My computer crashed yesterday evening. After several hours of panic and worry, we were
able to fix the problem.
The day before, I finished reading an old science-fiction
novel, written in the early 1950s. The
novel imagines a future in which humanoid robots have become so
efficient that they are taking over everyone’s jobs. All the humans are being made redundant.
Why were these robots so perfect? Why didn’t they have lots of annoying
problems and glitches, like my computer?
It is always the same in futuristic science-fiction novels
and films. None of the scary killer
robots or sexy female robots ever seem to break down.
I think to be more realistic, in the film Terminator, the
evil robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger should chase the humans and nearly
kill them many times. Then just before
the end of the movie he should suddenly and for no apparent reason start
walking round in a circle saying, “The human extermination programme has
experienced a problem. Please contact
Skynet Killer Robot Corporation with the details.”
In the film Blade Runner, the sexy woman who turns out to be
a robot should lean in to kiss Harrison Ford.
He is still extremely attracted to her, even though he knows she is a
machine. He is thinking, “How important
is it really to have a human girlfriend?
What’s so great about humans, anyway?”
Just at that moment, she says that she needs to confirm his banking
details and password. There’s a million
dollars waiting to be sent to him if he only forwards 1,000 dollars to a bank
in Nigeria first. And would he like to
buy a special cream to make part of his body grow larger?
Vocabulary:
to crash – of a computer, software etc., to fail suddenly
humanoid - of a robot, alien etc., being like a human in
appearance or character
to be made redundant – to lose one’s job when that job
disappears
a glitch – a sudden, usually temporary fault in a machine,
computer etc.
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