The Joy of Gaming Series

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Sighting - Robot Connection

I was watching the new season of Futurama on Comedy Central and I had an I, Robot connection. I'm currently reading Asimov's I, Robot, so alot of little things jump out at me as I'm reading. I make alot of what teachers call "Text-To" connections. I connect what I'm reading to the things around me in order to make sense of them, or vice versa. I connect movies to books or art to movies, etc. It's all about "Text-to" connections. All these connections are amplified when you're reading a certain book or invested in a certain TV series. Things just pop up and slap you in the face! When I'm done with I, Robot I'll have a little record on the book. I thought, though, that this was a worthy moment to mention a connection and I totally

In the episode T.: The Terrestrial, Fry and the Planet Express crew go to Omicron Persei 8 (the planet run by Lrrr) to get some herbs. Fry and Bender are by some bushes and Fry asks Bender to let him know when they have to "cheese it." Bender says "that's the first law of robotics, babae." (Watch a 4 minute clip here.) This draws on the connection to I, Robot and the three laws of robotics. Law #1 "a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." Of course, the whole premise of Bender's guilt is fostered in the fact that he did betray his friend and probably did let him come to harm. At the end of the episode he arrives, possibly too late, to save Fry, but he ultimately fulfills the first law by making sure Fry doesn't die. In a roundabout way, but still. . . you couldn't guarantee that Fry would come to harm, technically.

Just wanted to post a little geekup about what I saw. Sure there are tons of other references, but I'm really into the I, Robot stuff right now and this just appealed to me. (Just for additionally funsies, Leela calls Hermes Geordi).


Futurama on the Enterprise by ~obiwankatie on deviantART

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