Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

2006 Robot Hall of Fame Inductees Announced 86

Posted by Zonk from the robotastic dept.
qeorqe writes "The Robot Hall of Fame 2006 inductees have been announced! The induction ceremony will be at the RoboBusiness Conference in Pittsburgh on June 21. Anthony Daniels portrayer of C3PO, will be master of ceremonies. The selected robots are: AIBO, SCARA, David (A.I.), Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still), and Maria (Metropolis). The announcement was made in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration of the computer science department at CMU (formerly CIT)."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

2006 Robot Hall of Fame Inductees Announced More

2006 Robot Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

Comments Filter:

  • i have a nomination (Score:3, Funny)

    by jjeffries ( 17675 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @12:03AM (#15179109)
    I hereby nominate Vicki of Small Wonder [tv.com] for the 2007 induction ceremonies.
    • I had a crush on her when I was 12 =P
    • Oh dear. I remember that show. I remember how amazingly fucking creepy that little robot girl was. That damned show gave me nightmares. I totally forgot about them until I googled Small Wonder. I must have been supressing the experience, because now i've got a faint memory of being 8 years old and unable to sleep because I was afraid a 10 year old girl with a circuit board in the back of her skull was going to murder me in the middle of the goddamn night.

      Thanks for reviving my childhood horrors, jackass.
      • Just to scare you even more, that robot girl was real!!! She's still around and continuing her acting, but she changes her name all the time so you never realise she's not growing older. You can see her in Poltergeist and Aliens playing young girls, and currently she's getting around with the name Dakota Fanning.

  • Hm. One missing? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gardyloo ( 512791 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @12:05AM (#15179113)
    I suppose that the fact that Sandstorm and Highlander got beaten means that Stanley won't be on this year's list...

  • ...David (A.I.) ...

    Ok geeks: Yes, that movie should have ended when he found the Blue Fairy. We all know this. It's been beat to death. I know. You know. We all know. And yes, I too would like to kick Spielberg in the balls for that one. And if it wasn't his fault, then I would want to do it anyway because Kubrick is dead and kicking corpses isn't all that satisfying.

    But ALL THAT ASIDE I think that this is a great choice because (a) in my mind, the movie DOES end when he finds the Blue Fairy, and (b)

    • "Ok geeks: Yes, that movie should have ended when he found the Blue Fairy. We all know this. It's been beat to death. I know. You know. We all know."

      The super robots found a creative solution to a seemingly unsolvable endless loop. Cool. David dies at the bottom of the ocean sitting in front of the statue of the Blue Fairy. Big journey that comes to a pointless end. Dumb. Hopefully now you understand why people like me come out of the woodwork every time this is suggested and beat it to death.

      Go ahead

      • The super robots found a creative solution to a seemingly unsolvable endless loop. Cool.

        Boring, unoriginal, uninspired, and banal.

        David dies at the bottom of the ocean sitting in front of the statue of the Blue Fairy. Big journey that comes to a pointless end. Dumb.

        Your last two sentences just described life for the vast majority of humans on this planet now and throughout history. But we avoid such conclusions at all costs, consciously and unconsciously, and lash out when we are reminded of it. The

        • "Boring, unoriginal, uninspired, and banal."

          ... said the guy suggesting that the movie should have ended with David dying.

          "So while fairy tales with neat, happy endings are nice and make us feel good, they do not reflect the human condition. But people do not like to be reminded of the ultimate pointlessness of it all, so you have endings like A.I.'s."

          Oh brother. That is not the reason at all why these stories are told. They're told to make the audience's time worthwhile. If the journey doesn't take the

          • So you say this movie does not reflect the human condition. Well, I'm all too happy to argue with that. David had a wish that the odds were against him attaining. Guess what? This is a VERY human condition.

            Certainly. But if the movie is about David becoming human, and yet it denies making available to him the penultimate human moment -- death -- then it has not lived up to its premise.

            The people who are successful in life are the ones that pursue their dreams. This is an important message that many man

            • "Certainly. But if the movie is about David becoming human, and yet it denies making available to him the penultimate human moment -- death -- then it has not lived up to its premise."

              You seem to be implying that death is the human experience. I cannot make out how that is.

              Death does not separate us from any other living thing -- all that lives eventually dies. Hell, all things larger than the basic motes of matter and energy eventually break down and apart.

