My favorite pop culture genre is science fiction. I also have an overactive imagination. This can be problematic at times because I often imagine unpleasant things happening to me. Other times what I imagine amuses me, although most of what amuses me has to do with some violent science fiction topic, and what scares me has to do with something relatively mundane. This article is about those thoughts that amuse me.
– At work there are these flat files where we store drawings from previous projects for reference. They are next to the printer and one of the drawers is labeled “Project Leo.” When I am standing by the printer waiting for something to come out, I imagine stored in that drawer are the secret plans to a new mobile suit constructed of gundonium alloy and to be built with the sole purpose of destroying the United Earth Sphere Alliance. If you don’t already know, this is in reference to the anime classic Gundam Wing. I hope in order to preserve this beautiful image I will never be asked to open that drawer.
(Side Note: I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news first: About a month ago I was laid off from the above-mentioned job due an inadequate workload. The good news is I found a new job one week later. The better news is that I never did have to open that drawer, and so my beautiful fantasy will be intact for all time.)
– There is a large plumbing product and accessory company called Zurn . One product they make is an automatic flush valve for urinals (maybe you’ve seen them). Every time I use a urinal with a Zurn flush valve I think of Zorg from the movie The Fifth Element. I think maybe Zurn is actually Zorg; maybe the plumbing business is just a front. Maybe Zurn (Zorg) is actually producing weapons and working for the “Great Evil.” I then start to think about Mila Jovovich at which point I realize I have been standing at the urinal for way too long, zip up and leave.
-I don’t have cable, and so I watch a lot of PBS. One of the shows I watch is Frontline, an in depth hour-long news magazine. There is a reporter for Frontline named Miles O’Brien, which happens to be the same name for a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. This is unfortunate because Frontline is a serious show dealing with serious issues, but every time Miles O’Brien does a report all I can think of is: Space, the final frontier . . .
-I consider Zombie movies to be in the science fiction family. While in graduate school I became engaged in a long running debate; in a hypothetical war between robots and zombies, who would win? I actually think this is a pretty common debate, and it is hard to define a clear winner. I decided that Zombies would win because I choose to believe in the human spirit, which I argue still survives within the undead. I also imagine the robots as 1950’s retro robots which appear to me to be mechanically unreliable.
This is just a sampling of some of my recurring science fiction fantasies. This, however, is not important. What is important is that I settle the Zombie vs. Robot debate once and for all. So I implore whomever may be reading this to vote. Who do you think would win in a war between robots and zombies? Who I ask . . . WHO?!?
the self-hating hipster 
I’d have to take robots. I just watched Blade Runner last weekend which may have some weight in my decision because of the power of the Nexus 6 model (although they only have a four-year lifespan). I also consider the traditional zombie to be biolgoically braindead, devoid of any human spirit. They depend on slowly surrounding pray in hobbling droves which wouldn’t be a very effective attack strategy against robots.
I’m not sure replicants or any other humanoid robot like the cylons from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica can be considered robots due to the incorporation of biological elements. I also imagine zombies similar to those in 28 Days Later or the remade Dawn of the Dead; fast and powerful.
Ultimately, for me it comes down to a choice between humanity (or what used to be) and machines; given that choice I will always choose humanity.
Have you been watching Walking Dead?… you will lose your foolhardy belief in a zombie’s humanity then… ROBOTS will save us when the apocalypse comes!
Robots. Just think of the terminators. I like the human spirit argument though.