Colin Squire | DESMA9

Over the course of week 3, we have learned of how robots in different areas of the world are perceived. Much of how this perception is shaped has to do with social influence in popular media. In Japan, robots and humanoids have been widely accepted, which can be attributed to the manga series Astro Boy. Because of this comic and cartoon, Astro Boy and his human-like ethics and morals have cast a positive light on the Japanese. This has led to human-like robots and humanoids being present virtually everywhere in Japan, from chefs, elderly care centers, and help centers. The western world differs greatly from this. Instead of adopting a friendly robot looking for help at every turn, the west looked to Karel Čapek’s play, Rossum’s Universal Robots, originally written in 1920. This dystopian depiction of the future of robots has squeezed itself into much of western filmmaking for more than a century. The play spawned many movies, with the first of which being Metropolis.  Metropolis is...

The idea of the modern robot is not as easy a path to creation as one would expect. Over the course of more than 600 years, new instrumental developments to human life have contributed to the steady creation of what we now call robots. In Professor Vesna’s video lecture series, “Robotics Pt 1,” we are able to visualize a time map, detailing each advancement in chronological order and how it naturally leads to the modern robot.                                                                                           Čapek, Karel. Rossum's Universal Robots, January 25, 1921 The Gutenberg printing press is the first development we see in the timeline of the robot. Created by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1400s, the ma...

No matter how much we view art and science as water and oil, the two are inherently intertwined. From shapes to computers, humans have been using math in many forms to express themselves. Many of these derive, and carry on from the basic foundation of Renaissance Art, stressing the importance of perspective, vanishing point, and the golden ratio. Professor Vesna expresses in her video lecture that the combination of these three makes the appeal to the art strong.  The “Universal Man'' of the Renaissance, or Leonardo da Vinci, was given a chance to bring together all previous recorded knowledge that could be put into art and bring the Renaissance to its height. Prior to da Vinci’s birth, theorists and artists like Fibonacci, Piero de la Francesca, Brunelleschi, and Alhazen were all collectively contributing to the science of creating appealing art. These ideas came to be what I called the basic foundations of the Renaissance, perspective, vanishing point, and the golden ratio. ...

The idea of Two Cultures, put together by C.P. Snow in the mid-1950s, brought to light the growing gap between the relationship of art and science, when in reality, the two should have a mutually beneficial relationship.This prompted many new ideas, including the creation of a “Third Culture,” by John Brockman that supported the combination of the two. The gap described by Snow is apparent in UCLA, shown by the names of "North Campus Majors," generally relating to all classes associated with the humanities, and "South Campus Majors," generally relating to all classes associated with science, STEM, etc. Because of this growth and the naturally perceived alienation, given by the names, many students rarely view the two converging at all. However, I agree with John Brockman’s statements on the “Third Culture.” One statement that stood out to me that refuted this inherent separation was when Professor Vesna reiterated the idea that those who subscribe to the idea that t...