first of all, hulu kind of sucks

Yeah. Let's start there.  It kind of sucks.  A few minutes of hilarity never expires.  That's crazy!  Eventually I'll seek out some link to the robot bit on Colbert that will not expire, all willy-nilly.  But right now I have another topic in mind.

So.  It's been awhile. About a month, I guess. How are you?  Oh, good.

I wanted to watch a movie the other day - something fun and simple, etc.  I am that person who has an AppleTV, so I thought I'd check out the new releases there.  Sadly, they don't really have a 'new releases' section, but the other day, they did have a robot section.  Behold.

Oh, I was just so excited.  I did this screen grab (above), and made a mental note to blog about it and then I left the country.  For, say, three, maybe four, weeks.  A little distracted, then. Whatevs.

I'll try to post more, that's my point.

crazy robots in heat to blame for economic meltdown!

stephen colbert inspires me to blog. i've been on a hiatus created - in more than one way - by the financial markets meltdown, but i seem to be back... check this out:

you ask and the universe (and amc) provides

so.

i've taken to twittering. and then gareth kay pointed out that don draper, the lead character of the AMC show "Mad Men" is also twittering. so i followed his tweets, and now he's following mine, and so is peggy olsen, and so is betty and so is salvatore and it's just so much to follow! i'm not even sure if it's linked to the show, and there seems to be office intrigue that's going on in the twitterverse but not on the screen and it's just really so much big geek fun. i heart it the heartiest.

and then i put up a simple tweet about trying to combine don draper and robots. a simple dream, from a simple girl.

the other day, on the plane to dallas, i caught up on mad men - a show i find so resplendent, so detestable, so delicious in its period accuracy that i can't turn away. i noticed two important things.

1. i'm a better tv viewer on a plane with my iPhone then i am at home. i actually watch the show instead of also checking email or also reading my googlereader feeds or also playing mah-jongg.
2. don draper destroyed a robot. little bobby was playing with the robot at the dinner table and he knocked over sally's glass with the robot and betty went apeshit and don, fed up with the day and probably most of his life, picked up the robot and dashed it against the kitchen wall. i have one word for this: hot.

i did some searching for the robot. i didn't get a good look at it before it met its unfortunate end, but i think this might be it... you see, robots are for everyone. i bet i could work some serious symbolism out of that robot - robot as symbol of labor, lack of free will, oppression, slavery. a mere plaything to a child, but a tyrant to a man. who keeps don draper down? only himself. when his wife tries to submit him to her will, force upon him decisiveness and authority to overwhelm her own parental defects (and what's with her total resentment of the kid?), he rebels, grasps the idol of his own slavery and demolishes it like some golden calf. i think this means that don draper is moses.

this is so worthwhile

hi there - coming at you LIVE from the westin buckhead in beautiful, muggy atlanta. i just had linguine in white clam sauce - frankly, too much linguine. safely back in my hotel room, i unbuttoned my jeans and heaved a deep sigh and turned to the ever-trusty google to do my robot bidding. what was the most newsworthy connection between robots and atlanta, i wondered?

well, back in april, the FIRST robotics championship was held here in the georgia dome. to get a sense of the competition, you can search for it on youtube, or just check this out:


chris anderson, blogging on geek dad over at wired filed a report about his adventures there, though he was more enamored of his LEGO Mindstorms UAV. go ahead and read the comments section - i dare you.

the description of the competition is pretty inspiring:

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help high-school-aged young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be.

The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions designed by Dean Kamen, Dr. Woodie Flowers, and a committee of engineers and other professionals.

FIRST redefines winning for these students because they are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism and maturity, and the ability to overcome obstacles. Scoring the most points is a secondary goal. Winning means building partnerships that last.

(all bolds mine)

judging by the topics at the FIRST robotics championship conference, robots truly are for everyone, though this competition focuses on high school students. there were the sorts of uber-geek topics you'd expect:

• Building and sustaining a community robotics program
  
• Overall robot design & strategy
  
• Integrating design & engineering concepts to the robot development process
  
• Pneumatic power concepts
  
• Omni-directional drive systems
  

and then there were some topics that spoke to a higher social and cultural calling - and a real desire to integrate more kinds of people into the robot clan:

• Leadership basics
  
• Motivating yourself and your team members
  
• The benefits of the FLL program for children with cancer
  
• And what about minority kids?
  
• Women in engineering: recruitment challenges and responses
  
• FIRST scholarships: how will you pay for college?
  

but of course, not to be outdone by the other geeks in school - you know, the ones who will be writers and designers when they grow up - they also offered a few topics near and dear to a marketing geek's heart:

• Lights, camera, action: video journaling for robotics
  
• Animation: ideation to creation
  
• Blogs, podcasts and community service: extending the FLL theme beyond competition
  
• and so on...
  

