Daily Dialogue — October 3, 2017

Detective Del Spooner: Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a… canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?
Sonny: Can you?

— I, Robot (2004), screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman, story by Jeff Vintar, suggested by a book by Isaac Asimov

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Interrogation. Today’s suggestion by Gregory Netterville.

Trivia: According to the credits, the film was “Inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Book”; however, there was never an Asimov “book” (i.e. novel) called ‘I, Robot’. A short story called “I, Robot”, about a robot called “Adam Link”, was written by Earl and Otto Binder (aka “Eando” Binder) and published in the January 1939 issue of ‘Amazing Stories’, well before the unrelated and more well-known book ‘I, Robot’ (1950), a collection of short stories, by Asimov. Asimov admitted to being heavily influenced by the Binder short story. The title of Asimov’s collection was changed to “I, Robot” by the publisher, against Asimov’s wishes.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Human / Robot movies are great in part because they embrace the central question of all stories: “Who am I?” Can a robot be human? Can a human be robot?