Follow On to the Curiosity Rover Mission Announced

Following on the success of Curiosity, NASA announced recently that the follow on to Curiosity is well underway and is scheduled for Mars in 2020.

This newest rover project will lean heavily on the work done by Curiosity.  Much of the technology and hardware will mirror Curiosity's almost completely.  This is, in part, due to funding which is half of  the two billion that was allotted  to the Curiosity project.  Also its' mission will be fundamentally the same as that of Curiosity.  

One of NASA's goals in the future is a system to bring Martian soil samples back to Earth for further analyst.  The as yet unnamed rover mission will help lay the ground work for that future mission.     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Which "Laws" Should Our Modern Robots Use?

Ok science fiction/robot story fans, the next three lines  should be instantly identifiable. 

1)  A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2)  A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the first law.

3)  A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second laws.

If you said anything other that Dr. Asimov's three robot behavioral constraints.  Asimov used these"laws" as foils for his story plots concerning robot's behavior often with a conflict between a law and what the robot needs to accomplish.

The curious thing about these laws is that many people know of them and consider them real restrictions on anything vaguely robotic.  So the problem at hand is which laws can realistically be incorporated and which are beyond our tech. 

Case in point The robot controlled car.  Here is the instance that The New-Yorker 

• Your car is speeding along a bridge at fifty miles per hour when errant school bus carrying forty innocent children crosses its path. Should your car swerve, possibly risking the life of its owner (you), in order to save the children, or keep going, putting all forty kids at risk?

Chances are you have only a few thousandth of a second to make the complicated maneuver. 

Now add in all the robotic devices that the military uses.  I sounds almost impossible to implement and in the next  couple of decades the problem will most likely triple in complexity.

Here is the url to the New Yorker article.                        

A Scale Model of an X-Wing Fighter Made of What?

Check this out!  Now this is what I call dedication!  What we have here is a model of an X-Wing fight.  That in and of itself is not that noteworthy, nor, if we want to be picky is the great attention to detail.  But consider how inebriated the person had to be during testing fitting and construction!  Amazing! Using nothing more than Beer cans no less.

Here is a link to the flickr account that hosts the models. (no I am not going to make an AA jokes...to easy)  

Review: The Amazing Spiderman

Directed by Marc Webb

Starring 

Andrew Garfield -Peter Parker / Spider Man

Rhys Ifans - Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard

Denis Leary - George Stacy

Martin Sheen - Uncle Ben

Sally Field - Aunt May

It would seem to me that there are very few reasons to remake a movie. 

The original was made quite a while ago is a good jumping off point....

This could be a version of the first one, the movie was made in a period where technology was cruder. The movie can now be remade with newer tech to improve the look in many areas of the film. King Kong might make a good example here. Harryhausen's armateurs and stop motion were at their height when the first movie was first made. Modern tech however vastly improved the movement of the ape with CGI and animatronics. Good or bad, these technologies will draw a newer and larger audience. 

Looking at a newer audience base of viewers. 

The original was made long enough ago that the majority may never have seen it on the big screen and with some older movies simply not working well on newer screens. ( that is weak but has happened)

And ultimately the director and crew feel that they have something substantive to add to the movie or canon if the movie is a series or some such. 

So how does this argument apply to The Amazing Spider Man? One begins to wonder. As far as substantive, do they think adding material that isn’t even in the canon? Parker’s earlier life that as far as I can remember is not part of the Spider Man history and in truth they leave out more than they add in. As far as looking for newer audience....well you would almost think that this means people that may not have seen or are not familiar with the earlier works. I really find this one to be a bit of a stretch. The first Spider man movie (of the present set mind you. I am not aware of anything but animated and a short lived tv Spider man from as far back as 1967) was made in 2002 which in my mind really cuts down on the “new” viewers. 

So with The Amazing Spider Man we have a product that technology wise has little in the way of improved special effects. A movie where the majority of viewers can compare both movies from the same, point of view, as an audience viewer.

Overall I consider the movie was made too soon...but that is my opinion, Technically there is nothing new and I felt they played a bit fast and loose with the history.  Finally their choice for Peter Parker missed the mark completely, never once could I suspend belief enough to think that it was him under the mask even though the director thought he was the quintessential Spider Man.  

With nothing in the way of special features on the rental disk, the movie has to stand on it's own - I would give it an 8 just because it is as good as anything out there, but as far as a SM movie, it left a lot on the table. 

BMU # 342 Now Online

Episode 342 is ready to go...in a manner of speaking!  There were times when the computer seemed to have a mind of its own!  Anyhooo  I start with a breezy piece of music called The Flame which was the theme opening song for Requiem for the Darkness.  Strange and evocative music to match the anime series!  Well worth checking out!

The first story of the afternoon is another fine piece of flash, by Mark Webb, that he did for the  flash fiction Antipodean podcast/magazine site. located in Australia, called, “Make mine a Macchiato”  Oh and don't forget to check out Mark's book of flash fiction on Smashwords.  Details after his story!

I manage again to squeeze in some Star Trek trivia!  Once again this week, I do a couple questions from the animated series.

First thing in the science department is a story concerning the possible formation of Mars, on this week's Earth Sky.  

From the blog,  the largest black hole EVER discovered.  Did the LHC create new matter?   What??? did the U.S.  Really try to blow up the moon?  People believe this?

And Finally our second story of the afternoon, part 4 of Poul Anderson's  “Call Me Joe”

That's it!  Enjoy!