I’ve spent the last year maniacally researching robots for a book that will be the first to chronicle the entire history of robots in popular culture. Don’t ask me when it’s coming out: my deadline looms, I’m nowhere near done yet already thousands of words past my expected length, and chaos is nigh. There’s way too much good stuff.
Some of that good stuff is too obscure even for a comprehensive book. So I’ve arranged with my friend John O’Neil, the publisher of Blackgate.com, to let me do a biweekly column on robots, robots, robots.
The latest one appeared this morning, titled “London Wins Great Game,” a prediction of baseball–playing robots – from 1905. Previous columns include “The First Three Laws of Robotics,” on the guy who came up with three laws before Asimov, “The Romance of Robot,” a Federal Theater opera, “Rube Goldberg’s Radio Robot,” the only robot announcer on radio, “Little Miss Martian,” a collection of robot stories that may have been a lovely tribute, and “Carl Burgos and Air-Sub “DX,”" a robot comic he did before inventing the Human Torch.
Just go to BlackGate.com. There’s no sign-up, it’s completely free, and no ads will spoil the beauty of my prose. If my article isn’t on top, enter my nom du reality, Steve Carper, into the search box. New columns will appear every other Wednesday until I crack. (Yes, I know that today’s Thursday. Champagne was involved.) When a new column goes up there I archive the old one at my website FlyingCarsandFoodPills.com, also free, with more robot stuff.
This post has been mod approved for freshness and pixel compatability.
I wasn’t singling out your posts–I’m long familiar with Black Gate and already had the script installed. (Before I had the script, I had to highlight the whole page to read it–nothing is worth trying to read the blue-on-black design.)
A little late, but now back on schedule, my latest robot column just went up on Black Gate.
Lilliput 5357 was the first ever robot toy, made in Japan just before WWII (or possibly just after; records are scant). The English name indicates it was for the foreign market but nobody is quite sure if it made it there or not. No matter. Today you can buy any of dozens of knock off versions. I have one myself.
Illustrated with lots of cute pictures of lots of robots and a surprise appearance by the second toy robot, Atomic Robot Man!
The next column *will *come out on Wednesday, February 7. Guaranteed.
Dunno how I missed this the first time 'round but thanks for bumping. I am looking forward to your book! But in the meantime I’ll make do with these neat articles.
Well, the word “robot” actually comes from a czech word “rabota”, meaning “slave”…
I kind of feel like you could dedicate an entire book on how and why the robot in pop culture has come to be portrayed as either a “male” giant sarcastic robotor a “female” weaponized sex doll.
There are a few more - robot taking jobs, robot inheriting the planet, robot as metaphor for technology, robot as warrior/weapon, robot as child, robot as doppleganger - but the total is surprisingly circumscribed.
**Robots, Robots, Robots - a biweekly column at Blackgate.com **
Put another audio File In
In the Logicalodeon
All I want is reading you
and Robots, Robots, Robots
Apologies to Teresa Brewer and, well, everyone else.
Just a little heads-up for when you hang out with your robot buddies: the r-word is basically like the n-word. You had better not say that word. Just call them by their names, be cool, and don’t forget to buy your round of drinks.