Since the beginning of time man has been at war with technology, afraid of it (I'm being melodramatic here on purpose). Just look at Hollywood, they love to exploit this theme. The movie iRobot is just one of many examples where we create machines capable of outsmarting and ultimately hurting us, which is at the core of why we fear technology. (I almost want the sequel to the facebook movie to be about how facebook becomes too smart and Will Smith must then correct that wrong).
So is something like this going to happen? Why are we so preoccupied with the harmful robot?
When I went on a study abroad last Summer to the UK, I was in Scotland and picked up a very interesting comic book about the development of film. In it, the author pointed out that film more than any other medium has been used to explore the fear of rising technology, and yet at every turn it depends on rising technology. I think rather than predicting the future, films such as I, Robot help us work through the irrationality of our fears and feel okay adopting new technologies. Any fear we had about Google remembering our search terms kind of dissipates when we realize how different the reality of technology is from crazed logic-looping control freak androids.
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