(at first i wasn't sure of the lingo, but FLL stands for FIRST Lego League - a similar competition for younger kids (aged 9-14) to get them interested in science and engineering.)

most of my computer time these days is spent in front of powerpoint, google, youtube, flickr, facebook, blogger and twitter - but there was a day when i was definitely into the science of it all and sometimes rolled up my sleeves and got elbow deep in the guts of a computer or rocket or whatever. my parents put me and my brother in classes at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and i still think what i learned there was useful. even the driest bit of physics or chemistry or (obviously) robotics has a creative, storytelling side to it.

anyway, it's late and i haven't that much to say except congratulations to the winners, and that this is a fantastically worthwhile program that more kids should get involved in - if nothing else, it looks like great fun.

would a robotic jesus have to obey the three laws?

via BoingBoing.
a robot housekeeper.  an etiquette and protocol droid.  a portable extension of the ship's computer.  robotic arms that build cars.  we often think of robots in terms of utility - it's that slavic root again ('to do, to labor').

but long before do androids dream of electric sheep? and i, robot, people have been trying to build electromechanical creatures that have not only intelligence and agency, but something more, some higher purpose to be served.  spiritualists got into the robot game, and one notable among these was john murray spear.  a universalist minister, abolitionist, and activist for women's rights and against the death penalty, he was attacked, vilified and even beaten for his views and practices, stripped  of his pulpit and in essence, driven quite mad.

By 1852, partly under the influence of his daughter, Sophronia, Spear began heeding the direction of spirit messages to people and places where his freelance ministry—which now included "magnetic" healing through the laying on of hands—would be of most help. That year, in a state of trance, he conveyed twelve messages from the spirit of John Murray, which he had transcribed and published as Messages from the Superior State.

He soon declared himself the chosen medium, or "general agent on Earth," of the spirits of John Murray, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush and other distinguished departed who had together formed a "Congress of Spirits." Spear let it be known that the "Congress" would deliver plans, through him, for the remaking of society. Through Spear the spirit of Jefferson discoursed against slavery. Universalist physician Benjamin Rush's spirit directed him to give lectures on health and medicine. Scientific spirits, like Franklin's, relayed information to assist with advances in technology, including a perpetual motion machine, an electric thinking machine, an electric ship, an intercontinental telepathic network, and an improved sewing machine. The "Congress" also urged the foundation of spiritualist utopian communities in Kiantone, New York and Patriot, Indiana.

no common heavenly host, these.  among the scientific and technological advances promoted by this "Band of Electricizers", was what became known as 'the God machine' - "a mechanical Messiah, that was supposed to raise up all of humanity" (via wikipedia.

they set to work building the thing out of copper and zinc, setting it on a dining room table. a full description via the Fortean Times (registration may be required) follows...

Spear’s total lack of scientific and technical knowledge was considered an advantage, as he would be less inclined to alter the Electricizers’ blueprints with personal interpretations or logic (what remote viewers might call “analytical overlay”). The parts were carefully machined from copper and zinc, with the total cost reaching $2,000. (A prosperous minister then earned around $60 a week.)

No images of the New Motive Power exist, but apparently it was impressive, sitting on a big dining room table. “From the center of the table rose two metallic uprights connected at the top by a revolving steel shaft. The shaft supported a transverse steel arm from whose extremities were suspended two large steel spheres enclosing magnets. Beneath the spheres there appeared [..] a very curiously constructed fixture, a sort of oval platform, formed of a peculiar combination of magnets and metals. Directly above this were suspended a number of zinc and copper plates, alternately arranged, and said to correspond with the brain as an electric reservoir. These were supplied with lofty metallic conductors, or attractors, reaching upward to an elevated stratum of atmosphere said to draw power directly from the atmosphere. In combination with these principal parts were adjusted various metallic bars, plates, wires, magnets, insulating substances, peculiar chemical compounds, etc… At certain points around the circumference of these structures, and connected with the center, small steel balls enclosing magnets were suspended. A metallic connection with the earth, both positive and negative, corresponding with the two lower limbs, right and left, of the body, was also provided.”

In addition to the “lower limbs”, the motor was equipped with an arrangement for “inhalation and respiration.” A large flywheel gave the motor a professional appearance. This, however, was only a working model; the final version would be much bigger and cost 10 times as much.

