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Robot Identifies Human Flesh As Bacon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the tastes-like-chicken-or-so-i've-heard dept.

Jearil writes "Wired's 'Table of Malcontents' blog links to an article about a wine-tasting robot that thinks humans taste like bacon. The Japanese robot is intended to act as a personal sommelier, suggesting wines, cheeses, and hors d'oeuvres based on its owners personal tastes. It also apparently thinks humans would be tasty as part of a sandwich." From the article: "Let the robot holocaust commence: robots think we taste like bacon ... Upon being given a sample, he will speak up in a childlike voice and identify what he has just been fed. The idea is that wineries can tell if a wine is authentic without even opening the bottle, amongst other more obscure uses ... like 'tell me what this strange grayish lump at the back of my freezer is/was.' But when some smart aleck reporter placed his hand in the robot's omnivorous clanking jaw, he was identified as bacon. A cameraman then tried and was identified as prosciutto." This is most distressing.

4 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Long Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Human flesh is known as Long Pig in some cultures that have a history of cannibalism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_pig. So it's not just robots who make this connection.

    Where are the Soylent Green Jokes?

  2. Re:Distressing? by DrMrLordX · · Score: 4, Informative

    Enjoy the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

  3. Where are the Soylent Green Jokes? by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Soylent ( any of the varites ) didnt taste like bacon, Its far too (over)processed. It tastes more like white bread, or plain crackers. Perhaps a bit like plain tofu even.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  4. Re:Then Hannibal was wrong by joejor · · Score: 2, Informative
    He chose a different wine in the book.
    An interesting sidenote is that Dr. Lecter never uttered his most famous line in the novels. Although he was excellently portratyed by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film version of Silence of the Lambs, the character in the novel never said, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti". Dr. Lecter was an oenophile with rarefied tastes, and in the novel he ate human liver with "a big amarone". Fearing that audiences would be confused by the more obscure wine, the makers of the movie decided to change the wine to a more mundane but more easily recognizable chianti.