Showing posts with label Robocop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robocop. Show all posts
Stay out of trouble
While I can appreciate the sentiment here, his original advice to "Stay out of trouble" should cover such simple activities as those stated here.
Anyway, now I should go wash the dishes so that I can cook lunch!
35 years of Robocop
I remember seeing the film in the cinema while in high school and enthusing about it to my friends.
Then, when it came out on video, I was unable to watch it again for years as it'd been reclassified as R-rated!
Unlike the R-rating shown in the US advert here, Australia's R is restricted to anyone under 18.
Anyway, I showed the film to my kids last year since they are all in high school.
It stands up well, despite the decades and development of various technologies -- including police robots.
Milkshake brings RoboCop to my blog
Or, as I recently read, the activity can be described as "lactosing the intolerant"!
Image by Happy Toast
Art Deco-era RoboCop!
I found this at Dangerous Minds.
Sometimes I think Modernism was the peak of western civilisation. There's a vision of humanity overcoming all obstacles with modern technology that seems to ooze out of all the wonderful Art Deco style. It's such a shock when you compare it to the sense that 'everything has already been done' that permeates postmodernism.
Yet the radio-controlled police robot above doesn't seem that far removed from RoboCop.
Serve the public trust
Earlier this month the Mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, used the social media service Twitter to canvas ideas for reviving the US city.
Among the suggestions sent to Mayor Bing was a ‘tweet’ from user MT that as, Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky, Detroit should consider a statue of Robocop, titular character from the 1987 film known for its violence, black comedy and vision of a future where the police force has been privatised.
Mayor Bing ‘tweeted’ back that “There are not any plans to erect a statue to Robocop” and thanked them for the suggestion. However, the idea proved to be very popular and a statue of Robocop standing in Detroit looks likely to become a permanent fixture.
As of 2pm on Monday 28 February, 2442 people have contributed nearly $63,000 toward constructing the statue, which was expected to cost $50,000.
This is one example of the ‘crowdsourcing’ trend first identified by Wired journalist Jeff Howe in 2006. The crowds are typically online communities who pool skills and resources to reach a common goal. Wikipedia is one example of a crowdsourced project, an online encyclopaedia that is the result of volunteer editors and contributors.
A critical part of developing a crowd ready to support Robocop was the response of John Leonard who, upon learning of Mayor Bing’s decision, created a Facebook group that galvanised support. From here a profile was created on Kickstarter, a website which solicits funds for crowdsourced projects.
Kickstarter’s website describes their service as “A new form of commerce and patronage”:
This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project...
Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse.
It’s somewhat ironic that a film about a privatised police force should have a role in a community-led plan, yet as social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have recently played starring roles in changing governments, perhaps a statue of Robocop could be much more than a pet project for a bunch of geeks?
An alternate view of the so-called ‘wisdom of the crowd’ is that groups of people seem to be easily swayed by novelty, for example the US city of Austin’s decision to put the name for their new Solid Waste Services Department to a popular vote. Based on current polling, it looks like it will be named the Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts!
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