Friday 10 December 2021

Guns And Robots

On TV and in comics in the 1950s:

people were always raising their arms when someone else pointed a gun at them both in Westerns and in space operas;

I received mixed messages about "robots" - were they enemies of mankind or just humanoid mechanisms?

Of course, that ambiguity is built into Frankenstein/Robots literature.

In Poul Anderson's Satan's World, when the Serendipity people detain David Falkayn, Kim points a stun gun at him and tells him to raise his hands. When Falkayn enters Gahood's battleship, Latimer points a blaster at him and is accompanied by a tall, complex, cylindrical, metal shape with multiple specialized limbs, sensors and effectors: a robot working for enemies of mankind.

Thus, our childhood heritage accompanies us into adult prose sf but not too often, I hope. Although Poul Anderson enjoyed his action scenes, a David Falkayn or Dominic Flandry series dominated by fights and gun battles would not warrant a lot of rereading.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Of course, as of now at least, robots are simply mechanisms programmed to do only what their designers made them to do. Our robots are nothing like Asimovian robots with their Three Laws or the sophotects and AIs Anderson speculated about in the HARVEST OF STARS books or GENESIS.

And I'm skeptical of such robots even being possible!

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

It's safer to tell people to lace their fingers together on top of their heads. That makes any movement slower, and also more obvious.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I will watch out for that when I watch LAW AND ORDER: SVU or CHICAGO: PD.

Ada astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Just raising your hands shoulder high puts you in a perfect position to draw from a waist or shoulder holster.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And for a police officer to command someone getting arrested to knew and lace his fingers behind his heads makes that impractical? That is what I've seen some of actors in the shows I listed doing to "suspects."

Ad astra! Sean