As long as a person is able to tell themselves that it’s just a machine and they can live with it and possibly forget what they’ve seen, then Disney’s new skinless, animatronic robot isn’t all that bad. But it’s bound to creep a lot of people out simply by looking at it since it does look like something right out of a horror movie, complete with the tortured appearance and the strange gaze that’s able to follow a person as they move. In truth, it’s an attempt to make an even better attraction at the Disney parks, but this footage is downright creepy simply because of the look of the thing, especially since the robot is being given such human features that it’s starting to make some people wonder just how far things are going to go. It might be a lot of paranoia that manages to keep some people up at night thinking about a machine revolution, but images like this don’t make it much better despite the fact that it’s more of a demonstration to show just how advanced things are becoming and how impressive it’s meant to be. For many people, the idea of whether more advanced machines are a good thing or a bad thing is still a very uncertain matter given how much Hollywood has helped to spread the idea that one day such ideas might be the end of humanity as we know it. Barring the robot apocalypse though, it is kind of impressive to see how things are progressing when it comes to animatronics.
It does beg the question though as to how far things are going to progress until robots are allowed to be self-aware, fully capable of operating themselves, and basically not much different from human beings in terms of what they can do and what they’ll be used for. At the moment such advanced robotics that are giving way to this kind of technological marvel are still fairly rare since the continued advances are costly and aren’t about to be mass-produced just yet. But it’s enough to make a person wonder what might happen if such a thing was to be made possible. For entertainment purposes, this type of technology has done wonders since it’s taken a lot of the old, shambling constructs that were once used and creating something that looks far more authentic than anything that’s come before. To some people, it’s still a bit creepy and to others, it’s enough to keep their paranoia on the rise, but at the moment it is kind of interesting and it is enough to think that humanity can accomplish impressive things.
What will come in the next ten to twenty years in terms of robotics is hard to say, but it does feel if things are moving in this direction at the current moment that we’ll be able to see something even more impressive since it’s very possible that one day the robots that are created for entertainment purposes could be out walking around the park at the direction of a handler or on their own, controlled by a program that can be shut down if need be. This kind of representation has been seen in pop culture, on The Simpsons no less, and of course, things went wrong since a circuit tripped or a program went haywire and the only way to stop the killer Itchy and Scratchy robots was to use a camera flash to fry their circuits. Something tells me that this wouldn’t work quite as well on the robots of today, but there’s also the idea that unless Murphy’s Law takes full effect that a robot uprising won’t happen any time soon. The image from this clip is kind of disturbing, there’s no getting around that idea, but it doesn’t signify much of anything other than the fact that Disney is working diligently on trying to improve on the ability of their attractions to wow people and keep them coming back. The pandemic has been hurting the Mouse House just as much as anyone, more so in some cases, and they’re going to have to do something spectacular to keep the revenue coming in.
With a lot of people wanting to get back to life as they knew it, there are plenty of people that would look at this and think that it’s progress towards better attractions and more impressive advances when it comes to the technology that so many want to see. Just from this clip, it’s obvious that many might think it’s insanely creepy and bound to make kids cry or at least pull back in terror. They might be right since seeing this kind of image is pretty unnerving, but at the very least the narration does tell just why this is important and what’s really happening.
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