# Robbie the Robot Started Out Life as a Washing Machine **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 14, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372 "2008-03-14T16:07:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/21 "2008-03-15T16:32:53Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] The helmets of the Cylon suits used in the original _Battlestar Galactica_ are chrome plated Westinghouse toasters. [/QUOTE] Cite? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/22 "2008-03-15T16:37:40Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Cite? [/QUOTE] Uh, well…Can I get back to you on that? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/23 "2008-03-15T16:43:35Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Uh, well…Can I get back to you on that? [/QUOTE] No rush. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/24 "2008-03-15T18:59:09Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Uh, yes but you should be chiding Elvis and not, uh, me. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I don’t get it. Elvis asked if Robot (LiS) can brew hooch like Robby (FP). Your response, however, speaks only to Robby’s hooch-brewing capability, which was correctly stipulated as given in the question. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/25 "2008-03-15T20:37:59Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] Your response, however, speaks only to Robby’s hooch-brewing capability, which was correctly stipulated as given in the question. [/QUOTE] I’m confused, too. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/26 "2008-03-15T23:53:49Z")
[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis] Mike Okuda says on one of the Trek disc interviews that Geordi LaForge’s VISOR design was inspired by his wife’s barrette. Sir Rhosis [/QUOTE] In many episodes, the visor clearly _is_ a painted bannana clip. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/27 "2008-03-15T23:58:06Z")
OK, as long as we’re both confused. Moving on, I’ve read that Plan 9 From Outer Space actually used[hubcaps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRq80QNnJM) as flying saucers, but I don’t believe it. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/28 "2008-03-16T00:12:31Z")
I can’t find the magazine but I have an issue of something or other dedicated to Ed Wood and the Depp film about him. According to that, Ed used generic UFO models he bought. The film Ed Wood, decided to use UFOs made of styrofoam plates and bowls instead. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/29 "2008-03-16T00:15:19Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] Moving on, I’ve read that Plan 9 From Outer Space actually used[hubcaps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRq80QNnJM) as flying saucers, but I don’t believe it. [/QUOTE] It looks to me that the pilots in the airliner were sitting on folding chairs and holding dinner plates instead of control yokes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/30 "2008-03-16T17:48:23Z")
The article is misleading about the inspiration for HAL. The picture gives the impression that HAL’s bubble-eye was inspired by surveillance cameras placed around London. But back in the 1960s, surveillance cameras weren’t enclosed in the plasyic bubble-domes that are now ubiquitous (in fact, when I visited Dublin a few years ago, surveillance cameras WERE ubiquitous. But not one was in a bubble dome that I saw). In fact, the article linked to to justify the assertion has Clarke explcitly stating that he didn’t know where the image came from – the art department made it up. I think it’s a bit overplaying Rabby’s roots, too. Robby didn’t “start out as a washing machine”, even if Kinoshita’s early work may have been on them (something hadn’t heard before). It only shows where his mechanical inspirations may have come from. I don’t see much resmblance, myself. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/31 "2008-03-16T22:08:40Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Pretty well known of course, but I still like the inspiration for the name HAL in 2001 (which if anybody doesn’t know is IBM minus one letter each; Anthony Hopkins based Lecter’s voice partly on HAL’s). [/QUOTE] HAL is an acronym for Heuristically-designed Algorithm. Nothing to do with IBM. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/32 "2008-03-16T23:10:12Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] HAL is an acronym for Heuristically-designed Algorithm. Nothing to do with IBM. [/QUOTE] Technically, this **was** mentioned in the book _2010_ (no idea if it’s in the movie as I’ve never sen it), but only as a backronym - someone made a joke about how everyone said HAL was one step ahead of IBM. (I-1=H, B-1=A, M-1=L). But I think Arthur C Clarke put that in only a an amusing aside after the similarity had been pointed out to him. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372/33 "2008-03-17T01:15:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Technically, this was mentioned in the book 2010 (no idea if it’s in the movie as I’ve never sen it), but only as a backronym - someone made a joke about how everyone said HAL was one step ahead of IBM. (I-1=H, B-1=A, M-1=L). > > But I think Arthur C Clarke put that in only a an amusing aside after the similarity had been pointed out to him. It’s in the novel **2001** , which was released before the movie and, as far as I know, before anyone ever made the HAL\<–\>IBM connection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robbie-the-robot-started-out-life-as-a-washing-machine/441372.md?page=1)