Gort - The Robot To End All Artificial Intelligence
Klaatu Had Gort To Help Him On The Day The Earth Stood Still
Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto. Translation? Anything you’d like to propose.
Lost? Don’t feel bad, you’re not alone. Considering both the movie’s screenwriter, Edmund H. North, along with Robert Wise, director of The Day The Earth Stood Still, both had no idea what it meant, it can mean absolutely anything you’d like it to signify. Many fans like to think it means - Gort, Klaatu Needs Help - an SOS for the giant robot Gort to help his extraterrestrial master, the alien humanoid, Klaatu.
Farewell To The Master
Fans of this sci-fi masterpiece may not be aware the film is based on a short story, Farewell To The Master, written by Harry Bates. The short is far different from what we see in Robert Wise’s film. But in the end, it’s of no matter. Many of us aren’t so concerned with the plot or Klaatu’s mission or even his final predicament. We’re simply fascinated by Gort’s fantastic abilities and the purpose for his existence.
Gort, much like his droid cousins, robot superstars R2D2, C3PO from Star Wars, B9 from Lost In Space or Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet, goes beyond a respective story framework and can be easily extracted from his fictional world to fit in wherever our wandering future projections take us.
Let’s face it, we’d dearly love to own Gort.
Gort does it all. He’s phenomenally strong, nearly invulnerable, projects tank melting death rays and can, miraculously of all, revive one from the cold embrace of death. And above all he just looks breathtakingly cool. He’s a perfect companion, the most kick ass bodyguard and a fierce protector of any core mission we’d assign him to completing. One day we’ll be able to buy and own Gort, and I’ll be first in line.
Artificial Intelligent Law Makers
The test of any such higher authority is, of course, a police force that supports it. For our policemen, we created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol in spaceships like this one and preserve peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk.
It’s what Klaatu tells us at movie’s end which is both fascinating and frightening. Klaatu and his humanoid people don’t give Gort orders, he and his robotic kind are, in fact, the real masters of their civilization. In ultimate matters of law and order, they call the shots. Nobody dares mess with Gort and his gleaming buddies.
What’s the sci-fi endgame? Or, more importantly for us living in the real world of the here and now, how would an artificial intelligent unit like Gort impact or even ultimately change the parameters of our society? They are, for all intents and purposes, a near omnipotent race of law makers with no way to deactivate. The trust level of an entire planet employing a system like that is an overwhelming one indeed.
Our world is only now beginning to be fully dependent on our technology. We’re nearly forgetting what it was like to not use computers daily. More relevant perhaps, we’re becoming completely reliant on tech for nearly every aspect of modern life. Tech malfunctions, accidental breakdowns, sloppy programming or the threat of hackers inconvenience us and as our reliance on tech grows, this threat will only increase.
Gort entices us as a mind bending sci-fi symbol of the irresistible promise of artificial intelligence, yet we know full well how fragile and vulnerable our tech web which connects us can be. The notion that a near perfect group of super robots would police our world, serving up justice to all who break the law is seductive, but malfunctions or intentional sabotage attacks make the Gort concept the one to end artificial intelligence, or more precisely, end everything for all of us for all time.