Robot film fest imagines a future filled with machines

July 19, 2011 | Source: New Scientist CultureLab

Waiting For Name Assignment (credit: Alvaro Galvan)

The first Robot Film Festival was held this past weekend at the 3-Legged Dog Art and Technology Center in Manhattan.

Organizer Heather Knight, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University, hoped the 53 films accepted into the film festival would help us explore a future in which we are closely surrounded by robots.

A sampling:

The Machine: a man builds a robot that goes on to destroy the world.

Double A: a woman becomes furious with her printer, which morphs into a giant robot.

Out in the Street: robots commit suicide when they learn that they will need to be returned and replaced.