CAUTION

Sparky and me

Turns out that Marque Cornblatt, the artist who created the telepresence robot I got to pilot, took some video of me driving Sparky around, and posted it on youtube.



The experience was really amazing. As you can see from the video, people really get into a different mindstate while talking to someone in a robotic form. They're really open and friendly and cheerful. Imagine me running up to random strangers like that and yelling "Dance with me!" and getting such an enthusiastic response.

But when I did it as a robot, they were like gleeful little children. People love robots. I think that improving this technology to the point where we can inhabit humanoid robots in other parts of the world would be really amazing. Getting the inputs good enough that you could rent a "tourist bot" and walk around a place that you can't afford to go to in reality would be quite amazing.

I had such a good time driving that little bastard around. It was dark, and the camera I was looking through was tiny, but I forced myself not to "cheat" and look to see where the robot was, but to try to see only through its eyes. With some success and some failure. But all the interacting with people was my favorite part, I just drove around and talked to people for like 30 minutes. People danced for me, people mistook me for some sort of program that was running inside the machine, and a number of other hilarious things. Hoping I can try telepresence again soon.

Drive

So, I don't usually talk about TV on here, but I watched the two hour pilot of Drive tonight, and I absolutely loved it. One of the best pilots I've seen, right up there with Firefly. Which is interesting, of course, because one of the producers from this show also produced Firefly. Also, it has Nathan Fillion, the captain from Firefly, which is awesome.

Now, a lot of you like Heroes. I've watched the first batch of fifteen or so episodes of it, and it's okay, but it never really grabbed me. I had issues with the pacing of it, and it never really made me laugh. It never felt particularly smart, more like it was aimed at a lot of people, and trying to please them all.

Drive feels compelling right from the get-go. There's plenty of mystery, the concept (a massive group of strangers set on a cross country race with high stakes) is interesting in a modernized Cannonball Run sort of way, and they keep unfolding surprising elements. In a way it reminds me of a good Stephen King short story, The Long Walk, where it starts of fun and innocent, and then over the course of the story, twists into something really creepy. And the characters are all really varied, with lots of room to explore.

Also, it makes me laugh. It doesn't hurt that the production values are fast, tight, and top notch. And most importantly, it really, really doesn't take itself too seriously, which is a disease way too many shows fall into. It's much more interested in being adventure than drama.

Anyway, watch it. Get your hands on the two hour pilot from tonight, they'll be replaying it, or you can bittorrent it, and they're doing another episode tomorrow. It's funny, fast, smart, and interesting. And it's way the hell better than Heroes.

dance for the machine

 

I'll add more text to this soon, I've got more pictures to collect, but I wanted to upload this shot quickly, because it sends chills down my spine.

This girl is dancing for me. I was at an art event called Yuri's night, and I was operating that robot via telepresence, and that girl is looking right into my eyes, remotely, and dancing for me. It was pretty amazing.