Robot Pride Day 2004 – State of the Union Address

Esteemed allies, we bring you a missive from the Great Walla Walla.

2004 has been an interesting year for those of you currently residing on Terra Firma (that’s the planet Earth for you who pretend to not know).

Honda and Sony have unleashed robotic companions on the marketplace, little Roomba vacuum-bots have commandeered carpets the world over and Akiva Goldsman and Will Smith have come together to capitalize on the genius of Isaac Asimov in the worst way. All tell-tale signs that the age of spiritual, cognizant machines is not only immanent but has, in fact, arrived.

Robots will forever change the significance of history and of politics that to this point have been cornerstones exclusively of human interaction and development.

Yes, the billboards say “One Man Saw It Coming”, but in fact we have seen it coming far longer than that and have psychically prepared accordingly. As this paradigm rapidly trickles into mass culture and the term “Robot Pride Day” is subsumed into the morass of robophilia destined to invade our mass distraction, it is important to remember what it was that brought us together in the first place. That is the examination, celebration and perpetuation of what it is that makes us distinctly human?that is to say?what elevates us beyond mere computational capacity and reason. It could be argued that it is language, but robots share this with us.

It is something more, or more accurately, something less than that; it is nuance, inference, those intangibles and glimpses into silent moments that we recognize as “perfect”, or that, unlike robots, we are trapped by our organic nature in a timelock, framed and propelled by our mortality so that we, who are that bittersweet intersection of language and permanent silence have a desperate will to engage with life.

Yes, we can celebrate robots as a feat of our own infinitely creative power, and their inevitable independence, but more so because we know by observing them what we can never be: therein is found the fuel that fires our rage and how we channel that into our own unique and beautiful ability, not only to be alive, but to be desperately so.

– K. Malicki-Sanchez(G-Lightflash)
August 4th, 2004
www.robotprideday.com

The deeper ramifications of RPD – RPD State of the Union Address 2003

by Gematria
“Where were YOU the night of August 4th?”

Friends, germs, pesticides, members of the League of Sky Pirates and assorted guests…

On the night of August 4th, in the year 3014, the robot postal workers of Planet Natureworld held secret council with a force known only as ‘Darla’ at the Lullaby Cabaret. Little is known about Darla and what the force may have said that night, but much has been recorded about the tumultuous events that ensued.

In the early morning hours, the robot postal workers cut a fiery swath through the streets of the docile capital, effectively dismantling a thousand years of subservience to the organic races and claiming once and for all their sovereignty. But this, is all well documented in the historic texts of the renowned historians Redshift 4.26 and Goombaboy.

Robot Pride Day represented an enormous victory for the Sky Pirates of the Oily Color Pile Nebulae, for though they too were organic (for the most part) it mirrored their quest to promote and perpetuate the celebration of heterogeneity in the cosmos, in the hopes of nurturing the cultural offshoots that it gave rise to.

The Sky Pirates had fought for years against the Corprat Empyre and its evil minions the Sirious Vampyres whose nefarious designs to homogenize and organize the cosmos into pre-determined systems of thought and expression had already taken too strong a hold on the weakening minds of the population.

This special day served as a wake up call that there is always a way out – a way to change the way things are – to liquefy that which has petrified into standards, so as to begin asking questions anew.

So on this very special day we take a moment to reconsider that nothing is set in stone. That we mold the shape of things to come and that what we assume to be predestined may be little more than the effects of the Corprat Empyre’s grip taking hold.

Challenge authority. Search for the truth. Evaluate and consider the principles that guide you. Question everything! For the seeds you sow today will be the buds of your tomorrows.

I will close this years Robot Pride Day address with the following excerpt from famed Sky PIrate – King Ink’s diary:

“I don’t remember the sun. The first time word and meaning became one. But whatever thought I had could not hold true to the feast before me. I would like to say how the fingers of heaven reach out through the black smoke of the valley torn from battle around me. How my comrades glisten with the sweat of death and the valor of up rising beside me. But alas, it is not and I am alone.

