Of AI’s and Androids…
With Artificial Intelligence and robotics improving and growing exponentially, we are seeing more speculations about their evolving role in the future in the media and film. The question is, will we get lovable, benign intellectual androids like Star Trek’s Data, or Terminators that are our intellectual and physical superiors, and relentlessly intent on our destruction?
Until fairly recently with the notable exception of the robotic Maria in the 1927 film Metropolis, many androids were depicted as styled after males. That boy’s club was recently invaded by the arrival of M3gan in the movie, and Arisa in the Netflix series, Better than Us.
Now Arisa (above) was styled as an attractive young woman, and her intended marketing in this country was as a sentient companion and sex toy. Surprise, however…her origin was in China, where she was originally designed as a kill-bot! When her perceived adopted family is endangered, Arisa shifts instantly into that mode, neutralizing threats with extreme prejudice, and absorbing gunfire with only cosmetic damage…
M3gan (Model 3 Generative Android) is created by a brilliant robotics engineer as a playmate, teacher, and care provider for her niece when that girl’s parents die in a road accident. Standing about 4’ tall and resembling a 10-year-old girl, M3gan is intended to protect her charge from physical and emotional harm, but exceeds the limits of her programming and soon eliminates a dog, a neighbor, a bully of a peer, and eventually the CEO of the company who intends to merchandise her, performing a memorable and inhumanly lithe dance before she does so. It’s kind of a pre-slaughter celebratory thing, ‘ya see…and who can blame the girl, since the CEO is only getting what he deserves?!
So bring on the killer fem-bots! I confess to being in love with robots and androids since first laying eyes on Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet….💕 🦊
(…and so successful was M3gan that a sequel is in the works! Catch Better Than Us on Netflix, and M3gan on Amazon Prime Video…)
Explore posts in the same categories: anthropomorphic, artificial intelligence, horror, movies, paranormal, Questionably creepy, sci fi, speculationTags: AI's and Androids, M3gan movie
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FOXSYLVANIA 
July 6, 2023 at 5:14 am
So, it took roughly 96 years for s.f. to become p.c. with the inclusion of female killer androids. I wonder how long till the word “gynoid” becomes mandatory in the viewpoint of feminist grammar-nazis?
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July 8, 2023 at 3:45 pm
Do you remember when Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers fought the “fembots” on “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman?” The “fembots* weren’t AI’s or autonomous, but were just programmed and controlled remotely.
Austin Powers also had a run-in with “fembots…” 🙀
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July 10, 2023 at 1:56 am
Oh, yeah, baby! Their introductory story arc was the best. If only because two of my favorite character actors from the Seventies were guest-stars. James Olson from “The Spell” (an NBC pastiche of Stephen King’s “Carrie) and the late, great Melinda Fee (David McCallum’s wife on NBC’s version of “The Invisible Man”).
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July 10, 2023 at 1:59 am
Oh, yeah, baby! Their introductory story arc was the best. If only because two of my favorite character actors from the Seventies were guest-stars. James Olson from “The Spell” (an NBC pastiche of Stephen King’s “Carrie”) and the late, great Melinda Fee (David McCallum’s wife on NBC’s version of “The Invisible Man”).
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July 10, 2023 at 2:00 am
Heh! That’s weird. How’d I post a duplicate reply?
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July 10, 2023 at 8:40 am
It must have been a glitch in the Matrix… 😁
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July 10, 2023 at 8:23 pm
GOOD ONE! 🙂
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July 16, 2023 at 12:36 pm
Btw: it will probably wind up being released much later than advertised, due to SAG-AFTRA going on strike alongside the Writers’ Guild. But, my hometown multiplex has already started showing trailers for “The Marvels” introducing one Iman Vellani (a young Pakistani-Canadian actress) as Kamala Khan. A Muslim-American woman who discovers she’s of partial Inhuman descent when accidental exposure to Terrigen mist gives her super-powers. At least, that’s my understanding of the comic book character’s back story.
Evidently, Ms. Vellani already debuted the character in a streaming mini-series, last year. In this feature film, however, she’ll officially be meeting Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Flerkin the omnivorous alien cat. And, I’ve got to confess; so far, I like the cat’s acting better.
I mean, really; do modern teenage girls really scream “OMG!” that frequently? And in a voice twice as shrill as Jean Hagen used for Lina Lamont in “Singin’ In The Rain”?!
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still go see it in theaters when it comes out. Just to watch Brie Larson, as Capt. Mar-Vell, kick butt, once again, if for no other reason. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong about Ms. Vellani…just like I was proven wrong about that young guy who co-starred opposite Rebecca De Mornay and Curtis Armstrong in “Risky Business.” 😉
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July 16, 2023 at 1:14 pm
“Terrigen mist;” where can I get me some of that? An alien cat would be great, too… 😺
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July 16, 2023 at 3:50 pm
Well, in the comic book Marvel Universe, you could only get it from the Himalayan Mountain home of the Inhumans known as “Attilan” (aka “The Great Refuge”). Up until the 1990’s, anyway.
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July 16, 2023 at 6:34 pm
So I guess that Walmart wouldn’t stock it then, drat! 😾
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July 17, 2023 at 4:54 am
You could try buying some on the black market from a Marvel master thief called Reynard Slinker alias…The Fox!
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July 18, 2023 at 11:37 pm
BTW; Happy Shark Week! 🦈
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July 19, 2023 at 12:55 am
Thank you! 🙂
And the same right back at you.
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July 19, 2023 at 12:58 am
P.S.—did you know that the scientific name for the common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) roughly translates as “fox shark”?
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August 19, 2023 at 8:03 am
tall, her body is a work of art, and her intelligence is off the charts. She is capable of bonding emotionally with her charge, and can even feel fear and sorrow. However, when her charge’s life is threatened, her programming kicks in and she shifts to a defensive mode, protecting her charge at all costs. ”
These two female robots are awesome and it’s amazing how their creators designed them to be emotionally intelligent and capable of protecting. I’m really impressed by the way the story and characters were portrayed and the potential for the future of robotics. Thank you for the interesting post!
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September 20, 2023 at 5:08 pm
tall, M3gan is a cute, but clearly artificial, child-like figure. The movie follows her evolution from a playful companion, to a self-aware entity who loves deeply, to a determined protector of her family.”
Wow, such an interesting post! I love stories like these which present us with a glimpse of the future. Loveable androids or ruthless Terminators? We can only imagine and speculate. It’s fascinating to see how technology has changed our perception of androids, from male-dominated to female-led. Thanks for the post author!
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September 25, 2023 at 8:54 pm
@Laura and Petfaq: then, I heartily recommend you watch Season 1 of HUMANS (original BBC run; 2015-18) starring Gemma Chan. It’s everything that Will Smith’s version of I,ROBOT should’ve been…but wasn’t.
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