The metal body was then lightly charged with an electrical machine resulting in a “slight pulsatory and vibratory motion [..] observed in the pendants around the periphery of the table”.

perhaps it looked something like this (via the Fortean Times):


an unnamed woman called the New Mary was eventually brought before the machine to 'give birth' to this new Messiah. after two hours of 'labor', the machine was, Spears claimed, animate for a few minutes. despite a great deal of spiritualist hype, nothing much came of this "New Motive Power, the Physical Savior, Heaven’s Last Gift to Man, New Creation, Great Spiritual Revelation of the Age, Philosopher’s Stone, Art of all Arts, Science of all Sciences, the New Messiah." eventually it was dismantled and moved to Randolph, New York where Baptist ministers apparently riled up the town against the spiritualist talisman, now in pieces in a shed - the people stormed the shed and destroyed the machine.  how very frankenstein's monster.  (which, by the way, i have now downloaded onto iPhone via Stanza... i'll be sure to talk about it later, yo.)

bringing a machine to life - a machine to lift up all mankind, a machine to love you, a machine to make moral choices - is something spiritualists and scientists have struggled with since ... well, i'm not sure how long, but apparently quite some time. is it about giving birth to something greater? is it about making god real and manifest, if not quite corporeal? is it about gaining control or mastery? i don't know - i don't build robots, and i don't really believe in god.

there's a published book about spears, if you want to know more... but in some ways more interestingly, a band called Pinataland has written a song about it. you can hear it here - it's called "Dream of the New Mary". and if you live in brooklyn, they're performing today in front of the Old Stone House on 5th Avenue between 3rd & 4th. they have an eclectic sound, and some of these songs work a bit better than others, but i'll give it up for Dream of the New Mary. go hear it.

vaya con dios.

what is a robot, anyway?

so i'm sitting here talking to my friend about robots and she says, "what makes a robot a robot, and not just a computer?"

let's ask toothpastefordinner.


toothpastefordinner.com

well that's not quite right. so let's try wikipedia. it says:

While there is no single correct definition of robot,[2] a typical robot will have several, though not necessarily all of the following properties:

• is not 'natural', i.e. it is artificially created
  
• can sense its environment, and manipulate or interact with things in it
  
• has some ability to make choices based on the environment, often using automatic control or a preprogrammed sequence
  
• is programmable
  
• moves with one or more axes of rotation or translation
  
• makes dexterous coordinated movements
  
• moves without human intervention
  
• appears to have intent or agency (See anthropomorphism for examples of ascribing intent to inanimate objects.)[3]
  

The last property, the appearance of agency, is important when people are considering whether to call a machine a robot, or just a machine. In general, the more a machine has the appearance of agency, the more it is considered a robot.

this seemed reasonable. so then Laila asked, "what about those robots in car factories - do they have the appearance of agency?" a fine question. for a moment, i was stumped. and then i remembered.



the answer: yup.

one word, kid: robots!

MSNBC has looked into the crystal ball and concluded that these are the 10 careers for the future (and i'm guessing that like any good group of hack-futurists, they pivoted on the present and then did a google search). also, they define the future as 2012. you know, in the good ol' days, the future was a long time from now.

the careers are thusly:

• Organic food producers, retailers. Insight from the present? Wal-mart is going organic, Safeway is going organic, the Gap is going organic... this must mean that organic is finally mainstream!
  
• Computational biologists. Insight from the present? The Human Genome Project required some serious computational firepower; there's an explosion of data generally; we now need people who have the expertise to make sense of this data... hmm... is that really a job for the future or for right about now?
  
• Parallel programmers. Insight from the present? Intel is making dual and multi-core processors with the capacity to do multiple things at once. i have one in this macbook; if you have a computer less than two years old you probably have one, too. we'll need programmers who can take full advantage of this technology. or rather, we need them already - like a year ago.
  
• Data technologists. Insight from the present? again, massive amounts of data flowing to us through the interweb, RFID chips, devices galore... who will make the data look nice? actually, the better name for this job really is Data visualization designer, whether it rolls off the tongue or not... and if we could really use a good powerpoint charter at the office to visualize a few bar graphs, then yeah, this seems like a semi-urgent need. especially when you consider that if you can't draw it as a picture, people just don't want to get it.
  
• Simulation engineers. Insight from the present? sims gone wild!!! through the power of processing we can create really really real sims for every purpose. it'll be brilliant! it'll be like second life, only useful!
  
• Boomer companions, caretakers. Insight from the present? everyone born after 1945 is getting old. and the nursing home doesn't sound so hot. but here's the piece that is definitely not from the future: $23-25,000 salaries. boo.
  
• Genetic counseling. Insight from the present? diseases suck but now we know their genetic markers and can prevent them by not having the little disease carriers in the first place. translation: gattaca was on to something!!
  
• Brain analysts. Insight from the present? we like to poke people in the brains. by poking (or super poking) people in the right way, we can determine whether they're lying or telling the truth, if they're mentally ill, identify their strengths and weaknesses and figure out to what degree they're suckering for the latest ad.
  
• Space tour guide. Insight from the present? Branson is sending his very posh flight experience into space, there are space wedding packages, and soon, space tourism. if you don't want to get stuck on the space version of Gilligan's Island, i recommend staying home
  
• Robot builders, tenders. Insight from the present? robot parts are cheap! let's build some. and then tend to them. because as every good technophile knows, tinkering with the thing is at least as great as just letting the thing work.