Doll Face

Doll Face, a short film by Andrew Thomas Huang

A machine with a doll face mimics images on television screen in search of a satisfactory visage. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future.

Robot Scientists

The creation of machines that can “think” independently (as least as independently as grad students) and do their own scientific research and development would be a major step toward the creation of the sort of artificial intelligence that we frequently see in SF films and stories, right?

Welcome to the New World! Note that the robot scientist in this report isn’t humanoid in design — a fact that adds a certain interesting frisson to its achievement.

• Source: New Scientist via My Robot Weblog

Reach

Here’s a great little animated film by Luke Randall. It uses the idea of a newly “born” robot to create a brief, poignant mediation on ambition, desire and “in-built” limitations.

Reach (Australia-2009; short [3:50 min]; dir. Luke Randall)

Robot-13

This is Robot-13. He’s the main protagonist of a cool new comic by Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford. Robot-13 struggles with ontological issues and wanders the world seeking answers to the perennial question: “Who am I?” He also wants to know WHY he is — though in the meantime he feels an impulsive need to defend humanity against giant mythological monsters.

Find out more about him on Undead Backbrain.

Why Can’t Robots Question Their Creator?

Apparently one of the questions asked by director Jeffrey Lau in his upcoming “sci-fi romantic comedy”, Metallic Attraction: Kungfu Cyborg — which features a very large robot — addresses the robot’s concerns regarding his own ontological meaning. It is a question that directly affects mankind in relation to AIs generally, as the not-very-divine Creator of a potential new species.

Check out more info on the film here.