robot

The term 'robot' in recent cultural contexts in the USA, and presumably other nations, seems to refer to people who appear to mindlessly follow various sets of rules. This definition has been extended to specific sub-cultures and particularly, corporate cultures. The extension of this definition has come to include anyone following the rule-sets of their learned behavior, but in particular, those people who mimic their cultural memes while unaware of their imitative, example-dependent tendencies. There is a social movement to objectify people with the term robot to reduce or deny their human characteristics, but this movement is also a projection of the observers' own robotic qualities which the observers are either unaware of or are attempting to deny. This extended definition for 'robot' can go so far that it includes all people, because all people learn their behavior from other people and cultures whom they have chosen to mimic, either consciously or non-consciously. People described as 'robots' appear to have free will, however all of a robot's options have been pre-programmed by their cultural contexts and social dependencies, regardless of whether they choose conformative, moderate, or rebellious modes of self-expressions. You ARE a robot, but so what? So is everyone else... dis mesag was progrmd by an alien artifishul inteligenz... njoy!