Good Job, Brain! - 29: Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Episode Date: September 17, 2012

Prepare for the inevitable robot uprising by learning about...well, robots! Eymology, first appearances in culture, hanging out in the uncanny valley, historical Japanese tea-serving automatons and French duck robots. Inspiration behind C3PO & R2D2, TV + Movie Robot quiz, and of course, our own robot E.L.V.I.S. is back! ALSO: Brainiacs Book Club, and a *VERY AWESOME* music round.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, animated animals anxiously anticipating android anecdotes and antics. This is good job, brain, your weekly quiz show and off-beet trivia podcast. Today's show is episode 29. And, of course, I am your home. and we are your group of loops and snoops who talk about droops and poop

I'm Colin I'm Dana and I'm Chris Do you guys know what Bader Minoth phenomenon is? I've heard of it but I can't recall what exactly it is So you know when you learn a fact or even if you learn

like a song somehow afterwards it almost feels like sometimes you see that fact all the time after what's. I do know this phenomenon. Synchronicity. Yeah, synchronicity. And this is specifically called the Bader mine off phenomenon. When you learn

about the obscure fact or, you know, when you have something in mind, it tends to stick out to you more. So it's not that all of a sudden, by coincidence, all of these facts are happening because it's fate. It's just that your sensitivity to it has been heightened. Yep. And it's always been there,

but your brain is now kind of breaking its normal pattern and picking it up. Yeah, I remember when I was shopping for a car, got a VW golf, and at that point, all I saw in the road, it seemed like everybody had a VW golf. Everybody had it. Because it was on my brain. That was all I noticed. For me, it's always songs. I learned about a song.

I was like, oh, and then I was like, wow, it's in this trailer. It's used in this commercial. It's everywhere. But really, it's not just that my brain is now a little bit smarter. And we also have big news last week at the Apple keynote. They've announced the new iPhone 5 along with a new iPod touch and the new. iPod Nano, and we're featured by Apple in iPad Nano promotional material. Yeah, we're on the little screen.

Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, we just want to thank all of our listeners for making this possible. You guys, for making this podcast so popular and listening to it. It has really, really been amazing how much people have picked up on it. Now, even Apple is starting to take notice. So thanks, guys. Crazy.

You guys are awesome. Thanks so much. Yeah. And let's jump into our general pop quiz segment. Pop Quiz Hot Shot. Get your buzzers ready, and I have a random Trivial Pursuit card I've found from a box. All right. Here we go.

Blue Wedge for Geography. What Italian city did the Medici family rule for nearly 300 years? Florence? Correct. Nice. All right. Pink Wedge. Everybody can get this one.

What animated series was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone? South Park. South Park. Correct. Yellow Wedge. Who was the first pontiff To ride in a bubble top Pop-Mobile?

Chris I believe that was John Paul The Second. Yes. You know your popes. It was after the assassination attempt. Oh. Purple Wedge.

What 2,000 films starring George Clooney was inspired by Homer's Odyssey? Dana. Oh, brother, where are at that? I was like, I was going to buzz you. Good job, brain.

Green wedge. What insect eats ice cream, salami, and a pickle in an Eric Carl picture book? Oh, Dana again. Hungry little caterpillar. Caterpillar, yes. The very hungry caterpillar gets a stomach ache and finally snacks on a nice green leaf. Orange Wedge, last question. Outfielder Pete Gray played baseball with only one what?

