Computer Love

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	The theme of machines that can 'feel,' let alone feel emotions like love, is present in many popular culture texts, including films like ''Robocop'', ''Blade Runner'' and, perhaps most explicitly, [[Artificial Intelligence: A.I.]], a film for which the tagline, "His love is real, but he is not," outlined the main character's (a cyborg) ordeal.		The theme of machines that can 'feel,' let alone feel emotions like love, is present in many popular culture texts, including films like ''Robocop'', ''Blade Runner'' and, perhaps most explicitly, [[Artificial Intelligence: A.I.]], a film for which the tagline, "His love is real, but he is not," outlined the main character's (a cyborg) ordeal.
	[[Image:computerlove.jpg|thumb|Awww...computer wub]]		[[Image:computerlove.jpg|thumb|Awww...computer wub]]
-	Musicians have often included themes of machines that can feel in their songs. Like Kraftwerk's 'Computer Love', Kate Bush's 'Deeper Understanding,' from her 1989 album ''The Sensual World,'' deals with a person attempting to connect on a 'deeper' level with a machine. Yes, like 'Computer Love' 'Deeper Understanding' also sounds dated (ie. the lyric "I press execute"), and the conversation taking place between Kate Bush (presumably) and her computer is slightly humourous, but it does bring up questions about the relationship between humans and machines, in lyrics like:	+	Musicians have often included themes of machines that can feel in their songs. Like Kraftwerk's 'Computer Love', Kate Bush's 'Deeper Understanding,' from her 1989 album ''The Sensual World,'' deals with a person attempting to connect on a 'deeper' level with a machine. Yes, like 'Computer Love' 'Deeper Understanding' can also be said to sound dated (ie. the lyric "I press Execute"), and the conversation taking place between Kate Bush (presumably) and her computer might be slightly humourous, but it does bring up questions about the relationship between humans and machines, in lyrics like:
	"As the people here grow colder		"As the people here grow colder

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Revision as of 20:19, 30 April 2008

Though German techno group Kraftwerk's 1981 single 'Computer Love,' from their Computer World album, sounds dated (and yes, Coldplay did use the sample for their 2006 single 'Talk'), it makes very explicit a recurring motif in science-fiction and roboculture narratives, about the capacity for machines to feel emotions like love in the same way humans do (though Kraftwerk's song is more about a 'love' between humans and machines).

More often than not, questions about how 'machine-like' humans are, and how 'human-like' machines are, tend to be asked in regards to thought and thinking. Because thinking is seen as a rational act, it is sometimes assumed that machines would be able to think in the same way as humans, as it is considered a process that can be easily measured. However, perhaps because emotions are considered to be 'irrational,' being able to feel is not an atribute that is often assigned to machines - how many times is someone said to be 'cold and robotic' if they behave in a way that does not show compassion or sympathy? The theme of machines that can 'feel,' let alone feel emotions like love, is present in many popular culture texts, including films like Robocop, Blade Runner and, perhaps most explicitly, Artificial Intelligence: A.I., a film for which the tagline, "His love is real, but he is not," outlined the main character's (a cyborg) ordeal.

Musicians have often included themes of machines that can feel in their songs. Like Kraftwerk's 'Computer Love', Kate Bush's 'Deeper Understanding,' from her 1989 album The Sensual World, deals with a person attempting to connect on a 'deeper' level with a machine. Yes, like 'Computer Love' 'Deeper Understanding' can also be said to sound dated (ie. the lyric "I press Execute"), and the conversation taking place between Kate Bush (presumably) and her computer might be slightly humourous, but it does bring up questions about the relationship between humans and machines, in lyrics like:

"As the people here grow colder

I turn to my computer

And spend my evenings with it

Like a friend."

Written before the advent of the internet, without even taking into consideration sites like MSN and Facebook, the lyrics from 'Deeper Understanding' are part of a long history of technology centred narratives about how emotionally attached to machines and computers human beings might become.

It is often said that we depend on technology too much, as it has become necessary in our everyday lives, and it could very well be that an emotional attachment to that technology could be formed as a result of that dependency.