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Robot Hall of Fame

Posted by michael on from the Tom-Servo-and-Crow dept.

Smaz writes "Apparently Carnegie Mellon has set up a Hall of Fame for robots and their inventors. Wonder if it'll have the pull of a RnR Hall of Fame or Baseball Hall of Fame? I'd visit." Any nominees?

16 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Wee! by B3ryllium · · Score: 3, Funny

    I designed a MindStorm robot, can I be in the hall of fame too?

  2. 1 vote for Hero 2000 by OwnerOfWhinyCat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For the appropriate era, the Hero 2000 deserves a place of honor.

    Robots have many useful purposes like manufacturing and deep sea exploration, but this non-trivial, non-toy robot was designed to inspire. It was an enormously complicated kit that our high school electronics class put together, that made all those stupid-seeming lessons on how to bias a transistor, and the million obscure uses of op-amps worthwhile. It illustrated for us, why you took the time to make good solder joints, and what these funny logic gates could actually be made to do. Go Heathkit!

    1. Re:1 vote for Hero 2000 by websaber · · Score: 5, Funny

      you'll know that robots have come of age when self nominations become banned.

      --
      "A good friend will bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, 'damn....that was fun!'"
  3. I Nominate The Turk by rhfrommn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Turk was a "chess playing automaton" back in the mid 1800's. It was a statue of a Turkish guy with a turban and appropriate costume sitting behind a chess board. The opponent would sit on the other side and play against it.

    It wasn't a real robot as a midget chess master was carefully concealed inside. They used mirrors and junk to conceal him so if people opened it up and looked, it looked like just gears and machinery in there. I believe the concealed midget used magnets were used to move the pieces.

    But it was one of the first times the IDEA of a robot was ever expressed. I think if there is going to be a robot hall of fame this belongs in it for sure.

    --
    My motto is: Never give up - unless it's harder than you want it to be.
    1. Re:I Nominate The Turk by billstr78 · · Score: 4, Funny

      What's even funnier is that this "Turk" beat such famous people as Ben Franklin and Napolean Bonnapart. Well, the match with Napolean was officialy a draw becuase he wiped all the pieces from the board when he saw that he was loosing too badly to recover.

  4. The Robot by Estevan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Someday I'm going to create a hall of fame for distigishable performances of The Robot in break dance.

  5. I nominate... by blackmonday · · Score: 5, Funny

    Al Gore. He's so lifelike he's fooled millions of people. Think about it: He took the initiative in creating the Internet, ran for president, even joined the Apple board. Not only that, he reproduced, bearing 2 lovely children with a known censorship advocate. Take that humans!

    1. Re:I Nominate... by B3ryllium · · Score: 4, Funny

      I would *so* pay for them to hoist a huge sign on the front of the hall of fame ...

      Bite my shiny metal ass.

      Well, actually, no I wouldn't pay. I'd laugh and walk by outside, though. Then I'd start my own hall of fame.

  6. Metropolis by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I nominate Brigette Helm, her character "Maria," and her creator Rotwang. Oh, I guess we should acknowledge Fritz Lang as well, huh?

    "Metropolis" is Eternal.

  7. I Nominate... by immanis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bender! Although they would never vote him in.

    "I'll go make my own Robot Hall of Fame. With Blackjack! And Hookers! In fact, forget the Hall of Fame!"

    --

    best web host ever

  8. Robot Nominees by SanLouBlues · · Score: 5, Funny

    This time, I'd vote for Al Gore and actually feel good about it.

  9. Gaak! by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I nominate Gaak, who bravely liberated himself into the parking lot.

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
  10. Issac Asimov by John_Sauter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since inventors are included, I nominate Issac Asimov for his Three Laws of Robotics. Dr. Asimov is as responsible for robots as Jules Verne is for the nuclear submarine and Robert Heinlein is for the waldo.
    John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

    1. Re:Issac Asimov by borroff · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree with your nomination of Asimov, but for a slightly different reason. While he didn't actual "invent" anything, his statement of robot behavioral ethics contained in the "Three Laws" is first successful rebuttal to the Frankenstein Complex. If applied successfully, it removes the chance of any intentional harm to humans from robots, and makes the idea of Robots palatable. The dramatic tension in Asimov's Robot stories comes from failures and/or unforeseen consequences of the Three Laws of Robotics. Unfortunately, there are two problems: to avoid these unforeseen consequences, the robots require a phenomenal level of judgement, and, of course, how do you program ethics and judgement?

  11. Zoltar by MacBrave · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I vote for the Zoltar machine in the movie "BIG". He could grant wishes and stuff.....

  12. The pusher robot by scotay · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't trust the shover robot. The pusher robot is superior to the shover robot. The pusher robot will protect us. Pushing is the answer.