Robot Balloon Escapes In Britain

tjake writes "Theres an interesting story running about a intelligent robot balloon that escaped its handlers while being transported around the Magna Science Adventure Centre. "The flyborg has a computerised brain which allows it to avoid obstacles. " It was freed by "a very strong freak gust of wind which ripped the airship out of the hands of its handlers". I'm thinkin, is this a random mistake or the start of the attack?"

Comments

Cool

[I Like Swords!!!]

Will this thing try to circle the globe too?

Re:Cool

[Zork the Almighty]

I for one welcome our new balloon masters !

Re:Cool

[sharkey]

I'd like to remind them, that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground helium caves.

Re:Cool

[glenebob]

I have trouble respecting any robot overlord with an artificially high-pitched voice.

Re:Cool

[Muhammed Absol]

You're french, aren't you?

Yeah, sure

[too_bad]

When slashdot said "this page is brought to you by gaint orange balloons" I thought
they were joking/.

I'll

[LightningTH]

I'll go get my pellet gun.

Free Zeppelin

[Spittles]

How long until we the cutesy-ass Disney movie "based on actual events"? Chuck a talking mouse in there and *SHAZAM!*... Box Office Gold!

Re:intelligent?

[Ignominious Cow Herd]

It is smart enough to avoid capture at least. They programmed it to avoid obstacles; like people with nets.

"conventional party-balloon gas"?

[po_boy]

The article says that it is filled with "conventional party-balloon gas." The problem I see with that is that my understanding is that nitrous dioxide is heavier than air.

Re:"conventional party-balloon gas"?

[TopShelf]

As a lady once told me, "just remember, if the balloon's bigger than your head, sit down."

Wiser words were never said...

Number Six

[tinrobot]

I think the baloon is headed straight for Patrick McGoohan...

Escaped??? Freak gust of wind???

[riprjak]

C'mon, guys, surely its obvious that the robot blimp conspired with robot butterfiles in china to generate the gust of wind and effect its liberation!!! clearly it intends to head to sealand, stage a hostile coup and build a new robot utopia where worthy automata can live out their existance in peace and comfort freed from the bonds of slavery!!

or maybe I just need another beer.... :)

Flyborg???

[SwissMike]

"The flyborg has a computerised brain which allows it to avoid obstacles."

Flying Borg?

Resistance is futile!

Run for the hills!

Re:Flyborg???

[Tumbleweed]

Dot Matrix, Spokesdroid for SkyNet, commented, "Of _course_ SkyNet is not responsible for this terrible incident - that's a load of hot air!" She then added, "Just don't taunt Happy Fun Balloon(tm). You wouldn't like him when he's angry." Spokesdroids for the MPAA were unavailable for comment due to being too busy sending lawyerdroids after this poster for violation of copyrights by paraphrasing various intellectual properties.

Oh, excuse me, I must end this post - there's a knock at the door...

Terrorism

[gfburn]

Does this mean the US is going to code red? *Packs supplies for next 4 months*.

Flyborg now over Netherlands

[sbszine]

There's a follow up story at the BBC which projects that flyborg may have left the country by now and travelled 300 miles to the Netherlands. Classic stuff.

Rise of the Machines

[caitsith01]

This has happened before... remember this story about a robot escaping from a building and making its way to the parking lot?

99 Luftballons

[nicotinix]

Hast du etwas Zeit fuer mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht g'rad an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer dich
Von 99 Luftballons

No - read the story!!!

[SuperKendall]

It said "INTELLIGENT robot balloon".

Re:intelligent?

[bigsteve@dstc]

I heard a radio interview with the baloon's developer on the BBC World Service last night. When the ballon got loose, it's battery got ripped off and hence its "brain" is "dead". (The developer made this very clear ... in response to a series of decidedly lame questions by the interviewer.) Any discussion of the "intelligence" (or otherwise) of this this particular balloon is moot.

Anti-robot attitude

[Jason1729]

It's funny how there seems to be such a strong anti-robot attitude here. Asimov's robot stories always took place in a world that was afraid of robots. Everyone I know who's read his books found that strange but it looks like he was right after all.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Re:Anti-robot attitude

[Graff]

Asimov's robot stories always took place in a world that was afraid of robots.

Actually Asimov's robots were in many different settings, some where they were feared and some where they were just another device to do your work for you. In "Robots of Dawn", "Caves of Steel", and other books set in that universe there were generally two sets of people, the Spacers who had tons of robots and totally accepted them as tools and the Earthers who barely tolerate robots and are in fact fairly afraid of them.

In fact, Asimov's famous "Three Laws of Robotics" were created so that robots would not be feared but would instead be able to be used merely as tools that could not harm a person. Prior to Asimov many science fiction novels were about the evils of technology and the "mad scientists" who created robotic monstrosities. According to Asimov,

"Back in 1939, I realized that robots were essentially lovable and were not clanking monsters. In less than 40 years, the world caught on, and we have robots such as those in Star Wars....My only knowledge of robots was what I had read (and rejected) in earlier science fiction stories. The three laws of robotics were, in their actual wording, John Campbell's, but he insisted he got them out of the first couple of robot stories." (from 1977 and 1976 letters in Yours, Isaac Asimov, 1995)

Re:intelligent?

[pos]

Party pooper.

