If you keep up with the larger weblog community, it seems likely that you've seen this story about a new ultra-human looking robot developed by... yes, unsurprisingly, a Japanese scientist. Somewhat of an interesting story I guess, but really, what's the larger signifigance?

Well, based on an online poll I just stumbled across, it could be big business.

(A note on terminology: 'hit' in this context I presume to mean not 'strike' but rather something more like 'tap'.)

This does raise some interesting political questions though. Will Nevada's workers start lobbying against outsourcing? Will divorce laws need to be rewritten? Will the three laws of robotics be expanded to include... ehhh.... never mind....

Sunday night I saw The Island, and was reminded of a certainceo and one of the movies he brought home for us. There were conserved elements flying all over.

Both films have vast populations of emotionally non-developed plebs, both have rich evil white-guy corporate mastermind types, both have prominent African-American hunter-killer types, both have heros preturnaturally gifted in moving in ways that avoid death, both have Sean Bean. I mean really, they're practically the same film.

There was definitely an interesting plot somewhere in the film, and indeed it brings up some interesting ethical issues. However, the later half of the movie devolves into standard chasing and fighting that really ought to see the hero dead some forty minutes before the film is over. If you are going to pay ten bucks to slip into a theatre and avoid the summer heat, I guess you could do worse than this movie though...

Free the NU Lacross Team!


Story here