Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log

 

Your favorite robots: “Danger, Will Robinson!” ... “Klaatu barada nikto!” ... “Sorry, miss, I was giving myself an oil job.” ... Those quotes will forever be associated with the top vote-getters in our nominating convention for the Robot Hall of Fame. Can you match up the quotes with the winners? You’ll find the answers below.
       The Cosmic Log nominations came in response to this week's inaugural inductions into the Robot Hall of Fame at Carnegie Mellon University. The Fab Four tapped for the honor were Unimate, considered the world’s first industrial robot; Sojourner, the spunky rover from the Mars Pathfinder mission; R2-D2, the endearing trash-can-shaped robot from the “Star Wars” movie series; and HAL 9000, the computer brain gone wrong from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
       Nominees for 2004 are now being considered, but if my e-mail is any indication, Robby the Robot is a shoo-in. On one level, Robby was just among the first in a generation of B-movie robots, appearing in the 1956 film “Forbidden Planet.” But on another level, the machine was as magical as Ariel from “The Tempest” (upon whom Robby’s character was based) and as inspirational as R2-D2.
       "With the potential exception of the robot in 'Metropolis,' the substantial character of Robby introduced movie audiences to the idea of personal, capable and autonomous robots," one reader observed.
       Robby also had a straight-man circuit built in, as evidenced by the quotes referring to the “oil job” or his opinion of oxygen: “I rarely use it myself, sir. It promotes rust.”
       The robot from 'Lost in Space,' referred to in sci-fi fandom as B-9, was neck-and-neck with Robby. B-9 started out as a bad guy in league with Dr. Smith, the villain of the series, but soon turned into a sidekick as loyal to Will Robinson as R2-D2 was to Luke Skywalker.
       "Baby boomers everywhere are still yelling 'Danger! Danger!' at every chance. Well, I'm sure they'll remember," Daniel wrote.
       "The 'bubble-headed boobie' (according to Dr. Smith) should be the first in line to be honored," another nominator named Keith said.
       The metal-clad Gort, from the 1951 movie classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” was also a strong contender. Even though he was a silent sidekick for the film’s leading character, the Christlike alien named Klaatu, Gort played the climactic role in responding to the immortal phrase “Klaatu barada nikto!” In a Gary Cooperish way, Gort set the standard for strong, silent robots in the movies.
       "Klaatu's speech about the role that 'Gorts' play on their planet points to the ideal that robots could achieve - the idea that robots had attained their ultimate purpose of aiding and protecting those who created them, ending crime and war, and allowing the people to live in peace without fear," Craig Cies wrote. "Plus, he stole the movie without uttering a line, and also scared the bejeezus out of me."
       Many correspondents (and my editor) insisted that Isaac Asimov must be recognized for his contributions to the world of robots, including his famous formulation of the Three Laws of Robotics.
       Damien Tedrow made a particularly persuasive argument, and referred to other potential nominees as well:
       "I hope that next year Carnegie Mellon chooses to induct the real heroes of robot fiction: R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov. Anyone who has investigated robot fiction would immediately recognize the overwhelming influence that Isaac Asimov has on our conceptions of what a 'robot' is. From the positronic brain to the Laws of Robotics to how robotic labor may impact the future of mankind, Asimov did far more than Lucas or Clarke ever could to form our collective mentality regarding the robot, and did it decades earlier. But if this year's inductees are any indication, next year they will choose The Terminator and Data, two humaniform robots (oh my, did I just use a term that Asimov coined? oops...).”
       The Hall of Fame's first selections sparked plenty of arguments - for example, whether R2-D2 was a better "Star Wars" choice than C3-PO. But the biggest argument had to do with HAL.
       "Nominating HAL 9000 blows the whole category, since HAL was a computer, not a robot," Rich Arnold of Scottsdale, Ariz., wrote. "If this is about artificial intelligences, the name should reflect that - i.e., the Robot and Automated Intelligences Hall of Fame. Be inclusive. If HAL gets inducted, heck, UNIVAC should be in there, too, as well as Deep Blue. Come to think of it, maybe the Monolith would qualify, too...???”
       Ed Kummel summed up the highlights:
       "Huh? HAL 9000? That wasn't really a robot. It was just a sentient machine with no articulation capabilities. ... If you want robots, there are three fictional famous robots that started the robot craze: Gort from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still,' Robby from many movies from the '40s, '50s and '60s, Robot from 'Lost in Space.'
       "Then there are other famous fictional robots like Nomad from “Star Trek” TOS [The Original Series]. And Johnny 5 from ‘Short Circuit.’”
       "And as for real robots, what about the unnamed robot that was sent in to explore the damage at Chernobyl?”
       There were far more fictional than real robots nominated. Mary Beth Kaminski acknowledged as much after reeling off a list of her personal favorites: "I know all of these are fictional characters, but the actual working robots I encounter daily are now rather unremarkable and commonplace - great-great-grandchildren of Unimate."
       Another correspondent named Kate put in a well-deserved vote for humanware as well as hardware: "I am hoping that in this Robot Hall of Fame, you also credit the humans who build and maintain those machines." 
       Finally, here's a list of other nominees for next year's Hall of Fame class:
       Optimus Prime from the Transformers ... Huey, Dewey and Louie from the film “Silent Running” ... the robotic arm from David Letterman’s “Viewer Mail” segment ... David from the film “A.I.” ... Andrew from the movie “Bicentennial Man” ... Fembots from “The Bionic Woman” (or, for that matter, “Austin Powers”) ... Rosie from the “Jetsons” TV show ... Marvin the Paranoid Android from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” ... the Voyager 1 spacecraft ... Honda’s Asimo robot ...... the Roomba vacuum cleaner ... Sony’s Aibo robotic dog ... the Daleks from “Doctor Who” ... Canadarm space robotic arm ... Robocop ... the Colossus computer from “The Forbin Project” ... AstroBoy (a.k.a. Atom) from the TV series that originated in Japan ... Bender from the “Futurama” TV show ... and Al Gore.