              Knowledge of mortality doesn't separate us eithe
      • The "second ending" with the robots reenergizing david didn't seem all that happy to me. Instead of dying at the bottom of the sea after a very long period of rejection, he gets to spend eternity with the knowledge that he will never again be reunited with the woman he loves as a mother, espically considering that tantalizing tease at the begining of that eternity.

        Nay, some of us thought it was gratuitious, cliché, and unnecessary, especially in a film as long as it already was, not to mention unbelie
    • A human playing a robot playing a human comes across as "a ...very human character".

      Wow. Just wow.

      On a connected note, I would have taken the A.I. the other way: boy finds out that he's a mecha, meets his creator, accepts his fate and then the "mother" realises that she can't let go of her "son" after all. Much more life in that (if you'll pardon the pun) than the whole "aliens giving David his one wish for a day" thing that literally gave us the usual Spielberg fairly-tale ending.
    • David was a compelling, sympathetic, and very human character.

      I Sing the Body Electric - Ray Bradbury, 1950 something or other. Twilight Zone episode 100, 1962, redone as TV movie The Electric Grandmother in 1982.

      Certainly nothing against Brian Aldis (the short story is actually rather good. You can find it online by Googling on Supertoys Last All Summer Long), but Ray got there first, and perhaps better.

      A better choice for the Robot Hall of Fame, but didn't have the "good fortune" to attract the attention
      • I Sing the Body Electric - Ray Bradbury, 1950 something or other.

        Or even Walt Whitman, 1850 something or other.

        The expression of the face balks account,
        But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face,
        It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of
        his hips and wrists,
        It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist
        and knees, dress does not hide him,
      • Here's a link: Supertoys Last All Summer Long [downlode.org]
      • Haven't read "I Sing the Body Electric" yet, but I have faith in Bradbury that his story was probably better. I take his dystopian future (Fahrenheit 451) over the more popular Orwell one.
    • I would like to take this opportunity to note that A.I. consisted of the beginnings of about ten potentially really good movies, all strung together in a row, followed by the ending to a completely unreletated--but also possibly good--movie.

      It's like someone in editing dropped the folders with the plots to several good sci-fi movies on the floor, got them mixed up, and this was the result.
    • Two classics and... who? from where?

      I don't care if you DID like A.I. -- David is not in the same class as Gort or the robot from Metropolis, and neither should he be inducted with them.

      Sheesh. Two landmark science fiction films... and that thing. Where is the justification for this totally pointless, and yet nonetheless infuriating decision? ...

      If you need me, I'll be in the angry dome.

  • Hah, you wish! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You 21th century robots can bite my 31th century metal ass because everyone on slashdot wants to be a bending unit like me, Bender!

  • Something Special About 2006 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by buckhead_buddy ( 186384 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @12:14AM (#15179140)
    I realize that this award is only in it's third or fourth year and I don't mean to be a party pooper, but we're talking about a ubiquitous industrial arm, a robot toy, and three movie icons from 1927, 1951, and 2001. My first impression is that these are big enough losers to have not been chosen in the previous years of this award.

    Other than "We ran out of other good nominees", why is 2006 a good year to recognize this particular group?

    • Also, why was there not a winner from the field of political robots? When is A.I. Gore going to get his due, and be inducted into the robot hall of fame? Is there some sort of prejudice against robots constructed of wood, or is A.I. destined to always be a loser?

  • What no Bender? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Photar ( 5491 ) <photar AT photar DOT net> on Saturday April 22, 2006 @12:18AM (#15179151) Homepage
    Was he even in the running? If not this hall of fame has no legitimacy.

  • It's a stupid award (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @12:33AM (#15179191) Homepage
    I can't take seriously a robotics award that mixes fictional and real robots.

    Back when the Computer Museum was in Boston, there was a robot exhibit. And, up there on a platform, were most of the early famous robots. Shakey. The Hopkins Beast. The Stanford Arm. Those are real winners. Gort is a costume. This "award" is an embarassment to the field.

    • It's a good point. But it's also good to remember that science usually follows science fiction so perhaps it's not quite as ridiculous as it seems.

    • Re:It's a stupid award (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Hays ( 409837 )
      I don't think your comment is fair. Do you not believe that fictional robots could have a real impact on the field of robotics? I believe they can, possibly more so than real robots.

