Letters to the Editor
Clockwork Smurf
Published Letters: 931 Editor's Choice: 27
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Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday...
[Read the article: Obama: General election begins after Tuesday]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is Xeno's paradox.
In order to catch up to Obama, Hillary must first travel half the distance between them, and then half the distance again, and half the distance again, and again, and again, and onward to infinity, never actually catching him.
On Saturday a fair and equitable split will occur in the FL and MI delegations, Hillary will appeal, she will lose that appeal, but will use that appeal to take her "candidacy" through june, where her final appeal is denied.
On Sunday, and Tuesday, votes will be cast, if we are lucky they will vote for Obama in all three, which puts one more nail in Senator Clinton's Coffin. But regardless the story continues. Since even three more defeats will not end Senator Clinton's self destructive quest.
So, after the committee, rules at the end of June, And Hillary Clinton looks at the math, she may still demand her voice vote, which is her right, and we'll see if any super delegates remain at her side through that stunt. After the first vote, Obama is declared the winner, and we all cheer happily.
As to the general election, that started last week, if you didn't notice. McCain doesn't even entertain the notion of Clinton as a possibility, and Obama has focused on his only real rival left, Senator McCain.
Obama won this thing back in February, but Senator Clinton just keeps on going, which is fine, at this point she only hurts herself.
So yeah, after Tuesday no one honest will still call Senator Clinton a viable candidate. Out of deference we've humored her this long, but after Tuesday, if she wants to keep going she does so on her own time, and expect only Fox News (her staunchest friend at the moment) to continue the race isn't over meme.
In August it is over, for realsies, no take backsies, and Hillary and her dozen or so supporters left will possibly make good on their promise to leave the party.
Oh, well...the rest of us will have to soldier on somehow.
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The Creepiness of Robo Sexuality?
[Read the article: Today in "Ugh": The perfect woman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just out of curiosity, is robosexuality only creepy for men?
I seem to recall that my local adult bookstore had no shortage of plastic friends for the ladies as well.
Someday companion robots may be created, and they will likely be domestic in nature cooking, cleaning, caring for us when we are sick.
If we opt to go the android route, we may cover them with artificial skin, and make them male and female, and likely make them attractive for our own enjoyment.
Sexual options would likely be added standard so as to save anyone the embarassment of having to request the expansion package for their companion droid.
So when you have a device in your home that cares for your needs, talks to you, offers advice, listens to your needs, and provides an approximation of love to you. Do you really think this product will have an exclusivly male clientele?
Quite to the contrary, every person will have their own special friend, and on a sad future day when humans have ceased to reproduce our semisentient companions will look upon the world that they alone inhabit and wonder what to do next?
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I don't know I kind of like the paperclip
[Read the article: Today in "Ugh": The perfect woman]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's all about moderation, people hate cheery helperbots because they pop up at inopertune times and try to make us do things we don't want to.
Now, if we are to have helper robots, a certain level of human similarity will be necessary (bipedal, with two arms, two hands etc.)
As robots do more, we likely will want their interface to be more comforting, as such a data collection module at the top of the device (a head) and more rounded arms and fingers (as opposed to flailing clamps) will likely be the norm.
Once you get to the point that a robot will be with you, a box on wheels will have a certain creep factor all it's own.
The roomba is non-humanoid because we ask it to do very little, and a humanoid construction would be unnecessary and likely problematic given current technology. But once you want a robot to cook and clean, and not take up too much space, a versitile human form is the logical way to go.
Once you're there it's a short hop to personalizing your android with various features, at first tailfins, but eventually chest plates, face plates, all designed to give a warmer more human quality to your machine.
As futurama has shown us, puritanicalism will probbaly limit the movement towards acceptance of robosexuality, but as we've seen even the most strange conceptsof sexuality can become commonplace under the banner of live and let live.
And the more human our companionbots become. The more real they are, with "thoughts" "feelings" and "behaviors" all their "own" (actually derived from a complex series of preprogramed personality software)who is to say that they couldn't love a robot, or that a robot couldn't return that feeling?
Our tech right now is no where near past the creepy stage, so all this is academic. I highly doubt we'll have a robot that can carry on a fake conversation for at least a few more decades, and that's just discussing the software, the actual physical requirements for a robot are at this time not cost effective for home use.
but some day...maybe...who knows.