One hand Yes One arm Yes even more Even more Specifically Yes Without the hand

The second arm Is not going to help You very much In the baseball The one Armed Wonder Played for Oh man

The Pirates St. Louis Browns In 1945 I wish it were The Pirates Because that would be very pirity Wouldn't it

He'd have a hook All right And moving on To this week's topic I'm going to start off by asking you guys a really stupid riddle I made up So Hey guys

Hey Karen Hi What do you call machines who like to wear kimonos Robots Oh Good one Karen Today's topic is on robots This was a triumph

I'm making a note here Huge success It's hard to overstate my satisfaction aperture science We do what we must Because we can Also, Android, cyborgs,

Automatons, and more All right I think a good place to start is with the history of the word robot. There are all these like contentious histories of, oh, this was the first robot. No, this was the first robot. And like, do you count steam-powered mannequins and things like that? But I figured the easiest way to do is like, we'll just start with when the word came into the language. Robot didn't come into the language until the 20s. And it came from 1920s. Until the 1920s. And it came from a play by a Czech playwright named Carl Choppe. So he and

his brother, I guess, who were kind of a writing team, they coined this term based on a Czech word from Robotnik. In Czech, robotic means like slave, basically. Whoa. And that fit with the theme of the play. So reading the summary of this play, this is not going to surprise you guys. So it's about a factory that makes robots to serve people. Now hang on, guys. I want you, there's a twist. Things get out of control and there's a robot rebellion. But yeah, so he coined this term and it was. It was about a company that produced these sort of synthetic cyborg robots, and they were made to serve people, and it all sort of turned bad. That was where the word kind of entered English, at least, when it came over.

So that's where robot comes from, from a Czech word. And then the first robot that kind of broke through a movie, you guys may know, is... Metropolis. It is Metropolis. Yeah. Yeah. And, of course, like, there's the golden robot image on the movie poster. Yeah.

So that was the Fritz Lang movie, and he called it in the movie the Machine Mench, which is German for machine human, machine person, even though it was a female. And, you know, the real robot nerds will point out that it's not actually an android because it's a female figure. Do you guys know what the term is for a female figured robot? Can a android? Ginoid. Ginoid. So, right, because Android, yeah.

Yeah, so Android really is just a robot that's meant to look like a person or a man. And a gynoid is a robot that's meant to look like a woman. Ginoid. Ginoid, yeah. So then moving into sci-fi writing, Isaac Asimov famously came up with his three laws of robotics in the 40s. So we get this one in Pub Quiz on a couple occasions. Yes.

And I feel like we've missed it every time we've gotten it. We have. I think we're going to memorize it this time. Right, right. Number one. The first law of robotics, a robot may not injure a human being. Okay. Or allow a human being to be injured through inaction.

So first rule of robots. First do no harm. Don't hurt people. Got it. Second law of robotics is a robot must obey any order. given by a human, unless it conflicts with the first law. And this is where we always got hung up, is we got to remember it's like this unless it conflicts with that.

Oh, okay. So if I'm a robot owner and I tell the robot, you got to go kill this dude, he can't do it. Right. Right. And then the third law of robotics is a robot must protect itself at all times, unless it conflicts with the first law or the second law. Right. Right.

Do you know what law zero is? I did not until I did a little bit of research on it. What is law zero? There's law zero? A few years later, Asimov kind of appended it with the zeroth law, which is... Do you know harm to mankind? Right. It's like the first one.

A robot may not injure humanity or cause humanity to be injured through inaction. Yeah. And so that was really where all of the famous terms in robotics centered, our literature and our stories and our pub quizzes. So there's this term that comes up in the study of robotics and also in 3D animation. And it's called the Uncanny Valley, which is basically... Basically, things get pretty real, and they get to this point where they're mostly making sense or seeming human-like. But unsettling. And then it gets unsettling.

So it's playing up on this human ability to make things anthropomorphic. Like the little happy toaster is cute. And if you make it, have the big eyes, you get more emotionally attached to it. And that increases as you make something look more and more human. And then at a certain point, it looks too human. And you get really picky about it. It's eyes moving correctly. And the twitches on its face.

And so, like, when their eyes don't move, correctly, but it looks like a human. It's really unsettling. And so that's called the Uncanny Valley Effect. And Masahiro Miro was a roboticist from Japan in the 70s, and he coined that term. And that comes up in 3D animation, too. I don't know if you remember the Polar Express came out a few years ago. Well, the Robert Zemeckis doing all the performance capture movies.

