Those Creepy Lady Robots: A look at mad scientists

This week I’m taking a short break from books and am recommending the movie, Ex Machina, which is what I would call, a classic “mad scientist” story. And this is a brilliant one.

Just to give you the skeleton of the story - (and "skeleton" is a pun. You’ll get it later) brilliant, reclusive, billionaire computer programmer, Nathan lives alone in a state-of-the-art fortress in the mountains (we never quite know the location) where he works on his projects. Mainly robots of the female persuasion. Apparently there has been a contest back at Blue Book, the Search Engine company he founded, and young, eager, and equally brilliant Caleb, the winner of the competition gets to spend a week with the eccentric programmer.

Take a look at the picture above to the right. Ava, one of his robots we get to meet, is a see-through wisp of a young woman who, when her joints move, there are these ever-so-slight machine noises. Very clever. Very convincing.

The Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) in this movie is fantasticaly rendered. You owe it to yourself to watch it just for that.

And of course, the plot probably proceeds the way you think it will. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t have a story. All you would have are people using robots to do their household work. I already have that. "Filch", what we have named our Roomba brand robot vacuum cleaner has saved my body from the back-breaking work of vacuuming. Thank you Filch. Now, if Filch started rebelling and deciding not to work? That would be a movie. 

And that's precisely what happens here when all is not well with Ava and the other robot we meet - Kyoto (whose main jobs, it seems, is dancing and serving meals.)

Of course, there is that horrific, gasp-inducing ending. I will not spoil it for you. I will not even hint at it, but just that it is chilling and it still has me thinking, and wondering.

This moves me to another subject - Mad Scientists in general. They have been around a long time and favorite theme in literature and movies. From Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Rcently, I listened to The Invisible Man, another "mad scientist" book as an audio book and loved it. In it, the scientist invents a potion which renders him invisible. 

And who can forget the weird piece of vegetation in Little Shop of Horrors yelling “Feed me! Feed me!”

More recently, there is the movie, I, Robot. And today, Ex Machina.

If you are interested in more Mad Scientist books, here's a list courtesy of Goodreads.

Why are we so fascinated with mad scientists? I think it comes down to wanting a kind of constant confirmation of our humanness. Because we ARE, in fact, developing robots like Kyoto and Ava. (See the links below.) Could they ever become human? Could they make choices and "think"?  Could Artificial Intelligence come that far? What makes a human, anyway?

I’m currently re-watching all of the old episodes of the X-Files on Netflix. I was a fan back in the day. In the 90s, when this series was filmed, we, as a culture, feared and were fascinated by aliens and demons. Remember all the horrific, but totally false allegations about devil worship and sacrifice that arose in the mid-90s? That is the stuff of the X-Files.

I find it interesting that we have changed as a culture from looking at demons and devils as the non-human “other”, and are fascinated by what we can invent ourselves. What is a soul? What makes a human person a human person? Do aliens and demons have these souls? And now, we ask, can robots have souls? And feelings? What do you think?

If you were creeped out by Ex Machina, take a look at these sites. This whole thing is a lot closer than we think or that Dr. Frankenstein would ever have imagined.

Click here for a look at some creepy lady robots. And here.  And my personal  favorite.

What are some of your favorite Mad Scientist books or movies? Share them in the “comments” section.

In Two Weeks: Another literary thriller - The Ice Twins.