Nerd Fun: xkcd on Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics

Ever wonder what would happen if Isaac Asimov had arranged the laws differently?  Wonder no more, darlings!

The fact that fully half of the configurations ends in a killbot hellscape does rather give one pause, doesn't it?
...

(Sooooo, do we need those laws?)

Friday Fun Video: The Dishwashing Robot

It's been a loooong time since I've posted a fun video, so here you go!

Hum from Tom Teller on Vimeo.

Meet Japan's Katana-Wielding Machine

Via Wired comes this video from the Yasakawa Bushido Project:

Movie Review: Ex Machina (2015)

Weird Science.

A slick, spare, rather familiar yet visually striking combination of several of sci fi's most fundamental tropes, Alex "28 Days Later" Garland's directorial debut Ex Machina is the best small-scale sci fi movie that I've seen in a while.  Nothing explodes in eardrum-popping Michael Bay-esque fireballs, but the film's slowly creeping sense of unease will unsettle you in far more visceral ways as the age-old Pygmalion fantasy myth of creating the perfect woman meets modern fears about artificial intelligence run amok.

The story begins with a young, socially awkward computer programmer named Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) who works for a massive tech company named Google Facebook BlueBook.  As the winner of an intra-company lottery, he is whisked off by helicopter into the seeming middle of wilderness nowhere to meet the company's genius recluse of a CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac, his star fast rising in Hollywood).  Caleb soon finds himself in Nathan's isolated compound, a place of glass, steel, and concrete that is as immaculate and soulless as a laboratory ... and after signing a non-disclosure agreement, Caleb learns that the house in its windowless bottom layers is indeed a lab and he himself brought in to be take part in a groundbreaking experiment.  

Nathan has created an A.I. named Ava, and Caleb is there to be part of a Turing Test: to see whether a human being can interact with a computer and think that the computer is also a human.  The twist on the classic test is this, though: Caleb is shown immediately that Ava is a machine in a synthetic female form, but in interacting with her, can he both intellectually know that she is artificial and also begin to consider her a being with consciousness?  Thus the test begins as the movie divides itself into segments labeled with "Ava: Session #."

Ava, by the way, is played by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander with an unsettling, glassy-eyed grace.  Vikander reportedly trained as a ballerina, a fact that would explain how she invests every movement with a studied grace that she plays as a little too uncanny.  I have to say that CGI in her character is wonderfully deployed, and it is noteworthy too for how it adds to the narrative instead of being frivolous eye candy.  Ava as she first appears on screen is clearly a machine: she has the smooth face of a beautiful human girl (airbrushed like a cover model), but the back of her head is a slick curve of metallic mesh, her arms are clear plastic housing for mechanical components, and - perhaps most striking of all - her torso is completely transparent, revealing the glowing, whirring complexity of hardware within.

The film soon reveals itself as a subtle psychological thriller with three elements in a stand-off: Nathan, Caleb, and Ava.  Nathan has ostensibly brought Caleb into his (increasingly claustrophobic while increasingly labyrinthine) compound to test Ava, but with cameras everywhere, evidence of Nathan's genius being devoid of moral depth, and Ava's startling, adaptive intelligence, Caleb - and we - soon begin to wonder just who is testing whom. Better: who is manipulating whom?

I'll stop here before I spoil the details, but I'll just say that Ex Machina is well worth a look.  While its basic ideas are commonplaces in sci fi storytelling, its execution of those ideas is quite good.  The film has its problems, but I can't quite talk about them without giving too much away.  Let's just say this: the line between human and machine becomes as queasy as it is fascinating as it blurs.

Mad Minerva gives Ex Machina a grade of A-.

Ex Machina runs 108 minutes and is rated R for language, nudity, and some violence.

Rotten Tomatoes gives Ex Machina the Fresh rating of 91%.

The Robot Apocalypse Proceeds Apace: MIT's Robot Cheetah

The thing can leap and sprint.

Something's Fishy: the Robot Apocalypse Proceeds Apace

Check out the latest from MIT!

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto: Meet Japan's Robot Astronaut

His name is Kirobo.

Life Imitates Science Fiction: 10 Examples

10 Sci-Fi Predictions That Became Science Fact by alltime10s

Friday Fun: Rory vs. the Snarky Golf Robot

New Canadian Currency Is Out of This World

Cmdr. Chris Hadfield has the bully pulpit from the ISS, and he's turned into Canada's best PR officer ever.  Check out his latest for the Bank of Canada.  As Geekosystem gushes, "The New Canadian Five Dollar Bill Has Space Robots on It, Makes Presidents Look Lame."  

Seriously, though, if you haven't been following Hadfield's exploits on YouTube and on Twitter, you've been missing out on all sorts of great stuff (like this exchange or this holiday-themed musical offering).

Monday Therapy: Shelved

It's Monday and it's back to work for us all, so here's a brilliant video from Auckland's Media Design School. Slight language warning.

Medical Tech and Robots

"The robot will see you now."

Robot Apocalypse Update: Trossen Robotics' Hexapod

Good grief!  Something about the way this thing moves just creeps me out. Apparently the only kind of robot even more disturbing than humanoid robots are non-humanoid insectoid/arachnoid ones.  KILL IT WITH FIRE!

 

Robot Apocalypse Update: the Robot Cheetah

Yep, this thing officially runs faster than Usain Bolt. On the top of that, something about the way that thing moves just kind of creeps me out.

Robot Apocalypse Update: the Kuratas

A giant robot with guns ... and it can be controlled by smartphone.  (Don't even bother asking where this thing is from. You know.)  Hey, am I living in a Michael Bay movie?  Either way, we're totally doomed, so I might have well have two scoops of ice cream instead of one, right?  Right!

Monday Therapy: Watch a Robot Do "The Robot"

Yes, gentle readers, the robot apocalypse is nigh ... but at least they've got some nice moves.  These are 6 of the most delightful minutes you'll spend this week, guaranteed.

 

And Now for an Update on Impending Robot Apocalypse

Life Imitates Sci-Fi: Robot Bees

Hey, what could possibly go wrong?  Seriously, what could go wrong with tiny robots that can swarm and have a mind of their own?

Nerd Fun: Hilarious Alternate History

Check out these images of history re-interpreted to include robots, aliens, and (of course) zombies.

Awesome Nerd News: University of Chicago's Amazing Mansueto Library

Dude.  ROBOTS ARE INVOLVED.