Robots
Follies of the Madmen #551
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 29, 2022 -
Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Robots, Women, Twentieth Century
WABOT-2, the Organ-Playing Robot
WABOT-2 was created in the early 1980s, but I can't find any info on what's become of him since then. Whoever now owns him should be renting him out to play at weddings and funerals — recoup some of that $1.2 million it cost to build him.More info: Waseda University
Belleville News-Democrat - Sep 13, 1984
Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 08, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, Robots, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, 1980s
Follies of the Madmen #524
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 27, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Robots, Technology, Advertising, Cats, Asia, Pregnancy
Seleno, the Electric Dog
Read the amazing story of cyber-pup here!ADDENDUM: the link is down as of mid-day May 20, but since the site is a longstanding page, I assume the outage is temporary and am leaving the link in place.
Posted By: Paul - Thu May 20, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Robots, 1910s
Robo Show and Flower Planet
Two features from the 1990 World's Fair in Japan.The opening few minutes are a press release for the company that created the exhibit. "Robo Show" begins at the 5:40 mark, and "Flower Planet" at minute 13:00. State-of-the-art stuff for thirty years ago.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 11, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, Robots, Cartoons, Special Effects, 1990s, Asia
The C-3PO ‘Golden Rod’ Card
In 1977, Topps issued a set of Star Wars trading cards. The set included one card that would, arguably, become the most infamous card it ever printed. This was the so-called C-3PO 'golden rod' card — so called because it seems to show C-3PO in a state of prominent arousal.
Mel magazine recently posted an article which explores the history of this card. The article makes a couple of interesting points:
First, Topps not only really did issue this card... it printed a lot of them. This isn't a rare card.
Second (and to me this is the most remarkable thing), no one involved in the creation of the card noticed its most salient feature until after it had been released and word started to spread among card collectors.
Finally, there's no evidence that the card was the work of a rogue artist. The most compelling theory about what happened is that a panel on the side of C-3PO's armor plating must have accidentally fallen open, and was in exactly the right position to create the illusion of robotic arousal. And then, for whatever reason, Topps selected that image, out of all the possible ones, to print.
Eventually Topps released a corrected version of the card (below). Apparently this corrected version is rarer, and more collectible, than the original. Though, ideally, a collector would want to have both.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 09, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Movies, Robots, Collectors, 1970s
Mama Robot Device
In 2017, patent number KR20170003315A was granted to a Korean inventor for a "Mama Robot Device". The inventor's name is only given in Korean, so I'm not sure what it is, but Google translates it as Jeong In-pil.The Mama Robot is creepy in many ways. As far as I can tell, it's a device that allows children to punish themselves when they know they've been naughty but their parents are away.
The child is able to decide how many lashes with a cane they deserve, and the Mama Robot will then deliver the punishment. As it does so, the prerecorded voice of the parent will admonish the child, but simultaneously the Mama Robot will weep "such that the sad feelings of the parent punishing are conveyed to the child."
A camera inside Mama Robot will record the entire event and then send the video to the parent's phone, as proof that punishment has been served.
I wonder, how many years of therapy would it take for a child to recover from having Mama Robot installed in their home?
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 15, 2019 -
Comments (6)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Robots, Parents
Flying Saucers Over Istanbul
Essay with many still photos here.
IMDB page.
Another short clip here via Facebook.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 12, 2019 -
Comments (2)
Category: Feminism, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, Robots, 1950s
Bossy the Electrified Cow
In the future, when robot cows rule the world, they'll look back on Bossy as one of the first of their kind.
Sumter County Journal - Apr 17, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 29, 2019 -
Comments (2)
Category: Robots, Technology, AI, Robots and Other Automatons, Farming, Cows, 1940s
Prize-winning robot costume from 1927
Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 31, 2018 -
Comments (4)
Category: Costumes and Masks, Robots, 1920s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |