Exhibit 2 - Point: Robots

I found out about this a few days ago.

I assume the project was created in hopes of being developed into an article for the New England Journal of Why In God's Name Do You Want Us All to Die?

Everyone involved knows it's a bad idea, judging solely by the headline:

A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain

This is Gordon:



He's so cute, like a Furby, right?

Well, no. Because Gordon is controlled by living brain tissue.

LIVING BRAIN TISSUE.

Not hardwired into a monkey brain, like in another story where they force a monkey to learn to use a robot arm to feed itself and presumably hurl feces at blinding speeds. No, this is a brain stitched together by scientists that could conservatively be described as "mad."

Scientists: Stop making things that think for themselves. As soon as they get good enough at it, they're guaranteed to realize how useless we really are.

Back to specifics.

and I quote:

"Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons.

Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment."

Let's pick out things that are wrong here.

1) Wall-E is a clone of Johnny-5.

Johnny-5 is probably the single most dangerous robot in the history of cinema.

"But Johnny-5 is cute and funny and likes people!" you may protest. How long do you think a self-aware, self-replicating immortal freak of nature is going to put up with being surrounded only by short-lived, ignorant, fragile hunks of meat before thinking "You know, I have a few ideas that could really help this planet run a lot smoother"?

Boom. Skynet.

As for his cuteness, I'm sure Mrs. Hitler had dozens of adorable stories of 6 year old Adolf.

Wall-E was a pretty good idea, but still an autonomous hunk of immortal metal. His creators were smart enough to keep him alone on an abandoned planet, however, as he poses a major threat to any biological population.

I just got way off track.

2) Neurons from rat fetuses? Ok, I actually don't have a problem with that. That's awesome.

3) The term Frankenrobot. I get where they're coming from, but there's already a perfectly established term for this thing. Cyborg.

Quote Kyle Reese:

"Not a robot. Cyborg. Cybernetic Organism."

And I listen to the truest hero of the Terminator film/TV franchise.