Monday
Sep172012
Ep 29: Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Posted on 
Monday, September 17, 2012 at 1:54PM | in episodes
Monday, September 17, 2012 at 1:54PM | in episodes 
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Prepare for the inevitable robot uprising by learning about...well, robots! Eymology, first appearances in pop culture, hanging out in the uncanny valley, historical Japanese tea-serving automatons and French duck robots. Inspiration behind C3PO & R2D2, TV + Movie Robot quiz, and of course, our own robot E.L.V.I.S. is back!
ALSO: Brainiacs Book Club, *VERY AWESOME* music round, ...listener challenge...?
RUNTIME: 46 minutes 27 seconds
Reader Comments (6)
I have been listening to you guys from the beginning. As a podcast fanatic, I have to say, you guys are the best! I am writing to tell you that I saw your pictures and was shocked to find that you all look exactly as I imagined you! Keep up the good work!
hi gang im a new listner to your podcast im enjoying it alot . ive listened to four of the shows ive also got them on my mp3 player . the ones i got are. the robot, cartoon one, ceareal one, i forget the other one sorry. but in any case there great. colin and chris you guys are halirrous i like your personalitys well in fact i love all your persnallitys rhat means the ladies too.. speaking of the ladies karen you are a great host with all your puns and rhymes and i love the way you say banobos i hope you know what im mean but you sound so sexxxy when you say it. and dana out of all of you i love your laugh the most . and i also think your pretty too. one more thing before im done i just thought you would like to know im from ames, iowa well happy trails everyone bye.
Where have you been all my life? Just discovered this podcast - amazing.
I'm new here so I don't know if I'm trampling on well established protocol - but in the segment on robots and acronyms there is some trivia that wasn't mentioned about the HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Whether it was intentional or not by Kubrick and Clark has not been established - but if you move one letter further in the alphabet from H A L the result is I B M. A coincidence? I would be afraid to use coincidence and Kubrick in the same sentence, Oops I just did. I'm scared now.
Keep up the amusing and enlightening good work!
It's not a coincidence!
Ah! I meant to mention this in the podcast but didn't want to get too sidetracked... but both Kubrick and Arthur Clarke — remember, the book was written by him almost simultaneously with developing the script — frequently and staunchly denied that "HAL" was meant to be based on "IBM".
Here's a good quote from Clarke on the subject:
"However, about once a week some character spots the fact that HAL is one letter ahead of IBM, and promptly assumes that Stanley and I were taking a crack at the estimable institution ... As it happened, IBM had given us a good deal of help, so we were quite embarrassed by this, and would have changed the name had we spotted the coincidence."
So yes, it is indeed a coincidence!
Hi Guys, love the show. Just stumbled across it and now I'm trying to listen to them all and catch up the the new ones. Listening to 3 a day as I drive to and from work. It will be very lame when I have to wait one whole week!
Just like Karen I am a huge Futurama fan, so whenever a question that relates to it comes around, I get so excited! So when you guys asked the question about who first used the word "Robot", I thought Karen would get this one. In episode 5 of the first season, in "Fear of a Bot Planet" the Planet Express crew deliver a package to ....... Chapek 9, a world only inhabited by Robots! I only learnt this easter egg from listening to the episode commentary, but I am glad I did, just so I could answer that one question!
That's my 2 cents worth, keep up the great work guys!