    • "The Robot Hall of Fame recognizes excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honors the fictional and real robots that have inspired and made breakthrough accomplishments in robotics." - Robot Hall of Fame [robothalloffame.org]

      Science Fiction is often the inspiration behind the sciences, the field of Robotics is no different. Science Fiction can help us better imagine how robots might interact with society, what values might they bring to our lives. Why is it wrong to remember the dreamers along with the doers?

    • Agreed. It's kindof like having a martial arts hall of fame induction include one of the Gracie brothers (competitors in the UFC), Morehei Ueshiba (O'sensei-founder of Aikido) and Mr. Miyagi.

      The first are skilled and proven fighters, the second was an infuential force in the community, and the last was a character in a movie.

      Make these seperate freakin' categories. Duh.

      Work Bots, Play Bots, Fictional Bots. Then induct one or three per category, per year. Lumping them all together is ridiculous. In fact

    • Back when the Computer Museum was in Boston, there was a robot exhibit. And, up there on a platform, were most of the early famous robots. Shakey. The Hopkins Beast. The Stanford Arm. Those are real winners. Gort is a costume. This "award" is an embarassment to the field.

      Let's face the facts. Robotics has always been a field that had significant influence between in both the real world and in our creative minds. Remember the word robot was borrowed from a play. Also, if you were to completely discount so

  • I have a totally cool idea... (Score:3, Funny)

    by TechnoGuyRob ( 926031 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @12:41AM (#15179207) Homepage
    Someone should make a robot that rows a bot. Robot row, row, row your boat ROW BOAT ROBOT!
  • Somebody's got to nominate Jay Leno's BattleBot [battlebots.com], Chin-Killa !
  • The Slashdot community can make a difference by nominating thier favorite robot. [robothalloffame.org]

    May I suggest BENDER BENDING RODRIGUEZ [killbots.com]

    I mean, come one people, he leads the current poll with 41% of the vote. [slashdot.org] And it's a biased poll, there is a ringer robot from the future named Cowboy Neal!

  • WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LouisZepher ( 643097 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @01:12AM (#15179270)
    Maybe I just can't find him listed on their site, but why isn't Marvin in there? Not mainstream enough? I'm willing to bet that quite a few of the inductees wouldn't be known outside the geek circle. If fuggin David came make it in, why not Marvin? Haley Joel Osment is a helluva actor, but Marvin is your plastic pal who's fun to be with!
    • Everytime anyone goes to a computer to cast their vote for him, it immediately locks up, sends out a beep code that roughly translated says "Why Me?" and... and... well, I don't know what and... wait a minute, does not turn on ever again. That got rather costly, one would think.
  • Klaatu barada nikto!

  • I Nominate (Score:4, Funny)

    by idontgno ( 624372 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @02:29AM (#15179431) Journal
    The Space Robots! [devilducky.com]

    They are, after all, protecting us from the Terrible Secret of Space.

  • Bagle (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Jozer99 ( 693146 )
    I ate a bagel litterally 20 feet from where this was announced this morning. No joke. I go to Carnegie Mellon. Anyway, the article is wrong, the computer department is separate from CIT (Carnegie Institute of Technology, the engineering school). Computer Science is its own self contained department.
    • I did not mean that CS was formerly CIT, I meant CMU was formerly CIT. The name CIT was subsequently reused for engineering. If they had named the engineering school "Mellon Institute of Technology" it would have had an amusing acronym.
      • Sorry, the University now known as Carnegie Mellon University was never known as "Carnegie Institute of Technology", or CIT. When it started, it was called "The Carnegie Technical Institute" or CTI which is probably what you meant. When the school started creating other programs than engineering, and accepted a large amount of money from the Mellon family to start a buisness school, the University's name changed to "Carnegie Mellon University" and the Engineering program became "Carnegie Institute of Tech
        • The submitter of the article incorrectly stated that CMU was celebrating 50 years of its computer science dept (known as SCS since 1988) and that is not the case. The first CS dept was actually established sometime in 1965 I believe. What is being celebrated here is "50 Years of Computer Science Excellence" in other words, 50 years of CS research being done at the school, which predates the establishment of an actual department solely dedicated to the discipline.
          • What he said.
            In summary:

            CIT = Engineering, SCS = Computer Science. They both have completely separate admissions departments and curiculums, and transfering from one department to the other is just has hard as trasfering from one university to another (if you are accpeted by both). Carnegie Mellon University has born several names, but has never been called CIT, the current name of the Engineering Department. Carnegie and Mellon were not the same people, but two seperate people. Andrew Carnegie foun
  • Data from Star Trek TNG should of course be included in the hall of fame. Though technically he's an android, not a robot, and so are many of the other nominees.
    • "Data from Star Trek TNG should of course be included in the hall of fame. Though technically he's an android, not a robot, and so are many of the other nominees."

