planetdan

Friday, June 10, 2005 :::

ROBOTS

I'm mildly afraid of robots, and this article about Japanese Prototype Robots ain't helping. One of them even seems to be able to... *gulp* ...swim:

Japanese Robot Prototypes

At my work there is a mail robot (that's mail robot, not male robot, which is normally a source of confusion when I tell this story in any non-typed format) that wheels itself around the office, stopping intermittently and making random unpredictable turns around blind corners. They call it Egor. It has, on more than a few occasions, either rammed into me or pinned me against a wall. And I don't think by accident. When it encounters unknown objects (like my foot or my bloodied arm), it doesn't re-route itself. Instead it stops with a loud thump and emits a sustained piercing beep, so as to announce to all surrounding cubes that it has made a fresh kill. That's when everyone pops their heads out of their offices to see who the latest victim is. I was afraid of robots before Egor. Now I can see that James Cameron makes a pretty convincing argument in The Terminator: robots are inherently evil.

If you happen to know B*, you should ask him to do his robot impression. It's astonishing.

::: posted by dan at 4:19 PM :: [ link ] :: (2) comments

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2 previous comments:

Yes, I love robots probably as much as you hate them. But then again, I've never been tormented by them at work nor has one ever attacked me a la Will Smith in "I Robot" to which I would just yell - "AHHHHHH, HELLLL NO!" and then upload a mac virus to kill them. "PROCESSING, PROCESSING"

My other great impression is of Tim Allen in the Santa Clause. But it's just cause I have a chubby face and an uncanny ability to mimic his voice.

By

brent, at 8:01 PM

Ok, thanks a lot Dan... that swimming robot will haunt my dreams for ever thanks to you.
Search and rescue? I think if that thing came searching for me, even if it was to rescue me, I'd be more inclined to run screaming than to be greatful.

By

Joe, at 9:49 AM

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