Societies Fear of Advanced Technology

In the mid to late 1980’s was a period of time when our society was experiencing great advances in technology which brought a great amount excitement and fear. The excitement was based on the fact that these new advances would make life easier on people. With these new technologies there was the dream of even more advances like teleporting and the use of robots. With that excitement there was also the fear of these new technologies. This fear of technologies is referred to as ‘Technophobia’ which is “a metaphor for everything that threatened natural social arrangements” (1) that has proven true about the fear of great technological advances.With this popularity and fear during this period of time led Hollywood into making many hit films that involved the technological simulation and reproduction of the human body. This was evident in the film Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987, USA) which involved the resurrection of a human into a robot. Another film like this which was made during this time period was the Terminator (James Cameron, 1984, USA) and which shows that the “genre in the films refer to each other” (2) by Robots sharing had basic human characteristics but at the same time lacking human emotions.

In the film Robocop there was an original robot created that was indestructible. This indestructible robot could serve, protect, work 24 hours a day, and help prevent the deaths of police officers. However, this robot had a flaw, one of which accelerated the fear of robots. One character from the film Kinney was asked to demonstrate by pointing his weapon at the robot. When Kinney pointed the gun at ED-209 the robot sprung to life and ordered that the weapon be dropped on the floor. He did as the robot instructed but ED-209 failed to acknowledge this and ended up fatally shooting Kinney. This showed the impact a robot could have over the humans.

By witnessing this outrageous flaw of ED-209 Bob Morton shared his idea of a Robot enforcing the law. His invention resurrected a recently murdered police officer (Murphy). This robot was programmed serve public, protect the innocent, and uphold the law. This robot was called, Robocop he was a cyborg who became quite popular throughout the city, even more so after the media got a glimpse of him after he saved a few people that were held hostage by the former Mayor of Detroit. This showed the excitement towards robots and how a robot police officer could save many lives.

This success came with a serious price because the popularity of Robocop infuriated Dick Jones to the point that he actually he had Bob Morton killed by the gang leader Clarence Boddicker who was a known felon who was big into the drug trade and was involved in the killing of many cops including Murphy. With the connection between Dick Jones and Clarence Boddicker showed the corruption and greed that was occurring within the corporation. It also showed that the power that was being used in a forceful manner so that Dick Jones could get what he wanted regardless of how much it effected the well being of others.

As time passed, the cyborg (Murphy) began to have dreams about his past life on earth. These flash backs went against society’s assumptions that all robots lacked human emotions and memory. With these flashbacks of his wife and son, it also brought back memories of those who brutally murdered him. With these flashbacks becoming clearer it led Murphy to go after the people who killed him. He went out on a mission to ensure that the people who killed him were brought to justice. Most of this was done when Murphy broke up a drug dealing negotiation between Clarence Boddicker and the leader of a drug operation.

This film portrays the positive and negative impacts of the robot. The ED- 209 robot was created for defense only. It was big and had very poor mobility. It did have a lot of firepower but had many flaws. Having control of this robot showed that anyone who controlled it had a lot of power and influence. The cyborg robot (Murphy) had more human characteristics but it was not lifeless. This cyborg had the ability to dream and could recognize those who were in his life. This film also demonstrates how power can control corporations but in the end their illegal actions will be acknowledged and those who are found guilty will be brought to justice.

References:

Robocop, dir. Paul Verhoeven, per. Peter Weller, Ronny Cox, and Kurtwood Smith, 1987, DVD, 1987.

Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner “Technophobia” Film 301 & 319 Course Text

Citations:

(1) Michael Ryan and Douglas Kellner “Technophobia” Film 301 & 319 Course Text Pg. 58-65.

(2) Kuhn, “Ideologies” Film 301 & 319 Course Text Pg. 53-57.