Robots Of The Victorian Era 200
prostoalex writes "Somehow the robotic inventions of the 19th century are terribly under-appreciated. But when you read about a new Aibo or running humanoid robot, don't forget the mechanical marvels of the 19th century. The Steam Man, unveiled in literature in 1865, would provide the willing consumer with a truly horseless carriage. The Electric Man(1885) was a working prototype before 19th century was over, too. The Boilerplate was a prototype soldier built in 1893 to resolve potential conflicts between the nations, and, according to promotional photographs, was usually surrounded by young females. And, finally, the Automatic Man, unveiled in 1900, a 7'5'' robot capable of many things, but mainly pulling carriages." (Don't forget the less-fictional, more-fraudulent Ajeeb and The Turk.)
What about tranzor Z (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:2)
Re:What about tranzor Z (Score:2)
I think I was mentally scarred by that cartoon as a kid, and her rocket boobs. I remember the first time I saw a real pair. I remember fearing that they'd launch off and explode, and I also remember being slightly disappointed that they didn't.
(random FYI: Tranzor Z's original Japanese was Great Mazinger.)
What about... (Score:4, Funny)
Must be said! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Must be said! (Score:2)
Robotic Ducks (Score:5, Informative)
Wow! (Score:1)
Re:Robotic Ducks (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Robotic Ducks (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Robotic Ducks (Score:2)
I've finally traced back the origin of the term 'core dump'!
Mason & Dixon (Score:2)
My favorite (Score:5, Funny)
It was designed by many of the worlds most prominent scientists in a variety of fields, whom all came together to focus on this single effort. It really is a shame we don't have the ability today to team up all of our top scientists to create massive mechanical horrors.
Re:My favorite (Score:2, Funny)
Re:My favorite (Score:4, Funny)
INFORMATIVE?! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:My favorite (Score:5, Funny)
Re:My favorite (Score:3, Interesting)
Half the fun of these foot icon stories is reading the posts from people who totaly missed it. My favorite is a post further down that read "you all do realize this is a fabrication right?"
Well shit, I never noticed until you said something!
Passing the Pop-Culture Test (Score:2)
I recently passed a pop-culture test. Stank like hell, but I felt a lot better afterwards. Must have been something bad I ate the night before.
-kgj
Re:My favorite (Score:1, Informative)
Re:My favorite (Score:1)
I was a fan of the series, especially the first two years. Just never warmed up to the idea of Will Smith as James West...
The TV-movie of TWWW (1980) was pretty decent, especially with the producers misunderstanding what Ross Martin meant when he wanted to do a part "in drag" (Ross wanted to something in disguise - the producers assumed the more modern meaning of the phrase).
Professor Frink (Score:2)
Re:My favorite (Score:3, Interesting)
home robots... (Score:5, Informative)
qrio, sony's new human robot. the latest ones can jog. this one i don't have of course, but i've been around them for work projects. [philliptorrone.com]
aibo photos, of the aibo and what it takes pictures of and send via wifi to my email account. this is the new aibo ers-7 [philliptorrone.com]
aibo training, new bone. his name is wuffie, after a cool concept in cory doctorow's latest book, quicktime. [63.151.46.81]
my home made robot, made with a tablet pc and.. [flashenabled.com]
robot dance video, with the robots in my home. roombas, aibos, home made robots, etc..quicktime [63.151.46.81]
my home made robot, made with a tablet pc and.. [flashenabled.com]
aibo (old gen) on it's scooter.. [flashenabled.com]
video of my roomba running around, winmedia [pocketpcmagic.com] and i have a segwway ht, which might be a robotic platform for some experiments.
cheers,
pt
Re:home robots... (Score:1, Flamebait)
just in case (Score:2)
Re:home robots... (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you have stairs in your house?
YLFIVirtual Soldier and then some... (Score:5, Funny)
Program Manager: Dr. Richard Satava
The Virtual Soldier Program seeks to establish a new capability that will revolutionize medical care to support the soldier. The program will create the mathematical modeling approaches to develop an information (computational) representation of an individual soldier (a holographic medical electronic representation or holomer) that can be used to augment medical care on and off the battlefield with a new level of integration. This virtual soldier will be based upon a highly complex model that is derived from biologically driven principles and populated with properties that are extracted from evidence-based data. The initial Phase 1 effort will consist of a two-component, three-dimensionally displayed model: (1) An organ-tissue system model component, and (2) a properties level model component. Once derived, the virtual soldier will provide multiple capabilities, including but not limited to automatic diagnosis of battlefield injuries, prediction of soldier performance, testing and evaluation of non-lethal weapons, and virtual clinical trials.