Yeah. Tom Hanks is in that. Yeah. So they're fantastic actors in it, and the animation looks great. But a lot of critics didn't like it. It got paned because their eyes don't move correctly. Like, they're very glassy. And so it's unsettling because their faces look real, but they're not twitching correctly.

Well, it's like you say, like, it increases your attachment up to a point. Like, you know, you put a little googly eyes on a toaster, oh, it's cute. And if you make it make a little like he-he-he sound, that's even cuter. But then, like, when you get to like the animatronic baby crawling around, that's not cute anymore, even though it's way more realistic. It takes a dark turn. And in fact, it's not just what the way things look, actually. You know, Elvis, our song, Lyrics, Robot. Yeah.

I mean, he sounds like a robot, so it's fun listening to him. But did you know, Elvis has a brother. From the wrong side of the tracks. He sounds like a human, but when he says the lyrics, it makes me feel like he's going to wear my skin as a jacket. Even though he sounds more realistic. Yeah. Let's bring him out.

So this morning I was listening to Boys 2 Men, End of the Road, as you do. This is Elvis's brother saying the lyrics. girl you know we belong together I don't have time for you to be playing with my heart like this you'll be mine forever baby you just wait you'll be mine forever

I don't have time for you I don't like it no I totally see what you mean now because that that sounds more like a human but not enough to convince me that it's a person whereas Elvis is like he's a robot

it's low fidelity enough that it's not at the creepy level. Right. And I mean, like, that's, right, that's where the name Uncanny Valley comes from is, like, if you basically chart, you're feeling of affinity for the thing against how close it is to human. And when you first start off, it's more and more realistic. You like it more and more and then it reaches a point where it's too realistic and your level of liking it dips. And you're in that valley of the Uncanny Valley. And then when it gets really high fidelity again at the far end, your affinity for it goes back up. So just that one narrow window. It's like a 1%

wrong with it being a human and then so in order to find uncanny valley robots i just googled creepy robots and there were some really creepy ones that came up so i say they're creepy but they also serve a purpose you know they're they're to simulate human life and maybe they're medical tools and they help people but man are they creepy when you watch the videos nightmare town yeah we're going to nightmare town for a little bit take the train everybody all the board There's one called Simroid, and it is a training tool for dentists. And so it's basically a lady's head and she opens her mouth and she reacts to pain. So like if a dentist pushes too hard on teeth or whatever, she'll say, ow and like it, they could trigger her gag reflex.

And they get hurt and it's nightmare. It's useful. It serves such a good purpose. If it's just a normal machine, I'd be like, ah, whatever. Eventually, it's going to be second nature to you to not want to provoke that response. So it's important tool, but wharf. And then there's one, how to treat people who have the swine flu. And then this robot, like, sweats and cries and, like, screams out, and he dies at a certain point if you don't treat him correctly.

Oh, is it a Tomoguchi. Yeah, but, like, this big big thing with Tomoguchi. For kids Yeah, it looks like a person though And the skin feels like All clammy And then there's one called Charles That they were developing as a GPS tool

So they were saying Oh GPS makes you frustrated And like it doesn't react to you being upset with it Or being like I don't think that this is the right way To go down this road or whatever It doesn't change its tone So Charles changes his facial reactions to things

And the way he gives you instructions Based on like how you're doing it How you're driving and how you're talking to him Is he in a screen or is it like a full life-size head that I put in my car? It's actually... It's like the co-pilot in an airplane. No, it really is. I wonder if he could get you through the carpool lane.

Yeah. But it's like a guy who sits in your passenger seat. But he like, his face is reacting to to the road. And I was a little confused about how he works because you shouldn't be watching Charles's face while you're driving. You should really be watching the road. He has cameras in his eyes that track your face and the way your body is, like, reacting this. There's one other kind of robot I found, and it sounds cool. They have these robots called actroids that they put in hospitals,

and they mimic your body language in a subtle way. So they also have camera for eyes. They look like human beings. They look pretty realist. No, actually, they look like love dolls. But they move. But like good ones. But good ones, classy ones.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But once you take home to mom. They're there to comfort people who are waiting on the hospital, and they comfort you by men. mimicking your actions back to you when they're talking to you. That wouldn't come from me. They said we interviewed 75 people after they experienced these robots and only three or four felt uncomfortable with them.

