The “Waterboard Thrill Ride,” by Steve Powers, is a stone’s throw from Coney Island’s famed Cyclone roller coaster and Nathan’s hot dog stand. For a dollar, visitors get to look through a barred window on a Guantanamo-like interrogation, enacted by animated robots. The hooded figure leans over a man in an orange jumpsuit, his face covered with a towel and his body tethered to a tilted plane. Lights come on and water pours into the man’s nose and mouth, producing convulsions for 15 seconds.

BBQ-smoker-turned-’Robocop’ chases off drug dealers

It’s midnight on the streets of Atlanta, and bar owner Rufus Terrill patrols his neighborhood with a rolling crime fighter of his own creation. Meet “Bum-bot,” as Terrill describes it; others in his neighborhood call it simply, “Robocop.”
This former BBQ smoker is armed with a water gun to chase off [...]

Arthur C. Clarke
1917 - 2008

Mr. Clarke has moved into new dimensions…

thanks for keeping an eye on us…

Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14
Story found on Gizmodo and Wired:
A robot cannon began wildly and autonomously firing its huge gun in South Africa last Friday, killing 9 soldiers and wounding 14. The Oerlikon GDF-005 antiaircraft gun suddenly began uncontrollably shooting as it swung back and forth, spraying hundreds of high-explosive 35mm cannon shells all [...]

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Alvin Toffler, Orson Welles, and Future Shock

This is a little known documentary based on the book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. This short came out in 1972 and features Orson Welles as the narrator. I was most amused by the high amount of paranoia in regards to the future… some of the segments (like people [...]

From AP:
When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click [...]

Future Shock (1973)
Director: Alex Grasshoff
Host: Orson Welles
(film can be viewed here)

we are the robots.
Future Shock… is a sickness that comes from too much change in too short a time.. it’s the feeling that nothing is permanent anymore. It’s the reaction to changes that happen so fast that we cannot absorb them - it’s the [...]