I think it says a lot about us, and about our approach to robotics (and to AI, likely) that we coo and wow over how much robots can be made to look like us: Not that I think the verisimilitude would be easy, but folks, these things are profoundly not-us, and the more we try to hide that away, the more it will become apparent, and bother us. In the long run, all this investment of money into research and prototyping suggests that robots are thought to be useful in some kind of economic sense–not that they ought to have …
Month: March 2011
Lovecrafty Links
Too busy to post that review of my trip to Italy–it’s coming soon–so here are some links: not really a “walking cactus” but a look at some weird critters from 520 million years ago, this looks right out of HPL’s nightmares like Lovecraft? Facebook’s got a feed for the Lovecraft e-zine, so you can sign up for tidbits… and of course go look at the zine itself! here’s a free ebook containing (almost) all of Lovecraft’s prose works, courtesy of Cthulhu Chick (yes, yes, most of it has been available online since forever, but it’s all in one single file, …
On This Day…
I have a friend who was born on the same day Elvis died. I think it was actually on the same exact day that the King shuffled off this mortal coil. I can’t brag of any such simultanaeities, but I discovered a while back who I share my birthday with: On March 4th, the following people of interest (to me) died: William Carlos Williams, the modernist poet Gary Gygax, the creator of the RPG game and specifically of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG game Meanwhile, the following interesting people were born on my birthday: Antonio Vivaldi (yes, the guy who …
To Do, New
In my last personal post, I mentioned how I was focusing on three things this semester: time management expectations management novel-drafting I mentioned how I need to get all three in the bag if I’m going to fulfill my goals for the semester. Allow me to back up a bit to explain. I came to Korea, in part, because I knew that in academic jobs, I could have more hours free during the day or week. This has materialized in a half-completed draft of one novel, a completed (first, roughish) draft of a second novel, and nothing else in long-form …
Farewells, Hellos, And So It Goes, And So It Goes
One thing I hate having to do so much is say goodbye to people who’ve become an important part of my life. I find it’s a pretty recurring theme in the life of an expat–or of those who spend time with expats. (I remember a few Koreans back in Jeonju who seemed always to be heartbrokenly saying goodbye to people.) It’s probably harder when you’re staying, and even harder when you thought you, too, would be one of the people leaving and turned out not to be, as is my case. Two members of my writing critique group–well, a circle …