News of BrickCon the web and the Flickr earlier this month, but MSE2006’s photos of robot competition have my attention now. But what am I looking at? What was the competition?

Above, Matthew Batchelder’s diagram showing the correct relationship of the internet, awesomeness, ninjas, pirates, dinosaurs, zombies, robots, and Gummi Bears (though, where are the superheros you might ask).

Gummi Bears, awesomeness, chart, diagram, dinosaurs, matthew batchelder, ninjas, pirates, robots, the internet, zombies

My friend Troy pointed out a while ago that the more “realistic” our 3-d models of humans get, the scarier they look. Apparently it applies to robots to, at least judging by the “actroid” above.

Maybe I better put How To Survive a Robot Uprising closer to the top of my reading list.

More at Akihabara News, found via Gizmodo.

robot, actroid, android, robots, androids, automaton, automatons, animatronic, robotics, eerie, scary, human, humanoid

So there I am trying to read things I can’t possible read and I stumble across a link to Daniel H. Wilson’s How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion.

From th Amazon book description:

How do you spot a robot mimicking a human? How do you recognize and then deactivate a rebel servant robot? How do you escape a murderous “smart” house, or evade a swarm of marauding robotic flies? In this dryly hilarious survival guide, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson teaches worried humans the keys to quashing a robot mutiny.

And this, from Publishers Weekly:

In this uncomfortably humorous survival guide, Wilson, a Ph.D. candidate at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, reminds readers that “any machine could rebel, from a toaster to a Terminator,” and though the forms our future robot enemies may take are manifold, they each have exploitable weaknesses that, fortuitously, match our natural human strengths. So, if a two-legged android gives chase, seek out a body of water, as “most robots will sink in water or mud and fall through ice.” It also may be a good idea to carry around a pair of welder’s goggles, as lasers will likely be robot attackers’ weapons of choice, and even a weak laser can cause blindness. Options for fighting back are plentiful, though not everyone will be relieved to learn the standard kitchen microwave can be retrofitted into a radiation gun that can destroy electronics and “cook human flesh.” (Instructions for such a project are not included.) Humorous and informative-Wilson drops robotics history trivia nuggets and includes brief descriptions of current robot research-this nifty little guide to surviving the inevitable robot apocalypse may have you reconsidering purchasing that “smart” (read: insidious) refrigerator.

This is just the sort of book my nephew Justin needs. He’s already an expert on zombies thanks to The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead. Hrmm. Perhaps he’ll also need The Government Manual for New Superheroes?

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