Week 11: Cyberpunk and Steampunk

For this week, I have watched the three movies posted up on the class blog: Ghost in the Shell I & II, Paprika, and Blade Runner. Each of these movies include some kind of robotic character. All of these movies seem to fall under cyberpunk rather than steampunk since they tend to focus on advanced technological and scientific achievements rather than the usage of steam-powered machineries. It is true that cyberpunk is more of a science fiction that many of us enjoy reading or watching through a book or a movie, however I personally think it is something that may come to reality. Sure, there are many things that has to be run by humans, however there also are so many things that are run by machineries or technology. 

It is quite frightening to think “what if robots come to reality?” or “what if technology takes over?” 

The reason I have said that I personally think cyberpunk was something that might come to reality was because there are so many invention that were invented in such short period of time that cyberpunk era might not be too far away. In 2011, Japan invented a humanoid robot that looked pretty realistic. Of course, they weren’t able to communicate with people, but they made a system to allow two humanoid robots to communicate with each other. In April 2016, it was released that China revealed a highly realistic humanoid robot. This is still being developed by people in Japan and China that although the humanoid robots can’t communicate with humans, they surely are coming to look very similar to a human. 

Many people do say this might happen long later, but it might be right around the corner, who knows how fast the world can turn. Just 60 years ago, we had no mobile phones, computers, or any advanced technology we have now. Mobile phones and computers were invented in the early 1970s and that was only 40 years ago and when I was still little in the late 1990s, mobile phones with a touch screen was only a dream which soon came true. The technology is moving so fast that who knows when we will have a robot or two that can communicate with humans. This definitely is a question only time can solve.