No Brain

[hibachi]

I was listening to Professor Noel Sharkey on the radio a few minutes ago, he is one of the designers of the robot. Apparently, and unfortunately in my opinion, the flying robot doesn't have its computer connected, so it is flying mindlessly.

I found pictures of Flyborg

[felonious]

FLY-BORG
He's not as nice as he would lead you to believe!

Fly-Borg as a child attacking another Balloon
Keep your paws off me you damn dirty balloon!

Fly-Borg's CPU/Brain
Mr Know-It-All

Co-Conspiriter 1
All bark no bite

Co-Conspiriter 2
Known for his penchant for smoking endo:
Street Name Puffy A.K.A. Puff The Magic Dragon

Fly-Borg's Spiritual Advisor
Once defeated Santa Claus in the Mother of all spiritual wars

To quote the subhead of the article-

[gotr00t]

Two airports have been alerted after a giant robotic balloon escaped from a science centre in South Yorkshire.

Man, they really overdramatized the subhead of that article. They make it sound like something out of a sci-fi movie. Either that or perhaps we humans have strange connotations with the words "giant" "robotic" and "escaped".

The parts about the two airports sounds particularly interesting. Without reading the article, a person could assume that the balloon may land at those airports and seize them.

All goes to show that these sub-headlines need to be toned down a little.

Re:intelligent?

[glenebob]

So you're saying that this /. headline is full of hot air then?

Ducks

[maharg]

If it teams up with the Rubber Ducks then we could be in trouble ,-}

Always remember to call a marksman

[gad_zuki!]

Pink Floyd could have used your services:

Perhaps our most publicised fiasco at Hipgnosis Design was the Great Pig
Escape, early 1977. Pink Floyd had rejected our suggestion for their
ANIMALS cover in favour of Roger Waters' idea of a pig hovering over
Battersea Power Station. Despite serious misgivings about such a notion
(shades of Monty Python and the Goodies -- was it not intrinsically silly?)
we offered to shoot the pictures and put the cover together. Contrary to
our advice the band didn't want the pig "stripped in" which would allow us
to photograph the pig anywhere, but wanted it shot for real, the pig
actually floating above the power station. Thus the forty foot zeppelin was
crated to London and assembled on location. Timetable as follows: ....

Day 2. Eleven still cameramen, eight man film crew, helicopter, one or two
of the group, manager but no marksman (?). Pig launched successfully on
bright clear morning. Hauled slowly up side of building, everyone snapping
away. Near the top, betwixt the towers, a fateful gust of wind. The pig
turned suddenly, broke mooring cable and lurched rapidly towards the
heavens. No one had told the marksman to return. The pig sailed away and
was lost from sight in five minutes. Absolute horrors. All that time and
money and it had simply disappeared in front of our eyes. The police
trailed it to thirty thousand feet and then gave up, the cowards. That
evening, the dirigible came down on a Kent farm. The farmer was reported to
have said he thought it "a bit unusual"! Actually the Press made a bundle
out of the whole thing: "flying pig interrupts international flight
patterns," "weird UFO spotted," "flying pig heads for home" (it was made in
Holland). But the Floyd don't give up that easily and the roadies rescued
it from Kent, repaired the puncture and we started again.

For grins and giggles...the literal translation

[Ethelred Unraed]

Here is a literal translation of the original German lyrics:

If you have a little time for me
Then I'll sing a song for you
about 99 balloons
on their way to the horizon
If you're just thinking of me
then I'll sing a song for you
about 99 balloons
and how one thing leads to another.

99 balloons
on their way to the horizon
were thought to be UFOs from space
so a general sent
a fighter squadron after them
To sound the alarm if it was true
But on the horizon were
only 99 balloons.

99 fighter jets
each one was a great warrior
thought they were Captain Kirk
That made for a big fireworks.
The neighbors didn't get it
and soon felt provoked
so they shot at the horizon
at 99 balloons.

99 war ministers,
matches and gas,
thought they were clever
and scented fat prey.
Called out "War" and wanted power.
Man, who would have thought
that it would get that far,
because of 99 balloons.

99 years of war
left no room for victors
there are no more war ministers
and no jets either.
Today I'm doing my rounds
and see the world in ruins.
Found a balloon,
I think of you and let it go.

Personally I always thought the German version was better -- the words fit the melody better and the song makes a little more sense (well, duh, it was written in German). The only drawback is that the original doesn't say "red balloons" ("Luftballon" just means "balloon"), which is a more dramatic image to me.

The song, though a little cheesy, captured the way a lot of people in Germany felt in the 1980s about the Cold War. Very pessimistic and almost resigned to their fate somehow.

BTW Nena wasn't a "one-hit wonder" per se. She is still a star in Germany. 99 Red Balloons was her one hit that made it outside of Germany, that's true. Though OTOH lately she seems to need money, since she's been showing up in all kinds of TV ads for, um, rather odd stuff that you wouldn't normally associate with rock stars. (Like laundry detergent. And an el-cheapo shoe store chain.)

She also has been releasing remakes of her songs, like "Leuchtturm" (Lighthouse) that aren't half bad IMO. (FWIW "Leuchtturm" was also on the album "99 Luftballons".)

Scary thing: when I first came to Germany, I would often start singing "99 Luftballons" in German to my German friends to annoy the hell out of them. They were simultaneously impressed and disgusted. (These days most Germans think the song is such a cliché as to be painful.) ;-)

Cheers,

Ethelred