DARPA [darpa.mil]
And on another note...
SCO Soldier
Program Team: SCUM Group [scumgroup.com]
The SCO Soldier Program seeks to scan source codes and find the printf function on those lines of codes and report them back to its owner. Using covert tactics and illicit (possibly) illegal methods, the SCO Soldier can then automate fascimile transmissions of source code to a database which can then quantum generate subpoenas on the fly.
With the speed rate of over 2billion lines of code per minute, the SCO soldier can quickly misconstrue every line of code for pseudo-authenticity and create a manically broad worded asinine report which sounds great on the outside but is actually empty on the inside.
SCO Soldier not available in Open Source and will be licensed to someone who is willing to be sued immediately afterwards in efforts to ensure that SCO Soldier is functioning properly and generating frivolous lawsuits.
*sigh* (Score:5, Funny)
grr, that ugly looking robot has got a GF, hell, I wish I looked like a robot...
Re:*sigh* (Score:2, Funny)
Re:*sigh* (Score:2)
You can try strapping a laser pointer to your head. Do a couple of test runs, though. You'll get in trouble if that dot lands on her chest.
What was that movie with a tin man? (Score:1)
Re:What was that movie with a tin man? (Score:2)
Re:What was that movie with a tin man? (Score:1)
Tin Man movie (Score:2)
Re:Tin Man movie (Score:1)
Robots, indeed (Score:5, Funny)
[Bender and Fry in Bender's apartment.]
Bender: [while sleeping] Kill all humans, kill all humans, must kill all hu...
Fry: [shakes him] Bender wake up!
Bender: I was having the most wonderful dream. I think you were in it.
Fry: Listen, Bender, uh... where's your bathroom?
Bender: Bath-what?
Fry: Bathroom.
Bender: What room?
Fry: Bathroom!
Bender: What what?
Fry: Aaah, never mind.
[Bender shuts himself down to sleep, Fry lies on the floor]
Bender: [while sleeping] Hey, sexy mama... Wanna kill all humans?
Re:Robots, indeed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Robots, indeed (Score:2)
If he were wanting robots to kill people, I think he'd be waiting for the events in a considerably more christmasy episode to occur...
Re:Robots, indeed (Score:2)
Ajeeb (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ajeeb (Score:2)
Victorian robots? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Victorian robots? (Score:2)
I wonder though, do androids dream of electric sheep?
robot schmobot (Score:3, Funny)
On another note, its quite impressive that these were developed (assuming their ligitimate), considering the level of technology available at the time.
Re:robot schmobot (Score:2)
Re:robot schmobot (Score:1)
Re:robot schmobot (Score:2)
Very, actually.
Y'see, the robo-men--or "marines", as we liked to call them--had the useful ability to actually fight and follow orders, and not go run off and fight for food or land or women. These "marines" are the perfect--nay, the ESSENTIAL--soldier for the Great War front back then.
How do I know that? Well, heck boy, I'm an officer! Got me a ten-year pass on leave, so I hopped into one've our time-machines, and sped forward to this time, to live among the mundanes and the civies.
Y'should remember that there ain't really no darn limits to technology, now that we got that thar time machines.
hmmmm (Score:2, Funny)
Deep Blue Needed a Turk (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Deep Blue Needed a Turk (Score:2)
-Zipwow
Uhm.... Can you say Hoax? (Score:5, Informative)
HAH! A truism that's also a pun! Ok, ok, I suppose they really couldn't fabricate the parts for him back then...
But it's still a load of horse pucky.
Re:Uhm.... Can you say Hoax? (Score:5, Informative)
for more information
Boilerplate Hoax [wouldthatitwere.com]
Re:Uhm.... Can you say Hoax? (Score:2)
"Boilerplate works," Hayden told me, "because of people's gullibility rather than Guinan's guile."
Anybody wanna go spelunking in San Fransisco?
