Comment—Cybernetics and Terminator

Well, I see how you thought of cold machines like movie cyborgs when you read about cybernetics. For a tradition that focuses on a human act like communication, cybernetics sure seems very technical. I remember some scenes from those Terminator movies that were pretty funny because the machine could not understand some local cultural practice that wasn’t just about information and uncertainty, as cybernetics seems to be like when Schwarzenegger’s character uses lingo he picks up in arcades. Or, in the beginning of the first movie when he is walking around in a naked human form and doesn’t understand why people are surprised until he gets the information.

These local, human perspectives on meaning and reality seem to fit more with the socio-cultural tradition. Your post about cyborgs shows me how different that view is from cybernetics.

I also think that your comments about the effects of seeing violent and dark versions of the future associated with artificial intelligence are pretty interesting. You could see that as a socio-psychological question about how lots of movies and videogames that make smart machines into villains might shape people’s attitudes about technology. It could also work as critical tradition question, I guess. Some entertainment might actually be challenging the mainstream notion that science always works to produce good things. Then again, Adorno seemed to think that if media entertains you, it must be distracting you from a serious issue. So, maybe the games and movies make light of a real danger, or let us release all our emotions instead of acting on them.

Thanks for bringing up a crazy memory of scary movies I used to like. I would have never thought of that connection here.