Everyone loves lists and movies. I love mechanical life forms too.
So I’ve rolled all three into one with a little engineering spin.
This list is by no means comprehensive — it’s simply thirteen of my favourite androids, cyborgs, and robots.
Blinky tried to help an unhappy boy.
"BlinkyTM" is a short film about a boy, Alex (Max Records), and his robot.
Blinky doesn’t go on adventures, he’s just a toy meant to placate Alex while his parents fight.
Blinky isn’t what most people would call an interesting character, but what he illustrates in this short film is enough to make feuding parents think twice about how they treat their kids. Alex ultimately resents his robot companion since he doesn’t solve the underlying unhappiness he feels as a result of his parents decaying relationship.
Alex and his parents pay for their mistakes when a combination of robot abuse and a short circuit turn Blinky into… well… you’ll just have to watch the film.
Blinky™ from Ruairi Robinson on Vimeo.
Johnny Five strives for acceptance in "Short Circuit."
"Short Circuit" comes out of the 1980′s golden era of off-the-wall yet watchable science fiction comedies. The technology is laughably campy by today’s standards; Johnny Five’s clumsy arms and binocular eyes remind of us of a time when CDs were a hip new thing and Chrysler’s K Cars were an acceptable form of transportation. From a robotics-engineering standpoint he’s about 30 years too early to even exist. Only now are robots smart enough to avoid trampling small children.
Johnny Five strives for acceptance and acknowledgement. He is largely misunderstood and unable to properly communicate. If not for his funky engineering design and oddball personality, he might have been just another Hollywood character trying to fit in.
Bishop demonstrates that not all androids are the same.
Bishop (Lance Henriksen) isn’t the first android in the "Alien" franchise, but he’s far and away the best.
His large contributions to the film as the level-headed Bishop go a long way towards teaching Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) that not all androids are the same, righting the wrongs of android Science Officer Ash from the first film.
No film in the franchise adequately explains how the androids function, but moviegoers are treated to a hybrid of machine and organic guts whenever they are inevitably maimed or impaled by an alien.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
