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NEWS: Kawamori's "Target HAL" Film Short Set for October 31




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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:36 pm Reply with quote
I'm sorry.. but.. Cyberdyne? HAL? Why would any robotics company use the names of two of the most notorious robot villains in film history?! Every time I hear about this company I can't believe the name is real.
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testorschoice



Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Posts: 468
PostPosted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:50 pm Reply with quote
The Xenos wrote:
I'm sorry.. but.. Cyberdyne? HAL? Why would any robotics company use the names of two of the most notorious robot villains in film history?! Every time I hear about this company I can't believe the name is real.


Well, even the word "robot" itself was coined for the first time in the 1921 Czech play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), in which artificial humans overthrow their masters and annihilate the human race. Any company that has the word "robot" or "robotics" in its name is using the name of the first artificially created "villains" ever in world literature to destroy humanity.

The history of words is often the history of subverting a word's meaning in fictional context with an entirely opposite meaning in the real world. Look up how American subverted the British derisive slang "Yankee Doodle" from the famous song, and then how the Japanese have in turn subverted the term "Yankee" to mean something completely different (the equivalent of "street punk").
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:57 pm Reply with quote
Well, if you're from Boston, Yankee does mean street punk. Also, as the chant goes, "Yankees suck". Rolling Eyes
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