ROBOT QUOTES
quotations about robots
Don't think of robots as replacements for humans -- think of them as things that will help make us better at tackling many of the problems we face.
EOIN TREACY
"How to profit from the peaceful rise of the robots", Money Week, April 21, 2016
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.
ERICH FROMM
The Sane Society
You gotta be pretty desperate to make it with a robot.
HOMER SIMPSON
The Simpsons
I'm just a robot
I have no fears
I lack emotion
And I shed no tears.
NEVER SHOUT NEVER
"Robot"
Robots are interesting because they exist as a real technology that you can really study -- you can get a degree in robotics -- and they also have all this pop-culture real estate that they take up in people's minds.
DANIEL H. WILSON
"Where I write: Daniel H. Wilson and the revolt of the robots", The Oregonian, June 4, 2011
Knocking Atlas over, taking its cardboard box out of its hands and pushing it around with a hockey stick, stealing its lunch money, and giving it swirlies off-camera--that might be reassuring for now. But it will probably seem like a bad idea when one morning in the not-so-distant future, Atlas your robot servant decides that instead of toasting your Eggo waffles to the perfect shade of golden brown, he's going to murder your whole family and wrap his metallic phalanges around your throat, squeezing the feeble life out of you before he joins his robotic brethren in The Revolution. Just saying.
CLAY SKIPPER
"Good News for Humans: Robots Are Still Easy-to-Punk Dweebs", GQ, February 24, 2016
Robots are being programmed to feel pain and react to it -- just like humans do. The incredible advance sees an artificial robot nervous system being trained to react to pain messages to save themselves from danger. The project, headed up by scientists from Leibniz University of Hannover, presents an about-face in terms of robotic design for some. Long thought to be useful for the very reason that they did not feel pain -- allowing them to perform unpleasant, dangerous tasks without issue -- researchers believe a system to recognise pain will help preserve robots.
KIRSTIE MCCRUM
"Robots are being programmed to 'feel pain' - and react to it like humans do", The Mirror, May 25, 2016
The machine has no feelings, it feels no fear and no hope ... it operates according to the pure logic of probability. For this reason I assert that the robot perceives more accurately than man.
MAX FRISCH
Homo Faber: A Report
Humans aren't machines. We feel, we love, we cry, we despair, and we rejoice. Anyone who's ever tried to convince me not to feel is someone I shouldn't have trusted. The only reason you should shut off your emotions and emulate a robot is if you're doing horrible things.
BRUCE CROWN
Forlorn Passions
Will robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be our children.
MARVIN MINSKY
Scientific American, October 1994
My dear Miss Glory, Robots are not people. They are mechanically more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul.
KAREL CAPEK
R.U.R.
Man is a robot with defects.
EMIL CIORAN
The Trouble With Being Born
We are survival machines -- robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
RICHARD DAWKINS
The Selfish Gene
Personally, I'm not afraid of a robot uprising. The benefits far outweigh the threats.
DANIEL H. WILSON
"Robots gone wild in Daniel H. Wilson's 'Robopocalypse'", USA Today, May 25, 2011
We have used the words "mechanical life," "the mechanical kingdom," "the mechanical world" and so forth, and we have done so advisedly, for as the vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, and as, in like manner, the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so now, in these last few ages, an entirely new kingdom has sprung up of which we as yet have only seen what will one day be considered the antediluvian prototypes of the race.
SAMUEL BUTLER
letter to the Editor of the Press, "Darwin among the Machines", June 13, 1863
We are not the only avatars of humanity. Once our computing machines achieved self-consciousness, they became part of this design.
DAN SIMMONS
Endymion
This is what we mean when we talk about "robots." We're talking about cognitive abilities, not the fact that they're made of metal instead of flesh and powered by electricity instead of chicken nuggets.
KEVIN DRUM
"You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot--and Sooner Than You Think", Mother Jones, November/December 2017
Man lives like a robot: mechanically efficient, but with no awareness.
OSHO
A Sudden Clash of Thunder
Here I come
Cryogenic heart, skin a polished silver
One thing I am glad of
For this I thank my builder
I can never rust
LOUIS SHALAKO
"Mr. Robot", Selected Poems
Stop trying to live my life for me
I need to breathe
I'm not your robot
Stop telling me I'm part of the big machine
I'm breaking free
Can't you see
I can love, I can speak, without somebody else operating me
You gave me eyes so now I see
I'm not your robot
I'm just me.
MILEY CYRUS
"Robot"