I, Robot Educates
The Three Laws Of Robotics: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law (Asimov). These are the three laws that govern the robots in the movie I, Robot. Not only can this Hollywood film entertain us, but it can also teach us about ourselves by it. I, Robot is an example of how society is based around technology, is quick to conform, is fearful of annihilation, feels safe with rules, and humanizes everything.
Technology has significantly taken over our lives. Radios, MP3 players, ovens, refrigerators, cars, computers, cell phones, technology is everywhere. The average human being cannot go through a day without coming in contact with some type of technology. Not only do we enjoy the technology we have, but we want more. That’s why in I, Robot the future is pictured as a technological universe where robots are made to do whatever we want them to. The robots aren’t the only technology witnessed throughout the movie though. There are also hand scanners, laser strip surveillance cameras, demolition robots, futuristic autopilot cars, high-tech parking garages, and tons of new technology (I, Robot). This portrays society perfectly. As I said earlier, we come in contact on a day-to-day basis with all types of technology. It’s to the point now where everything is becoming electronic and computer based. In our modern day history, advancements of machine and technology have been growing exponentially. 30 years ago only the rich could have a home computer. Today it is estimated there are two per home. I, Robot is a classical example of how we see our future as technologically advanced, because our society is so based around technology.
Another lesson we can find in I, Robot is that people are quick to conform. People don’t like to be different, the outcast, the oddball. It’s easy to see that in I, Robot because everyone automatically believes that the robots are flawless. It seems as if no one but Detective Spooner believes there could actually be something wrong with the robots. There is another example towards the end, where the robots have all completely turned evil and the people in the city all fight together against the robots (I, Robot). This is another example just in the complete opposite direction. When the people around start doing a certain thing it’s natural to just follow. That’s why we have fashion, trends, styles, and fads. Essential to a functioning society is that people obey social norms such as following traffic laws, respecting others’ property, and getting rid of aggression in non-violent ways. However, conformity can have harmful effects if people conform automatically without questioning how valid the norm is. “In Nazi Germany, many ordinary people did not dissent to the ongoing atrocities because few other people resisted” (Zimbardo and Wang). What others do informs us on what to do ourselves. I, Robot teaches us that we as a society conform to the social norm and sometimes that’s not the right choice.
The fear of annihilation, of ceasing to exist, lives in all of us. This is a more basic way to put it than just calling it the fear of death. The idea of no longer being arouses a primary existential anxiety in all normal humans. There are so many movies out that are entertaining because of the fear of human annihilation. Any predicted end date that history throws up has been exploited by Hollywood. From pre-millennium tension to technological catastrophes, terrors of massive comets hitting earth in Armageddon, evil alien invasion in Independence Day, and unstoppable natural disasters in 2012. I, Robot is one of many in this category, but it teaches us that society has this ongoing fear of total annihilation. The movie would not be entertaining if Detective Spooner would have been simply proven a lunatic, the robots were flawless, and there was no mass robot invasion taking over the world (I, Robot). If there were no fear in people of annihilation then there would be no reason to make a lot of movies. It’s very easy to understand what I, Robot teaches us: we are afraid. The three rules that are hardwired into every robot constrict what the robots are allowed to do. Each rule has it’s own specific command that tells the robot what it must do, while at the same time not negating the other rules. They act as a circle; they keep each other in check and make the robots effective. In I, Robot these rules are implemented into every robot. The people feel like if the robots are governed and restricted by rules they are safe (I, Robot). This portrays the way we are in society too. We enjoy hiding behind the safety of rules. There are legal rules, social rules; we’ve made rules for everything. If you think about it, whether consciously or not, everything we do on a day-to-day basis has some kind of rules. These rules make us feel safe, like we are in control and nothing is going to mess up or fail because the rules will prevail. Life without rules would be chaos; people would not know what to do. I, Robot definitely shows that society enjoys feeling safe hiding behind rules. Where is the boundary between the human and the nonhuman? Throughout I, Robot the robots in the movie progress from the NS-4 robot series to the NS-5 robot series. The NS-4 has a resemblance of human mechanisms but doesn’t look as realistic as the NS-5. With this new series of robots comes a new face, a humanized face. On top of that, a real issue in the movie is the fact that the inventor of the robots (Dr. Alfred Lanning) predicts robots will one day have secrets and dreams. This is seen in the personal robot of Dr. Lanning named Sonny. Sonny actually has dreams, he can disobey the three laws and pretty much do what he wants (I, Robot). Why are the robots so humanized? This portrays to society because we humanize everything. We have the movie Cars where the cars can talk and carry out normal human deeds. Many scary movies or alien movies have enemies that are humanized. I believe we do this because we fear another species being as smart as us, so that’s why the movies are so interesting. From I, Robot we can see that society likes to humanize our enemies.
When robots finally take over the world, assuming they haven't already, we will not be able to say we weren't warned. Every year, Hollywood comes out with a new thriller that is entertaining, but some can teach us about ourselves. I, Robot is an example of how society is based around technology, is quick to conform, is fearful of annihilation, feels safe with rules, and humanizes everything.

Citations
Asimov, Isaac. "Runaround." Runaround. Rutgers University, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

I, Robot. Dir. Alex Proyas. Perf. Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 2004. DVD.

Zimbardo, Philip, and Cindy X. Wang. "The Lucifer Effect." The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.