Subject:
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Re: Who James Isn't (was:Re: New Castle Sucks (so far...)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 29 Dec 1999 14:52:20 GMT
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Reply-To:
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LPIENIAZEK@NOVERA.nospamCOM
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Viewed:
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1472 times
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Mr L F Braun wrote:
>
> Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> > Saw Bicentennial Man today, it made me cry. A lot. Here's a question for you:
> >
> > Would you give up practical immortality in order to be officially recognised as
> > "human", given that you already were, for all intents and purposes?
>
> I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie. The first time I read the story
> (It was first an Asimov short story in the 1960 or 1970s, by the way)
"the Positronic Man" is credited in the opening credits as the basis.
> it was very
> profound. I only hope they haven't cluttered the basic premise too heavily with
> cheap sentimentality and gimmicky laughs...have they?
Very few gimmicky laughs. One that *I* laughed at was the display of the
3 laws (quoted word for word from Asimov) in the very beginning.
As for sentimentality, I pretty much was bawling the whole way through
it, but I'm a sucker for violins and heartstrings. I don't think it was
cheap though. I found it to be very profound. This is a movie that I
fear will go over the head of 80% of the audience who will only find it
mildly entertaining and never really grasp the deeper meaning.
Go see it soon if you want to, as I suspect it's not going to have a
really long run. But then, I am cynical about the current intellectual
development (1) of our great unwashed. Myself, I will be buying it on
video as soon as it's out.
As for 8Wide's comments:
- One could say that Asimov, whose first US Robots & Mechanical Men(2)
stories were in the 1940s, I believe, was way before ST:TNG and laid the
foundation for much of what Data was all about.
- The question I posed has nothing much to do with Christ, thanks just
the same
Also, Pinocchio is only tangentially related. Doesn't touch on WHY
someone is human quite as much.
Finally, my OWN answer to the question is NO. I would not give up
practical immortality and my own recognition that I was internally human
in trade for mortality and recognition/approval by others that I was
human. But then I have never really sought out recognition or approval
by others. It just finds me.
1 - NOT the potential or the basic goodness of people, just the CURRENT
development.
2 - Here's a bit of trivia for you... USR, the modem company, was named
what it was partly to honor Asimov... Their name is officially US
Robotics and the founders said that it was in honor of USR&MM. At first
I was miffed that Andrew's manufacturer was NorthAM instead of USR&MM
but NorthAM turned out to be a bit more on the "heavy" side, the main
NorthAM character was no Susan Roberts (3). More of a typical lawsuit
fearing corporate weenie type.
3 - IF I am remembering her name right, she was chief scientist at
USR&MM, it's been years since I read any Robots stories.
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
NOTE: Soon to be lpieniazek@tsisoft.com :-)
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