Uhm, can you say NO SHIT SHERLOCK? (Score:2, Insightful)
Even the story text is worded in such a way:
Don't forget the less-fictional, more-fraudulent Ajeeb and The Turk
learn to read, douche bag
Re:who keeps on modding this shit up? (Score:2)
In that category, all that shit is quite on-topic. The funniest stuff should be modded up.
And it's definitely geek humor, so it's on topic in
The Oz Robots (Score:5, Interesting)
Tik-Tok [science-frontiers.com], seen here as illustrated by John R Neill, the original Oz illustrator (He also appeared in a 1985 film). He does resemble "Boilerplate", doesn't he?
The Tin Man (or Tin Woodman of Oz). Everyone knows what he looks like. First appearing in 1900, during the Victorian era for sure, he has to be one of the first cyborgs in anything (if not the very first).
Re:The Oz Robots (Score:2)
Re:The Oz Robots (Score:2, Funny)
At least, that's what's in the book. Personally, I find it incredible. It's enough to cast doubt on the veracity of the entire OZ ouvre.
Tin Woodsman = Cyborg (Score:2)
However, once all of his parts were replaced, it is hard to argue that he was not a robot by that point.
A likely excuse (Score:2)
That has always seemed like a likely story: "Were you clumsy with your axe, Nick Chopper?" "Why no, a witch made me do it!"
"Personally, I find it incredible. It's enough to cast doubt on the veracity of the entire OZ ouvre.
and the "witch made me do it" excuse could throw the hole workmens comp business into chaos.
Nick Chopper- a man barely able to use a butter knive without requiring stitches. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology (or at least we have some spare tin cans lying around). We have the capability to build the world's first tin man. Nick Chopper will be that man. Better than he was before. Better. Faster. Stronger. And a little less clumsy with the axe.
Original Wild Wild West (Score:4, Funny)
Isn't this ground well covered by the original Wild Wild West..?
Do it right.... (Score:5, Informative)
"A collaborative novel from the premier cyberpunk authors, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine takes us not forward but back, to an imagined 1885 [amazon.com]: the Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven, cybernetic engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time."
Re:Do it right.... (Score:2)
Did they meet Marty and Doc?
these robots are cool, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Angrybot [wearerobots.com].
"My credit card's not rejected, YOU'RE rejected!"
The Boiler Plate Soldier Article Is A Fraud! (Score:3, Funny)
You see... the Parisans knew well in advanced just how many battles they were going to have to surrender in, over the next hundred years, so they designed this robot to do it for them. You see, the average French soldier was far to arrogant to admit that they, yes... did in fact suck... however, the French government refused to accept the casualities of extended conflicts due to the fact they had nobody amongst themselves brave enough or confident enough to actually surrender, so they created a robot to face the shame for them. Sadly the protype never lived up to the hype, and for the next 8 consecutive battles, the French had to swallow their pride and surrender Mano-eh-mano.
Shees, cant the history books get anything right?
The French `Chaudiere de Plat` Robot (Score:2)
One of the more interesting features of the French `Chaudiere de Plat` Robot was that it looked exactly the same on the back as it did the front. This way, when it retreated with the rest of the French army, the winning army would always see the angry faces of the robots facing them (it looked like much less of a complete route of the French army, and it mystified the foreign armies who were only used to seeing the backsides of fleeing French infantry)
Re:The Boiler Plate Soldier Article Is A Fraud! (Score:3, Interesting)
First off, you will never hear me sing the praises of American actions during WWI and WWII... neither is such a noble persuit, although I will admit that the US did have a HUGE impact on winning that war. WWI on the other hand was a global clusterfuck from day one... even the causes of that war are questionable.
As to France's contributions to WW2, please try not to make me laugh so hard. France lost purely to incompetance and nothing more... they acted as much of a deterant to the Nazi war machine, as a speedbump deters a Hummer. Yes... lets build a wall bristling with guns and point it in one direction and sit back and think we are safe.
Then... There was the supreme moron Charles de GAULLE who almost single handidly prevent the United States from joining the war in the first place, due to his sheer arrogance and sense of self worth. The United States president(s) HATED him, and he is very much responsible for a delay in many actions that occured in the second world war. Hell, he even delayed the land lease act which started to sway power in the allies favour. France hindered the allies war effort more then they helped, pure and simple. The allies owe the victory to the meat grinder that was Russia, and the sacrafice of US and British Commonwealth countries on a factor of 100x more then any action any French people did.
