filkertom | Happy Birthday, Karel Čapek

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Happy Birthday, Karel Čapek

On this date in 1890.

What/who is your favorite robot? Yes, androids and real-life robots (e.g., the Mars rover) count. First person to name Cherry 2000, Bethlehem Steele, or Girltron gets a thump on the head.

... Wait... that would be m- [thump]

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What/who is your favorite robot?

Tom Servo!

I'm the wind, baby!

Do the Mars Rovers count? I think they may be the first space probes to have a fan club. :)

I still have a fondness for the robot from Lost in Space. He's the one I grew up with, with guest appearances by Robbie all over the place on TV.

Overall, though, I'd probably vote for R. Daneel Olivaw as my favorite, edging out a pack of thousands.

Are you including androids in that? If so, Questor or Futurecop. I'm noting a derth in modern movies and tv series with good androids these days.

If not, then Sonny from "I, Robot". Movie isn't Asimov, but it's good on its own.

The android in Future Cop was named Haven.

How could I, in all good conscience, say anything but Bender? We do, after all, share the same last name. (Well, until I got married, anyway.)

Modular Man (from the Wild Cards series) and Marvin. Gotta love androids with self-image and self-esteem problems... :-)

First person to name Cherry 2000, Bethlehem Steele, or Girltron gets a thump on the head.

::innocent look::

So it would be OK to say Galaxina?

Ohhhhh, probably. Hubba hubba.

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nimitzbrood.livejournal.com - 2008-01-09 18:56 (UTC) - Expand

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drzarron.livejournal.com - 2008-01-09 19:48 (UTC) - Expand

Data's my favorite, too.

Spirit and Opportunity are simply the coolest and greatest robots ever. Three months have become four years, and the probes are still running, despite software glitches, mechanical breakdowns and the odd global sandstorm.

As great as Data, Bender, Robby and Red Tornado are, none can quite hold a candle to the Rovers.

I just posted an homage to Spirit and Opportunity below, but I had forgotten just how profoundly they have exceeded expectations. Best. Robots. Ever.

R2D2, though Rommie from 'Andromeda' is pretty nifty too :)

Old B.O.B., because you can't get better than a robot with Slim Pickens' voice.

What, no love for V.I.N.CENT.?

And Maximillian scared the hell out of me.

Another vote for Rommie from Andromeda (the first season anyway). In the real world I'm a fan of all three Mars rovers, which have definitely served above and beyond the call of duty.

There's also Rhoda Miller.

And this year, there are at least two new contenders.

But overall, yeah, I'd go with Spirit and Opportunity.

Lordy, I must need caffeine. Or maybe I was just trying to stay relatively unprurient. Good ol' AF709, the greatest robot ever made.

My favourite robot: the hero of The Iron Giant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Giant).

The robot Maria in Metropolis ... no contest

Bender is great! And from what I hear, there's a great big beautiful tomorrow...

Oh jeez. I got trapped on the earlier incarnation of that ride, "Now Is The Best Time Of Your Life". We got stuck for nearly a frickin' hour, and they just kept trying to make us sing along in a desperate attempt to stave off madness. Damn Disney bots were causing the madness.

Hedonismbot from Futurama!

Stephen Byerley

I've always had a soft spot for TOBOR as he was the first one I ever 'met'.

"Forward, TOBOR, forward!"
"...go back, TOBOR, go back!"

The protagonist of Asimov's Bicentennial Man is pretty high up there, though I have something of a soft spot for Norby (the Mixed-Up Robot) as well.

And then of course there's Chip Carson, who was Not Quite Human.

Adding my voice for Rommie...
although in the real world, I got a fondness for the voyager pair...the little robots that could!

Its hard not to go with the "Big Three" movie and TV bots

Model B-9 Environmental Control Robot

Gort

Robbie

Gotta love Bender, Data and his grandfather, Questor, Marvin, The Entire Asimov line up, Galaxina and Rhonda.. AHh.. and the boys (and girl) on the "Satellite of Love".

Spirit and Opportunity win for RL robots, hands down.

I loves me some Robbie and B-9, though, K9, and Data... man.. that is some stiff competition.

Most of my favorite robots are fictional/satirical - the bots from MST3K, any number of robots from the Futurama universe (Bender, of course, Hedonism-bot, Kwanzaa-bot, Malfunctioning Eddie, The Robot Mafia, etc.)

But big-time props to the real-life Mars rovers. Not only are they honest-to-science autonomous cybernetic explorers, but they are still going strong after 4 years. That's damned plucky.

Seriously, those little guys have been wandering alone across the landscape of an alien world, sending back images and information, for 4 years now, and whenever I see one of those snapshots, I still get the same chill-up-the-spine amazement I had when the images came back from that first Mars probe: "That is a photograph from another. fucking. planet. Not death valley through a tinted lens, not a model, not an artist's rendering, not CGI, not even an image taken from a space probe from 250,000 miles away. The surface of another world. WTF hath ghod wrought?"

OTOH, Bender is great...

Gotta be either Marvin (the TV version) or Gort.

K-9, currently collapsing a black hole somewhere near you!

'Near' being a somewhat relative concept.

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