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When a Robot Becomes the Life of the Party
theodp writes "The rich are different; the geek rich are different-er. The WSJ's Emily Glazer reports that when Richard Garriott de Cayeux threw a costume party the night before his wedding in Paris, his 82-year-old mother — too frail to travel from her Las Vegas home — still dressed up as an Indian princess and attended the party using a $9,700 personal-presence robot from Anybots Inc. At the wedding reception the next day, Mama Garriott shook her robootie on the dance floor, encircled by kids and family. Telepresence robots aren't just for the likes of Sergey Brin anymore — companies like VGo, Xaxxon, Willow Garage, and iRobot have introduced personal-presence robots that range in price from $270 for a simple model to $50,000 for a machine that allows doctors to diagnose illnesses remotely. And, as an old NY Times article noted, they can also make fine Robot Overlords."
Larry Middleman could probably use the work.
My God - if I knew the gaming business were so lucrative, I'd have specialized in that, over network security!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Good she wasn't there ... she wouldn't have liked people writing all over her face and body!
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
I wish people would stop picking on him.
He's had a rough life on Wall Street and he only got away with a couple of hundred million dollars and his poor wife can only afford to drive two Cadillacs. Do you know how inferior she must feel when all her peers are driving Mercedes, BMWs and Jags?
And he can't drink coffee or alcohol. I'd be pretty flat if I didn't have a few mugs of coffee every morning too!
And then there's the hair. I bet he's exhausted sitting there every morning while his valet combs his hair to make it perfect!
And I don't know about you, but having to fly around on those noisy private jets can be unnerving!
*Sobbing* SO LEAVE MITT ALONE!
...that was probably the worst piece of advertisement prose I've ever read on /.
What was it about? Nevermind.
First world problems.
You need a full gimball suit with force feedback at your end, with a full humanoid robot at the other. Then you'd really be at the party, not just video-conferencing. Of course it's just a matter of time till criminals get into the act. You can have your Obama avatar robbing banks (instead of the taxpayer).
This just goes to show how gratuitous the 1% has become. Blowing this much money on a costume party? We need to take individuals like this more and redistribute the wealth to those who need it.
... and this one probably isn't any better. Thought I'd quib something about a bionic mother-in-law but after reading the others I'm just too depressed.
Richard Gariott decided that he was living in the future. Now he travels to space and dances with robots. He is a shining example of humanity.
www.robots-everywhere.com our android based solution is $160.
Bender is always the life of the party.
OK, so I surfed to WSJ and looked the article over. I saw the picture of Richard Garriott with two women.
Remind me which one is the robot?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Sounds like a really crappy party if some expensive ass 'robot' is the life of the party.
Must be nice to be that rich and clueless. Maybe.
Garriot's a Legend. He's been in fucking SPACE. And not just some bitchass sub-orbital flight. He's been on the ISS mufukka. Word up. Peace.
I'm sure Garriot made a lot in gaming but like most rich people he also started off wealthy.
Rich nerd buys expensive gadget, Film at 11!
The parts alone would probably cost that much.
Obama or Romney?
"When you take me out to the party in my surry with the fringe on...."
...you're at a party not worth staying at.