As to my perspective, im a Canadian... so two things... 1) I dont think the US staying a british colony is such a bad thing... Australia and Canada seem like pretty damned nice countries, in my opinion... 2) de GAULLE has caused HUGE problems, by once again meddling in Canadian affairs. We owe a whole wack of our last 20 years of problems ( FLQ crisis, and seperation+referendums ) to that arrogant little worm.
Re:The Boiler Plate Soldier Article Is A Fraud! (Score:2)
However, I, after putting more thought into it, completely agree with your response to my initial joke. In the post 9/11 world, with that monkey
That said... I stand by what I said
That said, I am not condeming French culture... nor calling them cheese eaters ( although, I suppose I am calling them surrender monkeys!!!
Regardless, no insult meant to any french people intended... except perhaps to any military officals in the French army... or those who think that De Gaulle was the bomb!
?! WTF (Score:2)
Only on Slashdot...
Re:The Boiler Plate Soldier Article Is A Fraud! (Score:2)
That would have made the joke less funny.
Chill.
Of course there was another type of steam "man"... (Score:1)
Re:Of course there was another type of steam "man" (Score:2)
That same day, Markoff Chaney was hiding in a coffee urn at Orgasm Research, hatching further mischief.
The clock struck midnight, the cleaning women left; and out crept Chaney with an evil grin.
Alas, he was not the only intruder that night, for as he padded down the hall he suddenly heard a hoarse voice in one of the laboratories.
"Better than human, are you, you @*)@'&ing #$%&'er? Better than human, my %$#&! Take this, you $%#)*$#-eating #$%%$*er!"
The voice was near inarticulate with rage, but it was clearly that of a jealous male, as any ethologist would easily recognize. Markoff slowly opened the door and peeked around the corner.
There in the dim light, fully dressed and in his wrong mind, stood the idol of millions, the world's leading rock guitarist, Knorton ("Grassy") Knoll, feverishly working with a monkey wrench upon an object the likes of which Markoff Chaney had never seen- a Giacometti robot with a gigantic human phallus.
"I'll take you apart, you $%$#," the demented rock musician was muttering. "I'll tear your $%$@$ out by its roots, I will." And he continued his assault, gargling and panting like one obsessed- which he was. "Man against machine," he gasped. "First they out think us, now they out-fuck us. It's time for all out war, by $%*@$...."
Markoff watched, silent as a cat, until the hebephrenic cuckold was finished with his foul work, and the machine stood, a heap of scrap metal, with the phallus removed. Then, after the musician slouched off into the night, the midget crept into the room and carefully wrote on the wall in stark purple crayon:
THE PIGEONS IN B.F. SKINNER'S
LABORATORIES ARE POLITICAL PRISONERS.
RELEASE THEM OR FURTHER ACTIONS WILL
FOLLOW.
EZRA POUND, FOR
THE DREADED NEUROLOGICAL ARMY (DNA)
-From Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson
Oblig. Onion..... (Score:2)
True, maybe not robots in the strictest sense, but definitely ahead of their time.
Off-topic: Can we change Bill Gate's image here to match the boilerplate robot? I would find it less menacing and more approachable. It, too, would be heartless.
Embrace and extend! (Score:5, Funny)
I can just see the Tin Gates marching toward us, tottering on stiff metal legs, arms waving in front. Rasping from the tiny grate at the mouth: "Embrace and extend! Embrace and extend! Embrace and extend!"
you forgot (Score:3, Funny)
Actually for the time in film ... Robbie The Robot (Score:5, Interesting)
Victorian Era Laws of Robots (Score:5, Funny)
2. A robot should never harm a British subject of the Crown. Harming colonials is OK. This includes during a tiger-hunt.
3. If a robot sees a brother robot down on his luck, the robot should give the brother robot a fresh lump of coal so the brother robot can work up a head of steam and forge ahead.
