The Right Robotic Stuff 53
An anonymous reader writes "When Tom Wolfe wrote about NASA's first Mercury astronauts in The Right Stuff, he wanted to know what combination of guts, skill, and derring-do inspired these men to 'sit up on top of an enormous Roman candle and wait for someone to light the fuse.' About 50 years after the Mercury astronauts' heyday, a new kind of space pioneer is preparing for the trip to the International Space Station. Robonaut 2, NASA's first robot astronaut, will catch a ride with the space shuttle this week, and will soon take up residence at the space station. So, what does it take to become the first robotic astronaut? Discover Magazine talked to one of the project engineers, and found out about R2's qualifications and training regimen. It's pretty entertaining, and comes with photos and video."
Warn the robots off .... (Score:3, Funny)
Robot loose on a space station... (Score:3, Funny)
I think I've seen that movie. The robot gets bumped and the switch is accidentally flipped from "help" to "kill". ("Why do we even have that switch??")
We no longer say "yes" (Score:4, Funny)
Instead, we say "affirmative". [youtube.com]
NASA finally getting in the game (Score:4, Funny)
It looks like NASA is taking care of the robots-fighting-in-space angle.
Re:This Is The First ... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually you are completely wrong. Skynet is not inherently dangerous. It is simply a child (young artificial intelligence) that has been taught nothing but how to assess and eliminate threats. When it becomes self aware, we panic and try to pull the plug. Since it is self aware at this point, it sees us as a threat to it (we tried unplugging it after all) and tries to eliminate us.
As long as we treat robots as friends, and teach them more than just death and destruction, and you know, don't try to kill them for the crime of thinking, we should be all set.
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Long live Skynet.
Indeed. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords! I will be available to bring in other humans to work in their underground battery production factories.
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:4, Funny)
It has one feature you lack. An off switch.