Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2005-11-18:

"Wherever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it's happening." -- P.J. O'Rourke, in Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism

(submitted to the mailing list by Kelly Rollefson)

Television news blurb: child undergoes kidney surgery performed by robot. I think, "Now there's an interesting and bold move ... one step on the way to SFnal 'autodocs'? Human guts seem like a rather trying place for machine-vision." Story finally comes up and device is described by doctor and shown in stock footage from manufacturer. I realize, "Waitaminute, that's just a set of waldos! Newish maybe but it's still human surgery with fancy tools; not bold because it just makes sense, especially for laproscopic surgery and/or surgery on smaller than normal patients, because motions can be scaled. That's not a robot!"

Half-awake, I log in to write this. Get this far and finally remember that waldos started out as science fiction, however obvious they seem now. Still feel a little ripped off by the promise of a robot though.

Wondering: in current usage, are waldos considered a subset of robots? When I think of robots, the first that I think of are programmed industrial robots, like ones that build cars. I don't think of constantly-human-controlled devices execpt in the context of "Robot Wars" style competitions and hazardous-situation-telepresence mobile units (e.g., bomb-squad or search-and-rescue crawlers, or undersea exploration/salvage units actively controlled from shipboard) -- and even those I feel like I ought to have a better word for. Have I got an especially warped concept of "robot", or is this matter of different fields/backgrounds/subcultures having different definitions? Or are the television news people confused and need to be taught the word 'waldo' because waldos aren't robots?

Hmm. Still not feeling completely awake, but it's past time to get up and feed Perrine. Who lost a baby mouse this morning at 3:00 AM, by the way, and then was actively searching for it (much bouncing across me to look in different places, running around the bed, scratching at the wall, etc.) for the next four hours. Grrr. If she could just not give them so much of a head start when she drops them ... *sigh*