Anyone pass the third grade? (Score:4, Informative)
This list may prove useful:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclopedia/List_o
duplicated here:
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_in_li
And in case you think that Maureen Stapleton is really an android "Electric Grandmother," you can look here to reassure yourself that in fact she is a human actor, not a robot:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0083876/
boilerplate (Score:4, Funny)
What powered these robots? (Score:3, Informative)
Gosh, where is PimpBot (Score:5, Funny)
The difference (Score:5, Interesting)
The Fundamental Question (Score:2)
Hoax. (Score:2, Informative)
Be that as it may, I think the site was fun and funny at the same time
Steam Man book (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorta interesting with all its boy inventor stuff...
They managed to simulate walking? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the first modern robot to actually do this was that Honda one that came out last year.
Nikola Tesla (Score:2, Interesting)
Karakuri Ningyo (Score:4, Informative)
karakuri.info [karakuri.info]
Karakuri Frontier [nagoya-u.ac.jp]
The Steam Man story is available from Geutenberg (Score:3, Interesting)
For those who are interested in this work.
Re:The Steam Man story is available from Geutenber (Score:2)
More disproof... (Score:2, Informative)
I'm sure that everyone reading the Boilerplate [bigredhair.com] story (about the would-be soldier, scout, mechanical marvel-man, etc...) wondered what kind of magic pills the guy who wrote it was taking since clearly a steam-powered man never did anything he claims it did.
Some more (dis)proof [portlandmercury.com] is provided for those who couldn't find that magic pill. Mechanical soldier, my shiny metal ass!
Pneuman! (Score:3, Interesting)
Boilerplate is ficitonal (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/bp.report
Dr. Wily (Score:2)
More info about the Boilerplate hoax (Score:2, Informative)
Re:More info about the Boilerplate hoax (Score:2, Informative)
For about 2 seconds, I was fascinated by the historical technology--then I thought, "Wait a sec..", now I'm in awe of the brilliance of this hoax!
Forgotten Futures, the Scientific Romance RPG (Score:3, Interesting)
Gamers who enjoyed reading about these fictional robots from the penny-dreadful and dime-novel days should check out Forgotten Futures [forgottenfutures.com]. From the site: "Forgotten Futures is Marcus Rowland's table-top role playing game based on scientific romances, the predecessors of science fiction that were published in the late 19th and early 20th century. Each collection focuses on a different theme, and include space travel through the heavily populated solar system of 1900 [slashdot.org], Ghost Hunting in Edwardian England [slashdot.org], and adventures with Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger [slashdot.org]." Fun stuff, and great value too.
You forget the oldest one (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.teknoturk.org/docking/yazilar/
Fake - or is it...? (Score:3, Insightful)
As already has been mentioned [slashdot.org], there were "robotic" devices in the Victorian era and before! De Vaucanson's duck was only one such marvel of the era. There are the Droz family automata (which are real close to actual robots, the devices are able to be "re-programmed" via cams and levers, though such changes are very difficult to make). There is another automata, I forget the maker's name, which is a silver swan that moves with a very smooth grace. Lastly, there really was a steam-powered two-legged walking machine - it used a small steam engine, exhaust came out it's head, and a steam whistle in its mouth. It used a rotating cam/crank mechanism to allow it to walk stiff-leggedly around in a circle, via a long arm attached to a central pivot point.
Automata during the Victorian period and before served to fuel the imagination of quite a variety of characters - Babbage himself became interested in a variety of automata of the period, including Kempelen's Turk chess player (more on this in a bit). Mary Shelly saw the Droz automata, which has been said to be one of the sparks for Frankenstein.
These people and many others were influenced by these machines in very profound ways. They caused many "top" people of the day to pause and ask themselves and others "can a machine be alive - can it think for itself?" - no doubt the Turk, though not truely a robot, was a very advanced form of automata commanded by a hidden operator (it was no simple puppet - it was more like a remotely operated robot in action). Robots like the Turk caused much discussion about the possibility of machines being intelligent, and indirectly led to the questioning of whether we humans are nothing more than intelligent meat machines. Shelly's Frankenstein questioned the morality and desires behind the need to create machines (and the blending of a created man with human parts) - and what happens when that machine seeks companionship and answers to its own life.
These themes continue to resonate with us to this very day - it is what is driving the human race to create ever more advanced robots and androids. These themes are seen in various AI research, game programming and development (to make the characters in the world more believable - virtual robots, if you will), and other simulations.
Victorian-era "robotics" are only one stage (and really, a middle stage) in the development of machines to automatically (and intelligently) do our bidding (hopefully alongside us)...