"It is eventual that mankind's genius will produce the first self-thinking machine. When that day comes, will we have the reason to to call it friend and not fear."
Osamu Tezuka
San Diego Comic Con 1985
What foresight to have written so clearly in Tetsuwan Atom the coming events of the civil rights movement. Though he followed the Sci Fi jondrah of the day, Tezuka also saw the coming of the self-reasoning machine. How cleaver to wrap in such an innocent bunch of stories the great moments of a lifetime.
Osamu Tezuka brought simply through his artistic tallents, the worldly feelings, pasions and concerns of the day to the home audiance in Japan at first, later to the larger audiances of the countries who recieved his two prize works, Astro Boy and Kimba. Basic values and concerns, moral and otherwise that all people generally aspire too. It is clear in episodes spanning the three Astro Boy series, that Tezuka was moved by Reverend Martin Luther King's place in history. It is clear that someday perhaps not too far off we will indeed see the first self thinking robot built to man's image and we must wonder after all the years we have depicted them in science fiction as evil beings in some stories and comical goofs in others, will we show the same kindness to them as was shown all those years ago by this preacher with the deep strong voice from Atlanta?
Watching the later episodes of the 2003 series, I am reminded again of how quick and careless we can become. The ever present evil that lurks in the shaddows awaiting a flint to spark its ignition. So long as good people continue to teach and live the examples shown by these two men, there is ample and ready water to put that spark to rest.
Perhaps I have rambled. It seems that around where I live the significance of what should be a day to remember has all to easily been passed over.
