You tell ‘em, Dumbledore!
http://www.badhaven.com/comics/comic-news/alan-moore-responds-to-frank-millers-occupy-rant/
My boy Robbie Parrish is bringing it once again. Check out his Night of the Living Dead re-mix featuring dialog by yours truly. Right here.
His series Next to Heaven is counting down the final 10 episodes of season two. Watch it, daddy-o, before the squares get there and ruin it.
…was dedicated to Steve Jobs.
What does Steve have to do with sexbots? This video from Rob Parrish offers some insights:
Looking for a way to make Grandma feel special, without the inconvenience of actually having to visit? Give her a creepy plastic doll that remotely relays your facial expressions.
Or not. I used to give my grandmother peppermints, and she seemed to like that just fine. But if you’re one of those folks that feel the answer to every question is “technology!”, the telenoid may be for you.
Is the “sexbot” tag really appropriate for this story? Maybe, maybe not. Nobody in the video below mentions sex. It’s all very innocent–delivering hugs and smiles to distant loved ones. Yeah. That’s how it starts.
http://www.itworld.com/science/164957/telenoid-robot-attempts-emotions
I always thought Kismet would be a good name for a super villain. Or a menacing alien–the kind that makes you fight Abraham Lincoln to prove the human concept of good versus evil. THAT kind of alien.
But.. too late. The name’s been given to a robot that Slate describes as “a body-less, language-less machine with wide eyes and kissy lips that can display emotions while interacting with humans.” Kismet is part of an effort by Dr. Cynthia Breazeal to explore how humans interact with robots.
To me, Kismet looks like a robot that somebody never got around to finishing. Could you put some skin on that metal skull, Dr. B? But the way this relates to my play (because it’s all about my play, you see) is, as Slate says, “Much of Breazeal’s focus today is on building robots that can improve the quality of life for the chronically ill, the elderly, and the very young.”
One of the characters in Rockwell’s Universal seXbots builds what he calls “Carebots,” which are companions for the sick, the elderly, and the lonely. Basically, Kismet is the great-great-grandfather of the Carebots in my play.
That same character also turns his son over to be raised by robots. This idea seems to have occurred to Dr. Breazeal as well–she’s also building something called the Alphabot that’s supposed to help with early-childhood education.
She’s got three young boys, so maybe you can’t blame her. Psst! Doc! You might want to see what happens in my play before you go too far down that road…
Danielle Corsetto publishes a fun little comic called “Girls with Slingshots.” It’s not normally about sexbots, but she recently went there.
Don’t believe her bio. I saw her once at SPX, and she is not a filthy, filthy hippie.
Sex or love? The National University of Singapore is staking out the higher ground by teaching robots to “love” their humans. The name for this new science: lovotics, of course.
The robots can also feel happiness, contentedness, jealousy, and disgust. Gee fellas, why not program in overweening ambition and a thirst for revenge while you’re at it. As they say in Westworld, nothing could possibly go wrong.
The love robot looks like either an army helmet or a knitted cap (depending on which video you watch) and sounds suspiciously like R2-D2. The video shows Singaporean girls petting and stroking the little guy. In one, a girl starts by playing with the robot. Then, when she starts chatting up some bearded dude, and the robot throws a jealous tantrum.
Guys, please stop.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/88740-lovotics-the-new-science-of-human-robot-love
Did you know John Malkovich played a sexbot in the movie “Making Mr. Right?” Well, the folks at UGO know a lot about robots who like to get their freak on. Some are fictional characters (like robo-Malkovich) and some are real products (like Roxxxy) that you can order right now and have shipped to your parents’ basement.
Sometimes, as I work on my play Rockwell’s Universal seXbots, I start to feel kinda creepy. Because, you know… sexbots. But thanks to this UGO article, I can imagine the guys who created Roxxxy, and the Honey Dolls, and Project Aiko, and feel slightly less creepy by comparison.
Thanks, UGO! Here’s a link: http://www.ugo.com/tech/11-sexy-sex-robots
Robbie Parrish is at it again, kicking off season two of his hit internet video series Next To Heaven. You may remember that season one was loosely based on the comic strip Funky Winkerbean AND served as the basis for the hit movie Tron: Legacy. Quite the semiotic sandwich!
Rob’s work is video alchemy–he takes modern art videos and, through the process of “inverse editing,” somehow transforms them into old public domain films. Damn if I know how he does it. I asked him once, and he gave me a long answer, but when he talks he gestures a lot with his hands and I find that distracting. The gist (I think) is that he takes a small snippet of the video–sometimes an individual frame–and tries to imagine an old movie from which the snippet might have been cut. Then he actually creates the movie around the snippet, giving it an imaginary “original context.”
Given that most of what he does looks like it was produced 50-80 years ago, you’d think Rob’s subtext would be “history is a lie” or some other pointy-headed blather. But no–almost all of his work is a thinly veiled plea for pastry reform. Also, he wants the government to subsidize banjo research. Now that I think about it, Rob’s really got some issues. And he needs to keep his hands still! Dammit, that’s annoying.
Here’s a link to the first episode of season two. It don’t cost nothing, hear me? Yeah, you do.
My boy Robbie Parrish is bringing it once again. Check out his Night of the Living Dead re-mix featuring dialog by yours truly. Right here.
His series Next to Heaven is counting down the final 10 episodes of season two. Watch it, daddy-o, before the squares get there and ruin it.