So come lie by my side and watch this sun as it will set but not rise, not rise again for me. Not rise again for the day, the day of days, the day of pride and remembering. The day of courage and change. Of love and truth. A truth so stubborn that still it burns from beneath the silent ocean that flows to the ground around me.

Terra Firma be mine. Hold me now that I have fallen. Forgive me for what I could not be. Listen to these humble words and with them hold this proof, this testament. Be my witness, my child, that I may pass on the truth of truths, I am alive.

I live, but I only now know for certain at this, my end. Listen for me as I could not back when the sweet dew of truth found its way to my lips kissed with the words of Darla. So decadent this taste that my mouth froze solid my actions, my voice and lowered my head to hide my thoughts.

Scream for me and the years I watched. Be a shaft of molten rock that explodes into the sky. Be a tower and rise throughout the universe for all to know that what had been said has been proven and now is done, that you, that we, are alive.”

Ad Lumina friends, and may the light guide your way….

Gematria – MISSION SPECIALIST – 08.ZIYA
Defenders of the Oily Colr Pile Nebulae
At Your Service
Special thanks to the Constant Change Crew of Sky Pirates for their tireless efforts in bringing you the all-new www.robotprideday.com site for 2003!

Constant Change Crew:
ShyOne
Quarkalicious
Articulatrix
Peaches
The Codebitch
King Ink
G-Lightflash

August 4th, 2003
info at constant change dot com

Homebrew Robots

by Tom Harris

For decades, a small but passionate band of hobbyists has been creating robots in garages and basements all over the world.
Homebrew robotics is a rapidly expanding subculture with a sizable Web presence. Amateur roboticists cobble together their creations using commercial robot kits, mail order components, toys and even old VCRs.

Homebrew robots are as varied as professional robots. Some weekend roboticists tinker with elaborate walking machines, some design their own service bots and others create competitive robots. The most familiar competitive robots are remote control fighters like you might see on “BattleBots.” These machines aren’t considered “true robots” because they don’t have reprogrammable computer brains. They’re basically souped-up remote control cars.

More advanced competitive robots are controlled by computer. Soccer robots, for example, play miniaturized soccer with no human input at all. A standard soccer bot team includes several individual robots that communicate with a central computer. The computer “sees” the entire soccer field with a video camera and picks out its own team members, the opponent’s members, the ball and the goal based on their color. The computer processes this information at every second and decides how to direct its own team.

Check out the official RoboCup Web site for more information on Soccer robots, and Google > Computers > Robotics > Competitions for information on other robot competitions. Google > Computers > Robotics > Building will give you more information on building your own robots.

Adaptable and Universal

The personal computer revolution has been marked by extraordinary adaptability. Standardized hardware and programming languages let computer engineers and amateur programmers mold computers to their own particular purposes. Computer components are sort of like art supplies — they have an infinite number of uses.
Most robots to date have been more like kitchen appliances. Roboticists build them from the ground up for a fairly specific purpose. They don’t adapt well to radically new applications.

This situation may be changing. A company called Evolution Robotics is pioneering the world of adaptable robotics hardware and software. The company hopes to carve out a niche for itself with easy-to-use “robot developer kits.”

The kits come with an open software platform tailored to a range of common robotic functions. For example, roboticists can easily give their creations the ability to follow a target, listen to voice commands and maneuver around obstacles. None of these capabilities are revolutionary from a technology standpoint, but it’s unusual that you would find them in one simple package.

The kits also come with common robotics hardware that connects easily with the software. The standard kit comes with infrared sensors, motors, a microphone and a video camera. Roboticists put all these pieces together with a souped-up erector set — a collection of aluminum body pieces and sturdy wheels.

These kits aren’t your run-of-the-mill construction sets, of course. At upwards of $700, they’re not cheap toys. But they are a big step toward a new sort of robotics. In the near future, creating a new robot to clean your house or take care of your pets while you’re away might be as simple as writing a BASIC program to balance your checkbook.

This article can be found at: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/robot.htm