Knowledge Economy

    I am not doing a full post this week, but in Auckland this weekend I went to see a movie which seemed to fit in with this weeks topic. This weekend I went to see Real Steel with a small group and after reading the chapter and some of the readings due for this week I realized that the movie itself was a kind of metaphor for fighting against this shift into a knowledge economy that we seem to have undergone.

    The movie is about robot boxing. Instead of the old flesh and blood of Rocky and Raging Bull the boxers are now 9 ft tall and made out of steel. These robots are controlled by humans outside of the ring with controllers, like a video game. The protagonist of the film is a former boxer who made the switch to robot boxing as traditional boxing went out of style. As the movie progresses the better boxing robots are not controlled by just one person attempting to box, but by a team of computer technicians working from behind screens. 

    Not to give too much for those who may want to see it, but the end of the movie pits the ultimate in programming technology, the champion bot "Zeus", versus an old beat up bot controlled by an ex-boxer that has to rely on human intuition. It is a battle between knowledge and labor as dominant resources that humans can provide. It also has Hugh Jackman and a boy that dances with a robot. Here is the trailer for your enjoyment: