THE FARM REVEALED

PROGRAMME 5: BIONICS

ACTIVITIES

Clip-related activity

To view 4Learning video clips you will need Windows XP/2000 and Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11. Unfortunately, the clips are not supported on Macintosh computers.

The video clips may contain a few seconds of extra material at the beginning and end. We have therefore included opening and closing descriptions to help identify the intended scene.

Continue the studio discussion
Clip 1: 20:04 – 22:36

• Opens with audience member saying, 'I was just wondering…'
• Closes with Kevin Warwick saying, '…what you're actually feeling.'

The audience raises four different points for Kevin to address. Listen to each of the questions and Kevin's answers and discuss whether or not you agree with him.

Further activities

This web page contains links to other websites that are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

Bionic utopias – fact or fiction?

The following two activities are based on plays that were written in the 1920s. At that time the first production lines were appearing in factories, turning workers into automatons. Also, the experiences of the First World War, when men were used as 'cannon fodder' were still-fresh scars. In this light, the two authors below addressed utopian questions about the worth of human existence and the role of work. Some of the issues that arise from these dramas are as relevant today as they were in the 1920s, if not more so. Technologically speaking we have edged much closer to their visions of utopia.

What defines a human? When does a cyborg cease to be a human and become a robot? Does a robot deserve to be given human rights? In a world where people can be electronically enhanced, will we end up with a society split into enhanced and un-enhanced castes? Will we eventually use robots to do all the work for us? What will happen to us if we don't work? Will robots become so intelligent that they will rebel against us? Could the chips implanted in our bodies influence our behaviour in ways that we don't yet understand? These questions and many more arise from these two plays. They form a useful pair for comparison but they are equally useful as stand alone pieces.

Activity 1
Humans and technology are synonymous. In the 21st century we appear to have plucked cyborgs and robots from the realms of science fiction and placed them firmly in science fact.

Explore the idea of a robot. What is a robot? What is it for?

Read a synopsis of Karol Capek's play entitled Rossums Universal Robots (1920):
http://capek.misto.cz/english/rur.html
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R._(Rossum's_Universal_Robots)

In his play a factory owner has developed robots that do all the work. The story is about a robot rebellion. The word 'robot' originates from this play. The word robot means drudgery in Czech.

What technological developments in 1920 may have led Karol Capek to write about robots? (Factory automation, Ford Motor Cars.)

Do you think that Capek's work is visionary? Are the questions it raises still relevant to us today?

Activity 2
If you can, watch all or part of Fritz Lang's film Metropolis (1927). Alternatively, read the plot summary on these pages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)

Set in the, then, far future, Metropolis, is about a city in which a privileged few live charmed lives in complete ignorance of the fact that they are dependent upon a hidden mass of workers. The workers are confined to dark barracks where machines rule their lives. Society has become divided into thinkers and workers. Neither is complete and neither knows anything about the others. This world is turned upside down by an evangelical teacher and a malign mechanical copy of her.

When you have watched the film or read the plot, discuss its relevance today.

What is a utopia? Will robots eventually do all our work, so that we become thinkers or simply consumers? How do the workers resemble machines?

Does Kevin Warwick present a utopian picture in the way that he presents his work on cybernetics?