Fantasist's Scroll

Hmm, seems like they’re early…

Well, not really, but this is a fun companion to the story from yesterday. According to this article on Radio Free Europe, the Japanese have already sent a robot “ambasador” on a diplomatic mission. And, how fitting that they sent it to the Czech Republic, the homeland of Karel Capek who invented the word “robot”. Anyway, a fun story!

Here’s an interesting idea.

According to this article on the Japanese Times, the Japanese government is going to sponsor a five-year plan to build a robot with the “functionality” of a five-year old.
First, this is a pretty big challenge. Not only do they have to overcome the physical problems, but the mental and emotional problems as well. I mean, robots that walk are relatively new and they mostly have to be guided. This robot would walk and be totally autonomous. There’ll be a lot of processing power in that sucker. And, quite a bit of AI work will need to be done for it, too.
Second, there’s the time-scale. Five years, in my opinion, is pretty aggressive for this kind of project. Especially considering the state of the world economy in general and Japan’s economy in particular.

But, their thought is that this project would be like the US Apollo project. It was a giant challenge that cost a lot of money, but it also produced some amazing technologies that changed our world. Those new inventions, of course, changed the US economy tremendously. That change effected the world economy in ways that we’re really still feeling.
I, for one, hope that they succeed. The spin-offs alone will be worth it!

I don’t really think so…

R.U.R. was the play written by Karel Câpec that first mentioned “robots” and, ironically, it was in an industrial context. That’s where most robots are today, of course, but, in this article on his website, Marshall Brain speculates that we’ll see them in a lot more areas. The article says that he expects humanoid robots to take at least half of all jobs by the year 2050. Of course, people have been saying this for quite some time and it has yet to actually happen.
Personally, I don’t think we’ll ever get the necessary artificial intelligence stuff worked out so that such a scenario is possible. Though, I have to admit, computer technology advances at a ferocious rate. Still, the dream of a “robo-servant” has been around for literally decades and we’re only now getting remote-controlled robots that look vaguely like a human.

Of course, science-fiction is a lot more interesting if Mr. Brain is right and I’m wrong!

Hmm, the missing link?

The article on CNN doesn’t say it, but that’s got to be what people are thinking. It’s a larger than normal ape that seems to be aggressive and walk on two legs. Shades of Michael Crichton’s Congo?
It is interesting, though. Especially because they seem to be so aggressive. Usually apes are thought of as peaceful, unless threatened. But natives call this huge ape ‘lion eaters’. I wonder what they’ll end up finding, if anything…

Something just seems wrong about that to me.

According to this story on Wired News, scientists have successfully cloned a horse and that same horse carried the fetus to term. So, in essence, the horse gave birth to its own sister. As I mentioned at the top of this entry, there’s something about this that’s unsettling to me. I really think we’re going a bit far with this cloning technology. I admit that I really liked it when we were talking about bringing back extinct animals, but we get this kind of stuff along with the “good” stuff. It really makes me wonder where it will all end up.
Cloning, of course, has been a theme in science-fiction for quite some time. Both the good and bad aspects of it have been looked at in detail, but there’s always room for more stories. Will we eventually clone soldiers so we don’t have to send “real” humans into battle? Will we ever clone extinct animals, like dinosaurs and the marsupial wolf? Will we clone people to harvest the body parts for transplants? These are just some of the topics that have been covered, in varying detail, in science-fiction already. Mostly, these are cautionary tales and, I think that’s a wise and telling statement from the writers.

Larry Niven, that is.

One of my favorite Niven creations is in the news, after a fashion. Larry Niven, who resembles my father in law, incidentally, came up with the fascinating concept of “organ legging”. What that means is, essential, a black market for bootleg organs brought about as a result of demand that got out of control.
Now, in this article on YahooNews, they’re talking about organ legging, without actually mentioning it, but in the sense of preventing it. Frankly, the mere fact that someone is concerned enough to consider it’s prevention makes me shudder. That has to mean that someone has either tried it, or seriously considered it in a very real sense. Either way, it’s pretty freaky!

Consider what the world would be like if such a thing came to pass? What are all the implications?

Well, it might be more science-fiction than science…

At least, according to this article on Wired News, there are some people who doubt that solar sails will work. We’ll know soon, though, if the scientists behind Cosmos 1 are able to launch.
Solar sails have long been a science-fiction staple as a “real” way that we might get to other planets. Interstellar travel is sort of the “Holy Grail” of science-fiction and all the world’s space programs, as well. Luminaries such as Larry Niven have written about solar sails, but now we’re close to the reality of it. Of course, I doubt that I’ll live to see a solar sail take people to another planet even in our solar system, but stranger things have happened!
Anyhow, enjoy the article and the speculations.
Ad astra per aspera!

It may be small, but it doesn’t need gas!

So, what’s the big news, you say? Well, for starters, it has “normal” pickup and speeds. Not to mention decent drive distance before recharging. It’s kind of funny looking and it only seats two, but it’s tiny. Really, it’s a pretty cool concept. Comparable, I think, to the Mini-Cooper. Only more fuel effiecient.
Read all about it at the Pacific Northwest.