robot
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@teajaygrey The "I, Robot" film has nothing to do with Asimov except the title.
@teajaygrey@snac.bsd.cafe @cwebber@social.coop technically transformers aren't robots by any definition, theyre sapient alien lifeforms who just happen to be made of metal
of course, the movies just exist to sell plastic toys to the children of the middle class
Yeah, I am a big fan of mecha; and as a kid, toys from Japan. So for me, I had already owned a limited subset of what were later rebranded as Transformers as Diaclone and ミクロマン「mikuroman」aka Microman.
The Microman stuff in particular was fascinating insomuch as, I think the underlying story (I grew up in California, so I never really got to the source material beyond pamphlets in the toys and not having much comprehension of 日本語「nihongo」[Japanese] especially in the written form at the time) was something along the lines of: there were these tiny alien creatures who in ingratiating themselves to the locals of Earth (kids, naturally, because children are more open minded) would turn into cameras and toy pistols, so as to seem innocuous to any snooping grown ups.
I found it vaguely "hilarious" when Transformers were released in the USA; and subsequently swaths of old stock from Japanese warehouses began flooding vendors in the states; and I would sometimes be derided for buying "cheap knock offs" when in actual fact: I was purchasing the original toy lines, at substantially discounted rates relative to the Hasbro represses from the same molds.
It was a glorious time, for several years, as a kid without much money.
I do recall one occasion when on a family trip to Hawaii [incidentally, the last time I was there, sometime in the 1980s; I don't think I was a teenager yet], and being agog that again, many shops in Hawaii had a lot of toys from Japan which were relatively inexpensive. I purchased a Walther P-38 (aka Megatron in the Transformers line) and apparently left it in its gun form in our hotel room. When my family came back later one day only to find that the maids had not put clean sheets on the bed or whatever, because they saw a pistol and freaked t.f. out; I guess those toys were more convincing than presumed?
I had the vague impression in Japan, it was "desutoron" and "autotoron" (Destron and Autotron) as contrasted with Decepticons and Autobots? Yet I think by then new cartoons were presumably being marketed internationally and rebranding was happening in order to shovel more plastic toys to the masses.
Personally, I was way more into the die-cast Godaikin era of mecha toys marketed by Bandai/Popy; yet I think only 10 were released in the USA? I certainly could never afford them all, even when they were relatively inexpensive (now? They're insanely expensive collectors' items).
@teajaygrey @cwebber Hey, I know that Čapek guy!
Yay! I am grateful some do still!
@cwebber beep, and dare I say... Boop?
Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti?
^_^
What really riles me when I see captcha prompts asking: "are you a robot?"
I am like: "Who wants to know? However, yes, I am part of the proletariat! I guess, you, since you're asking, presumably aren't?"
Alas, I don't know who it was (maybe Asimov?) who demeaned "robot" into something to instead be synonymous with mecha and automata [which predated robots by at least centuries, perhaps longer based on some Roman era records] and seemed to erase the whole: "no war, but class war" which was the underlying theme of R.U.R., the play which was the origin story of the term robot. Robot uprising, is a canonical association, not a fluke.
I mean, I too, as a corporeally incarnated human of the late 20th century, encountered the demeaned phrasing of "robot" with all sorts of toys and Scientific American articles about car factories being filled with "robots" replacing pre-NAFTA auto workers (who would be even further terminated and outsourced to cheaper laborers outside of the USA, after NAFTA). Yet, for some reason I had some relatives who attempted to tell me that "robot" was closer to being synonymous with "slave" as a means to educate me about its etymology and my high school even put on a play of R.U.R.
Oddly, or perhaps not surprisingly? There has never been a film adaptation of R.U.R. as far as I know? We got Will Smith in I, Robot (again, Asimov); we have a multiplicity of Transformers ("Robots in disguise"? Disguised from what I wonder?) movies, yet there remains a glaring omission of a film version of the R.U.R. robot origin story on the silver screen.
Meanwhile, the lived experience, in a society which continues to operate with the predominantly demeaned Asimovian phrasing of robot? Remains: repugnant.