Comments on: OUR HEARTLESS FRIENDS THE ROBOTS (May, 1963)

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:38:04 +0000

The best forerunner of the future here is “tele-coupling,” which anticipates virtual reality and modern drone aircraft.

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:18:20 +0000

Toronto: Curses!!!

That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the Ron Howard movie Night Shift…

Leonard: Oh, that Barney Rubble. What an actor.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:28:51 +0000

FB: Explain THIS then!

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:58:04 +0000

Tom: Old news (circa 1970′s). Get over it, http://www.straightdope.com/co.....ly-existed and http://www.unmuseum.org/dinobront.htm

Nice use of the Lloyd Bentsen riff though…

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:35:32 +0000

Thanks for the covers of those science books to you guys who posted them.

I’m still in mourning and find it hard to accept the death of my beloved brontosaurus (that turned out to be a combination of a skeleton with the wrong head.)

I knew brontosauruses. Brontosauruses were friends of mine. Believe me Apatosaurus, you’re no brontosaurus.

Die hard Bronty fan

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:00:57 +0000

Of course I had to locate where to purchase them

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:14:52 +0000

KD5ZS: Glad to be of service. I have fond memories of those books as well.

By: KD5ZS

KD5ZS — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:55:09 +0000

Those How and Why Wonder Books were wonderful! My brother and I had several other books in the series. I haven’t a clue to what happened to those books.

I suppose those books, along with National Geographic and Popular Science/Mechanics whetted my early interest in science and technology, resulting in me becoming an engineer.

By: Me

Me — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:22:34 +0000

I loved that they made the early robots pay dues to the machinists union!

The union bosses need to keep their pockets filled!

By: StanFlouride

StanFlouride — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:15:08 +0000

I, for one, welcome our new heartless robot overlords.

Thanks FB, for the cool link. I passed it forward.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:51:05 +0000

Thanks, FB. I had a surprising number of those.

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:37:46 +0000

Toronto: Here’s some nostalgia (scans of most of the covers) http://www.rocketroberts.com/h.....nd_why.htm

By: Toronto

Toronto — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:51:04 +0000

Me fourth – dang, but that was a popular book! Right up there with the Golden Book about spaceflight.

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:33:08 +0000

John Savard: Same here. Here’s the cover http://www.rocketroberts.com/h.....brains.jpg

By: John Savard

John Savard — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:42:18 +0000

I had a copy of that book too: it was the How and Why Book of Robots and Electronic Brains.

By: KD5ZS

KD5ZS — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:54:18 +0000

What they thought that was easy with computers turned out to be hard and what they thought was hard turned out to be easy.

Seeing the Mobot picture brought back memories from my childhood where I had a book on Robots and Electronic Brains (ca. 1965 – 66) That very same picture was in my book.

By: Myles

Myles — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:02:54 +0000

Good wide ranging article, but it is frustrating that many of the things being worked on then still do not exist like Robot Baby-Sitters.