I was talking to a colleague of mine about what we'd done over the past weekend. I mentioned discovering one of my streaming services had the entire run of the bionic man so I wound up binging a good portion of the first two seasons. He shook his head. "Huh. Never heard of him."
This colleague was a child of the '90s so he can be forgiven for being unaware of Steve Austin and his enhanced skillsets. I explained the premise: "Colonel Steve Austin was a test pilot and astronaut. His last mission ended tragically when he lost control of his craft and crashed." Anyone who's ever seen the show will have a memory of watching Steve's aircraft flipping end over end in the opening sequence. "But he survived." My colleague rolled his eyes.
"Would've been a pretty crappy show if he didn't..."
"No. Seriously." A smile came over my face. "He was barely alive. But they rebuilt him. They had the technology. They had the capability to make him the world's first bionic man. He was better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."
I listed out the prosthetics. "Both legs, right arm, oh yeah, and his left eye." Right now, folks my age are hearing the hyper-realistic 70's bionic sound effects in their heads.
"Pfft. Sounds pricy." I snorted. You couldn't ask for a better opening. I quickly Googled the inflation rate.
"Well, today it would be over 36 million and change. But back then it was a mere 6 million dollars." When he found out how old the series was, he was shocked.
"Does it hold up?"
"Meh. It got pretty campy."
Back in those days, technology was our friend. Robotics and bionics were cool and something to implement whenever and wherever possible. However, along the way, automation and augmentation took a turn down a very dark alley. These days, dystopian views of technology becoming our oppressor rather than our savior are more the norm. Robotics and AI are taking over jobs everywhere from factories to fast-food burger joints, and hyper-intelligent machine learning algorithms are starting their incursion into white-collar positions. A lot of decision making is being left up to circuit boards and transistors rather than human gray matter. From statistical analyses governing insurance coverage to self-driving cars and drone-delivered packages, we're edging closer to a machine age.
This is not necessarily bad - if it's done properly. But really, can we trust ourselves to do it properly? We're already too tethered to technology like junkies looking for a hit. Observe people on the street. Nearly everyone is hyper-focused on their phones in their hands rather than being situationally aware of where they're walking - sometimes with hilarious results. Even in the movies, guys like Robocop and Iron Man are outnumbered by the likes of Terminators, Agent Smiths, and Hal. The Dark Side got Vader while the Rebels were stuck with 3PO.
In 1983, Styx made their position known with the release of "Mr. Roboto". With lyrics like, "I'm not a robot without emotions," their vision of the future was also apocalyptic with the continued dehumanizing of the workforce. They continued on,
"Hey, Alexa! Play today's feature....and write tomorrow's post!"
"Would've been a pretty crappy show if he didn't..."
"No. Seriously." A smile came over my face. "He was barely alive. But they rebuilt him. They had the technology. They had the capability to make him the world's first bionic man. He was better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster."
I listed out the prosthetics. "Both legs, right arm, oh yeah, and his left eye." Right now, folks my age are hearing the hyper-realistic 70's bionic sound effects in their heads.
"Pfft. Sounds pricy." I snorted. You couldn't ask for a better opening. I quickly Googled the inflation rate.
"Well, today it would be over 36 million and change. But back then it was a mere 6 million dollars." When he found out how old the series was, he was shocked.
"Does it hold up?"
"Meh. It got pretty campy."
Back in those days, technology was our friend. Robotics and bionics were cool and something to implement whenever and wherever possible. However, along the way, automation and augmentation took a turn down a very dark alley. These days, dystopian views of technology becoming our oppressor rather than our savior are more the norm. Robotics and AI are taking over jobs everywhere from factories to fast-food burger joints, and hyper-intelligent machine learning algorithms are starting their incursion into white-collar positions. A lot of decision making is being left up to circuit boards and transistors rather than human gray matter. From statistical analyses governing insurance coverage to self-driving cars and drone-delivered packages, we're edging closer to a machine age.
This is not necessarily bad - if it's done properly. But really, can we trust ourselves to do it properly? We're already too tethered to technology like junkies looking for a hit. Observe people on the street. Nearly everyone is hyper-focused on their phones in their hands rather than being situationally aware of where they're walking - sometimes with hilarious results. Even in the movies, guys like Robocop and Iron Man are outnumbered by the likes of Terminators, Agent Smiths, and Hal. The Dark Side got Vader while the Rebels were stuck with 3PO.
In 1983, Styx made their position known with the release of "Mr. Roboto". With lyrics like, "I'm not a robot without emotions," their vision of the future was also apocalyptic with the continued dehumanizing of the workforce. They continued on,
That's pretty bleak, but a good summarization of our use of technology. Who is serving who? Colonel Steve Austin's campy good guy exploits are looking pretty good right now.The problem's plain to see: too much technology.Machines to save our lives. Machines dehumanize.
"Hey, Alexa! Play today's feature....and write tomorrow's post!"
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