I’m having a robot moment.
I’m finding them in stories, podcasts and art.
They’re making me confront big questions about our modes of being and living on this troubled, burning, warring planet. What follows is a reflection on what these robots have taught me (so far).
It purposely sidesteps bigger questions around the implications of AI which, as a writer, is something I’m keenly aware of and concerned with. But here, I want to highlight the power of posthuman or more-than-human thinking. These robots go beyond wires and metal and bend traditional boundaries between human and other.
Technically, we’re talking about cyborgs here. The term ‘cyborg’ is short for ‘cybernetic organism’, and refers to something - or someone - made up of biological and artificial components; a hybrid being being that blurs boundaries between technology and nature.
Last Saturday night I was scrolling through the pages of an arts venue I used to work with and was met by the faces of these clay creatures from artist Joseph Morgan Ceramics. Robot forms moulded from clay. What could be more cyborg than that?
And I was struck by often robots cross my mind and shape my thinking. Here are some introductions to other robots I’ve loved and learned from of late.
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