honda asimo robot (unseen)

Extract from "Multimedia", Anne Cranny-Francis, p62, 2004 Sage Publications

"In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) Montgomery Scott verbally insulted the turbolift of a twenty-third-century spacecraft - and audiences laughed uproariously. One evening recently I received a phone call from a marketing company - either selling a product or attempting to perform a market survey. The voice identified itself as automated - and my response was shamefully close to Commander Scotts: I immediately hung up. Why these responses in these specific situations? Scott was aboard a vessel that was meant to supersede his beloved Enterprise; so his feelings are already hostile. Furthermore, he is about to sabotage the ships engineering. When the lift addresses him, Scotty regards the communication as impertinent and reacts with hostility.; he is not amused. The audiences laughter at this scene seems to be prompted not only by satirical response ("Up your shaft"), but by the perceived victory of the human (Scotty, the less advanced Enterprise) over the technological (Excelsior) - and particularly by the refusal of the human to be situated (pandered to, positioned) by the technology. In doing so the film articulates a human fear of (the power of) technology that is found in many contemporary texts (notably The Matrix (1999)).


From the book of Nelson Muntz

"Ha Ha"

Think this is a spoof of the original Honda advert, with "Asimo" the amazing- or not so in this case. People like to poke fun at new technology, especially when it's gifted on a plate. Interesting point to make is that Honda uses "Asimo" as a marketing tool, using a less direct strategy than promoting their latest model; they seem more concerned with promulgating innovation and commitment to technologies of the future. One step at a time though!