The Wild Robot

I decided to randomly purchase The Wild Robot on my Apple TV on a whim, and it was the best spontaneous mommy decision EVER! … as a mom, it was so emotionally resonant. Charming characters, a beautiful journey in the emotional bumps of what it means to be a perfectly awkward parent.

"Sometimes to survive, we must become more....than we were programmed to be." -The Wild Robot

What struck me most was the way the robot learns its way into a growing programming loop, into the deepest instinct of physical caring for a child, where the plastic robot, like me, turns out to be ‘hard-wired’ but in unpredictable and surprising ways as it replicates some of the fear, and the concern and the tenderness, in a parallel yet unimaginable universe.

It inspired me to design a class lesson on the film. I will see it through the eyes of AI as the robot develops and evolves, tuning its code to meet the human and logistical needs of parenthood. I can’t wait to see what my students develop regarding technology and the human condition—love and responsibility.