Comments on: Victorian Robots and other Mechanical Men

Victorian Robots and other Mechanical Men

BuddhaInABucket — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:32:43 -0800

A history of robots in the Victorian era, featuring Boilerplate, the mechanical marvel of the 19th century.

By: cosmonik

cosmonik — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:38:05 -0800

Boilerplate. Bender. Coincidence? Or part of the mounting robot conspiracy to kill all humans?

By: interrobang

interrobang — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:53:51 -0800

*clank*

By: BuddhaInABucket

BuddhaInABucket — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:01:03 -0800

dang it! I did a search for the URL and nothing showed up. It is from over three years ago, though. Am I forgiven?

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:06:27 -0800

See also here. And for all those interested in old robots, allow me to recommend the book Living Dolls: A Magical History Of The Quest For Mechanical Life. On preview: I see interrobang beat me to it. I can't speak for everyone, BuddhaInABucket, but for what it's worth, I forgive you.

By: LeLiLo

LeLiLo — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:10:34 -0800

It is from over three years ago, though. *double clank*, from just over a year ago. But hey, why not forgive and forget? Isn't that what Christmas is all ab. . . oh, wait.

By: Laen

Laen — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:20:42 -0800

Wow, I host this site. I get to witness first hand the metafilter effect. Hooray! [I'm logging your IPs]

By: Captaintripps

Captaintripps — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:30:50 -0800

Victorian Era robots are so 19th century.

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:31:04 -0800

This site is hilarious and fabulous. This shot in particular looks straight off a Dr. Who DVD box but stands on it's own as well.

By: LarryC

LarryC — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 19:49:38 -0800

Wonderful. In one of my classes I distribute a website evaluation form and send each student to a different hoax website without telling them what it is. Then they report back to the class. It is a fun project and leaves them deeply suspicious of everything on the web.

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 20:13:33 -0800

Here's another good article about Boilerplate and Paul Guinan.

By: Spacey

Spacey — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 06:10:38 -0800

I remember reading Living Dolls about a year and a half ago. Very interesting look on the connections between artificial life and the sometimes disturbing connection between inventors and their "creations". A quote from Edison in the book: "Saw a woman get into a car that was so tall and frightfully thin as well as dried up that my mechanical mind at once conceived the idea that it would be the proper thing to run a lancet into her arm and knee joints and insert automatic self-feeding oil cups to diminish creaking when she walked." Then there are "cheaters" like The Turk.