MovieChat Forums > Bicentennial Man (1999) Discussion > Robots No Longer Financially Viable In T...

Robots No Longer Financially Viable In The Future?


Interestingly if you watch the film from the beginning and as time progresses, robot servants become less and less common.

So I wonder what happened with the progression of NorthAm Robotics? Did other technologies, make the robots obsolete or just not financially viable to the customer?

I know from the upgrades they were expensive, so did the robots just die out when costs became too much. Fears of the robots taking the jobs of humans?

It's interesting to watch as time moves on, robots the future, become less and less part of the daily world.

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This something that was glossed over in the movie since its more about the effects of Andrew on those around him than actually Andrew himself. More of a love story.

I was wondering why there were no more advanced robots [or even slave/worker] at least not shown in the film.... was Andrew the only sentient synthetic running around? Eventually we see a more advanced Galitea [sentient? who knows] so maybe there were.
The film itself jumps huge amounts of time and societal questions about robots being in rapport with humans aren't really answered.
Even Andrew when first freed can run around and not end up like the hitchhiking robot that 'dies' in Philadelphia

I like to think this an alternate kinder earth, maybe with way less wars, no slavery and such.
Because in our reality it would be more like the British TV series Humans....eventually leading to BattleStar Galactica like revolt and humans in The Matrix ;)...
This can also be seen by the amount of vitriol flung at this film by haters.

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We are the slaves. We have been dumbed down by the celeb industry, into caring about the attention seeking schemes of talentless celebs, than questioning why we pay so much for energy, than having research find us all free and green energy. Just so the few at the top can live in luxury off our hard work, because they pay politicians to keep things that way.

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To be more specific, android robots, as NDR was, are not financially viable now nor will they be in the future. An android has to work within the limitations of both humans and machines. For example, does it make more sense to build an android to pull you around in a rickshaw, or to just build a car? Do you build and train an android to push a lawnmower, or design a programmable lawnmower. Do you really need an android to walk around with you and provide you with needed information, or wouldn't you rather just have a smart phone in your pocket?

Androids are only good as Sci-fi movie characters, toys, or metaphors.

Bicentennial Man was sentimental and sweet as a fictional story. In reality, looking for human interaction from synthetic humans is just creepy.

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A dope trailer is no place for a kitty.

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