      Well if yer gonna let Data in, then we need to let Daleks in, too. Yes, I know, they're more like little green blobs driving salt-shaker-tanks, but ... well ok my argument ran out of of steam right there.

      *walks away*

      I probably... should have thought that through a little better..
    • An android is a robot made with a human appearance, so saying he's "an android, not a robot" is like saying Fifi is a poodle, not a dog.
    • But data is just the ST version of Asmov's humaniform robots. So you should really include the psychic robot, R. Daneel Olivaw.
  • And what about "Robot" from "Lost In Space?" Granted, the series sucked, but Robot was cool.

    For that matter, what about Robbie from "Forbidden Planet?"

    And R. Daneel Olivaw? And Questor? (re:sex - "I am fully functional." He said it BEFORE Data did).

    Hmmmm....this smells like a rigged election. Maybe the Dan Quayle robot should be questioned...oh wait, he was "upgraded" to the G.W. Bush robot.
    • The LIS robot was the only one on the show that had a sense of humor and the only one that had any sense, whatsoever. And in spite of moving around on tracks, the guy could go anywhere.
    • Robby [robothalloffame.org] is already in the hall.

      Main inductees page is here [robothalloffame.org]. Click the ultra-light grey link in the sidebar to see the 2003 inductees.

      Astroboy is also in. Not terribly knowledgeable regarding the character or its impact, but I've heard him mentioned enough that I can't argue his place there. R2-D2 and C-3PO are in as well.

      Then there's one last science fiction member: HAL 9000. All these years, I could've sworn he was a computer... but, well.

      Can anyone explain what HAL is doing there?
      • Well, the only explanation I can come up with it this. HAL was in charge of the ship systems. He could control all sorts of things, from the cold sleep chambers to the pod bay doors. I guess, if you look at it, HAL was the computer and the Discovery was actually a robot. Sort of.
  • I'm surprised the Lost in Space robot hasn't been included. He was designed by some of the same people who did Robby, and although the show was a bit campy, he was a big hit with the fans.

    These days, the robot would have sounded an Amber Alert everytime Will went somewhere unsupervised with Doctor Smith.
  • I'm shocked that Dakota Fanning wasn't even nominated!
  • What, no Norby [wikipedia.org]? Those books were the stuff growing up. Plus, he's named after a guy named Weiner! How is he not in?

  • What no Roomba ? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cobbaut ( 232092 ) <paul@cobbaut.gmail@com> on Saturday April 22, 2006 @07:30AM (#15179892) Homepage Journal
    Roomba [cobbaut.be] has already saved me hours of cleaning. Are useful robots excluded or something ?
  • http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=futura+metrop olis&btnG=Google+Search [google.com]

    Maria was the human that Futura impersonated. Holy shit, these idiots can't do a minimum amount of research!
  • Wired's top 50 Robots [wired.com] If you want a more thorough review of robots check out Wired's article. Maybe I'm baised because Stanford has 3 bots in the top ten (Stanley is #1!). But, it has pretty pictures too, and everybody loves pictures.
  • How the hell did it take this long for "Maria" to make it in to the hall of fame? Isn't that one of hollywood's earliest robots? and most important in the development of the science fiction genre?

  • Number Five is alive! (Score:3, Funny)

    by rapidweather ( 567364 ) on Saturday April 22, 2006 @04:58PM (#15181914) Homepage
    Could someone direct me to the Short Circuit [imdb.com] thread here?

    Stephanie! [imdb.com]

    Also need a link to the Robot Johnny Five [imdb.com] thread also.

  • is the character in Star Wars most like us? I'm gonna have to say, no. The character most like us is Owen Lars. He plods through life with no real goal and burns out at a young age.
  • No Crow or Tom Servo?! I shall never forget this slanderous outrage! Outrage, I say!

Slashdot Top Deals

"The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl." -- Dave Barry

Close