Sunday, December 16, 2007

168

I've mentioned the Lego toys (and movies) called Bionicles previously. They are some sort of robot warriors that can be modified almost as much as a regular piece of Lego. They made three movies, I don't know if they are making more. These movies give the characters a rich and HIGHLY complex back story, an entire world, philosophy, creation myth, etc. However, I've never been able to figure out what they really are. William and I watched the second movie this morning and during the extra features, one of the film producers describes them as "bio-mechanical", which is a new idea for William. In fact, I don't have a firm grasp on how to describe this idea. Since he was three, William has been conversant on the ideas and differences between robots, androids, and cyborgs. Bio-mechanical people are something else.
We got a tree today (required much moving of furniture - this never ends). I baked biscotti and tried Joanne's sugar cookie recipe, it's good and rolls out so shapes can be cut. There was a artist trading card session but we forgot and so Margaret went late. I've been working on a series of photo chemistry, but they are incomplete and not nearly as interesting to other people as they are to me. Watched Bourne Ultimatum with Paul and Margaret after baking was done.

4 comments:

Chrystene said...

Perhaps William would be interested to know that there are 'mech-biological' people that he knows, such as people with implants (I have two kinds, dental and spinal) or with pins in broken bones, or spinal fusion... It might help with the 'bio-mechanical' visualization...? I've got some cool X-Rays of my own spinal implant which is a mechanical device and you are welcome to them.

Gerald Saul said...

William has no real problem with visualization, it's actually me that feels the need to figure it all out. Living things with mechanical implants are generally referred to as cyborgs. Robots that look like people are androids. The "Bionicales" seem to be all mechanical but living. They seem to age and die, but there is no information about how they are born or created.

Chrystene said...

Weird. So I am a cyborg then. These things are more complicated than one would think! But maybe if a car can age and die (not to mention a computer) then a bionicale can die too. Interesting. The question I am wondering is, do they operate with some sort of AI or are they purely mechanical? In other words, do they have any sort of personality?

Gerald Saul said...

The Bionicles, in their limited cartoon way, not only have individual personalities and emotions, they have a philosophy, history, nostalgia, honor, and imagination.