Comments on: Face Off 2: Mike and Ray on Eve no Jikan and Its Issues

By: moritheil

moritheil — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:55:31 +0000

@Anon – I wasn’t part of the initial discussion, but let me ask something. You’re basically stating that the concept of “inherent rights” – something that Mike brings up very early on, above – is the correct conclusion. Why would you necessarily assume that inherent rights are the only resolution to the deconstruction? We could just as easily conclude that our tendency to think in terms of “rights” is what is flawed. After all, that is just an artificial idea as well.

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:49:06 +0000

You guys have missed the whole point. It isn’t necessarily talking about “rights”, but rather about society and intelligent self-aware sentient beings. To deny such a being dignity and rights is ethically atrocious. There is a medium-level “deconstruction” going on, clearly bringing to surface the polyvalent prejudices that the characters have, and we as the audience may also have with our culturally informed phenomenological and metaphysical accounts of what it is to be whatever we are. The clincher here is that “man” is just an idea.

By: Rah'ra

Rah'ra — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 04:22:09 +0000

The author of YKK (Yokohoma Kaidashi Kikou) uses the concept of “robot intelligence” as a plot device so that the main character could stay young forever. The big theme of YKK is that while she stays the same the people around her change.

A better story for exploring the concept of a “robot future” is PLUTO by Urasawa, the author of MONSTER. PLUTO is a remake of the classic original ASTRO BOY but with a megalomaniacal twist.

PLUTO is about a future where society has evolved to the point where robots have equal rights as humans. The robots can do everything that humans do: vote, work, go on vacations, marry one another, cry adopt HUMAN children, become judges, police officers, and pro wrestlers, etc.. The only restriction is that they cannot harm or kill humans deliberately, though they may destroy each other. Urasawa was clearly influenced by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s when he wrote PLUTO. PLUTO is odd in that the robots are more angsty and emotional than the humans.

If you liked MONSTER or 20th Century Boys check PLUTO out (and YKK, and Vinland Saga, they’re very good too). I probably should write a full review of it. You can find it online. It’s going to be licensed in February so catch it while you can.

By: SomewhatNifty

SomewhatNifty — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:52:46 +0000

Mizu no Kotoba is 9 minutes long and Pale Cocoon is 23 minutes long, at least watch the former, Ray. :<

This comment will contain “spoilers” of Mizu no Kotoba.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (my favorite manga by leaps and bounds) holds a few similar themes to Mizu no Kotoba and Eve no Jikan. In YKK, Mizu no Kotoba, and Eve no Jikan, the robots seem just as (if not more so) human as the humans themselves, however it seems limited (so far, at least) to the inside of the cafe with Mizu no Kotoba’s surprise robot attached to cafe and Eve no Jikan’s policy against discrimination, whereas YKK’s robots are human no matter where they are.

None of them really explain why they were made that way either. Eve no Jikan may or may not go into that, the robot of Mizu no Kotoba being part of the shop seems to imply that she was made that way for the sole purpose of dealing with the customers, and it is implied that in YKK the robots were built to live as the humans were dying out.

On the “The Future. Japan, probably.” thing, Anyone else thinking BLAME!? “Maybe on Earth, Maybe in the Future.”

On another note, artificial moeblob is now my favorite term.

By: Vallen Chaos Valiant

Vallen Chaos Valiant — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:48:10 +0000

I just wanted to point out something…

“The Three Laws of Robotics” is NOT suppose to work. The whole point of the original novel, is that the Three Laws are inflexible and useless for its purpose.

Robots who have the intellect to comprehend the Three Laws, would be smart enough to circumvent them if they so wish. And Robots without the intellect to comprehend the Three Laws would be too dumb to follow the rules.

Asimov never intended his “Laws” to be taken as gospel; indeed, he intended it to be the exact opposite. Creatures of true free will will do harm OR good of their own choosing, regardless of what “Laws” you wired into their brains.