S.A.R.A.H.

In the SiFy television series Eurkea, there is a robotic house that the main character and his daughter live in. Developed to be a prototype for "the house of the future" in the scientifically advanced town of Eureka, the house's name is S.A.R.A.H., short for Self Automated Residential Automated Habitat. Throughout the series, S.A.R.A.H. transforms from being simply a talking house to more of an actual character with a personality and feelings. In one particular episode, she locks the main character and some of his friends in the house because she has severe abandonment issues and doesn't want the main character to move. In other episodes, S.A.R.A.H. is portrayed as a hormonal, robotic female with dramatic mood swings.

Ultimately, S.A.R.A.H. raises many questions throughout the show about scientific development and ethics. Because the show is set in present day USA, every modern technology the viewer has is present in the show, but magnified or expanded upon; cars, cell phones, ovens, and televisions are all present in the show, but each piece of technology is modified in some way to represent the future of technology. S.A.R.A.H. is no exception to this strange town. Aside from the voice that speaks to you, she will cook for you, turn on the fireplace for you, and protect you from intruders (or lock you out of the house). Inevitably, there is always something that goes wrong with S.A.R.A.H.'s programing that results in disaster of some kind, but the humans always pull through and save the day. This leads the viewer to believe that there is no greater strength than the power of the human mind, for it is the human brain that always solves the problems created by the robots in the show, particularly S.A.R.A.H. To me, this is a very comforting idea in a world that seems to be constantly growing and changing according to the laws of technology. Eureka shows that robots can, in fact, interact in a modern society in a positive and effective way.