Campfyre Stories

If you read my early piece or had the conversation with me, you already know my conceptual feelings on robots, in general.  That is to say, when I think about the concept of robots and the sci-fi future possibilities, you get what I wrote in my earlier piece.  The reality of robots, though, it fascinates me.  I really enjoy watching the progression and I think it’s incredibly cool some of the things they can make robots do these days.

So without thought of the future, I bring you Wired Magazine’s The 50 Best Robots Ever.  I’m not going to bring you the whole thing (which, to me, is rather anti-climactic), but I found these kind of obscure, but fascinating historical moments.

I’ve read about him before:

33. THE TURK
Step right up and marvel at the mechanical device that can beat you in chess. Not impressed? You would be if it were 1769. The contraption was a hoax (inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen stashed a human chess master inside), but it sparked early debates over what it means for a machine to think.

This just cracked me up:

29. VAUCANSON’S DUCK
Back in 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson wanted to create artificial life. He settled for a mechanical duck that pooped. The machine used a weight system to quack, flap its wings, drink water, and eat grain, which it would digest mechanically and expel through an opening in its backside.

Leave it to da Vinci to create the first robot:

07. THE MECHANICAL KNIGHT
Way back in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci designed what was probably the first robot - an automated suit of armor with a windup crank. It could sit up, wave its hands, and maybe even talk. Five hundred years later, engineer Mark Rosheim used the master’s schematics to build a working miniaturized version.

Those are the ones that really struck me as unique, but I also really enjoyed seeing the pop culture listings on there.  I think this is one article that’s better in print, though, because each entry has a picture attached to it, instead of having to go look them up separately.

Now I want to see a list of the top 50 (or 100) most influential robots of all time.  That would be cool.

~FG };^>