a number of appearances in films and television, including but not limited to:

• NBC’s “Days of Our Lives”
• NBC’s “BENSON” series
• Dick Clark’s “Inside America”
• MTV’s Punk’d MTV with Oscar winning actress Hilary Swank

Most pernicious to this writer, and perhaps the most scarring personally, was the appearance of the Sico II in the motion picture 'Rocky IV', where the Sico II was introduced as Uncle Pauly's robot "companion".  While so many watching the film were caught up in the boxing struggle of an Italian-American vs. a steroid-addled Soviet muscleman and the fragile balance of democracy in the nuclear cold war Reagan era, I was instead disturbed by the creepy robotic companion that Rocky had purchased for his friend Pauly, with eerie large glowing eyes, like a freakish metallic insect.  While Rocky was off training in the Soviet mountains with Pauly, he had actually left the Sico II at home with his unprotected family!  What if the Sico II went berserk and started on a human-killing rampage?  Had Rocky been home, I'm pretty sure he'd be fast enough and strong enough to destroy the Sico II, but he wasn't there, leaving his family vulnerable to the potential malfunction and destructive rampage of Pauly's robot "friend".

Rocky IV left me troubled and disturbed.  Yes, Rocky had single-handedly defeated the soviet menace and ended his 12-rounds of massive head injuries with an articulate and well-formulated message of global unity and friendship, but back in America, at the Rocky mansion, a super-intelligent robotic entity was calculating and scheming its next course of action...

And seriously, how could a doughy, mostly-inert guy like Pauly hope to stand a chance against a Sico II killing machine if and when it's circuitry went haywire and instead of bringing beer to Pauly, it instead decided to bring him death?

For more information about the Sico II and the potential world domination by these malicious machines, check out the International Robotic's site devoted to these innocent-looking machines.  While they might seem harmless and peaceful now, don't be surprised if one day the world has been taken over by armies of Sico II's!

And if you MUST train for a boxing match in the mountainous countryside of the Soviet Union, by all means, do NOT leave your robot servant unattended at home with your wife and children!