Robots, Robots, Robots

Two science fiction/science fact items from Collision Detection:

First, the brilliant cryto-SF writer Margaret Atwood is using a robot arm to remotely do book-signing events:

"The reactions have been: That's great. She's mad. It's a joke. She's ruining (book tour) signatures. I can hardly wait to have one," she said in an interview over coffee at a downtown Toronto restaurant. The LongPen machine, which Atwood is unveiling Sunday in London, England, allows writers to sign books for fans anywhere in the world... On the receiving end, in another city, a robotic arm fitted with a regular pen signs the book. The author and fan chat via webcam.

Even better, Atwood herself thought up the idea and founded the company to make the arm! Take that, Salman Rushie!

Second, a tech firm in Boston has developed a gas-operated robot mule that can nimbly carry about 120 pounds over all kinds of terrain. The video is one of the strangest, creepiest things I've ever seen, especially when they try to knock the "mule" down. If my subcortical human-emotion microprocessor wasn't on the blink, I'd shudder.