So maybe they're like starting to come out of the uncanny valley with the way they're developed. Those three or four people were there for an appointment to deal with their crippling fear of robots. While you were in the hospital, these robots became our masters. You want the good news or the bad news first? The good news is your haemorrhoids have almost disappeared. So I was doing some research in this book that I have, but it's called Inside the Robot Kingdom. It's by Frederick L. Schott. He was the guy who wrote one of the first books on Japanese manga in the U.S.

And he moved on and he wrote a book about Japan and robots. And there's some really interesting stuff in here. There's one of the chapters is about they're called Karakuri Ningo, which means like automaton dolls. So I'm not trying to say that mechanical dolls were unique to Japan somehow or that they originated in the 17th century. But there's something really interesting here is that this is what people call back to as the beginning of Japan's fascination with robots and why Japan, even today, like, makes some of the craziest robot designs.

Yeah, I would say they're one of the leaders right now. If you read some of the early Japanese fiction, they describe tea dolls, which were these dolls that, like, basically somebody in another room would wind them up and get them ready to go and then set them in front of the sliding door and then slide the door open and, you know, press the button. The tea doll, which was largely consistent.

instructed of like wood rather than metal gears and stuff like that now there were there were robots at this time like in the 17th century in other countries that were made up with a lot of like intricate metal cogs because it kind of came out of clock making yeah like what people did with clock making came into like oh let's make a little person uh but these were um you know very much mostly sort of made out of like wooden cogs and gears and cams and things of that nature and so this thing which looked like it looked like a two foot tall boy in a kimono holding a tray and he wheel the the tea out And stop next to you And come to a stop And then you'd take the tea And drink it And as soon as you were done drinking the tea You put the teacup back on the tray And that action of putting the teacup back on the tray

Caused the robot to turn around 180 degrees And then slowly wheel out of the room And so in fiction of the time These things were described But eventually they were extremely complicated To make incredibly expensive You know it was a plaything of the very extraordinarily rich

so not many of them were made and they kind of stopped making them after a while so the other thing is look they were described in fiction which was passed on but as we know as we know from doing these shows like a lot of things get described that aren't actually true you know like medieval torture devices and people making up these old like you know fakey shows of medieval torture devices it could have been the case that these things were thought of as oh they were just mythical but somebody had written a book called sketches of automata and had actually sat down and tried to diagram and draw out how all these things worked. And even though like Japanese artists didn't really do the whole perspective thing at the time, tried to do like front view, side view, this is what all the parts, this is how they all work together. And so a college professor, for the record, his name was Shogi Tatsukawa in the 1960s, was reading this old book. Now again, this old book, there were probably only a couple of copies of it. He kind of got obsessed with this. At the time, people in Japan thought that Automata were only kind of made like in Europe. They didn't actually know that Japanese

Invent tradition of it. Yeah, had actually done this. He decided to set his students to the task of recreating one of these things. Oh, like reverse engineering from what the little information they have. Exactly. They do it. They did it. And so in the 60s, they were able to recreate using mostly 1800s specifications. The one thing they fudged was they had to use like a metal spraying instead of some other material that they could not source at that point. Yeah, they were able to recreate this thing and it becomes big national news in the 1960s in Japan. Because it was a purely Japanese invention, there was a little bit of, like, nationalistic, like, woo, behind it. That is typically, when you ask, like, Japanese people, like, where did Japan's

interest in robots come about? It was because this college professor had gone back, recreated this thing, shown that it worked and thus proven that just... Japan had this national history of making, this was this uniquely Japanese robots. And then propelling them into... Sparks a lot of interest in the... Exactly. So then you have this interest sparking in robots. And so the guy who is the producer of the Legend of Zelda video game series, when he was in college,

which would have been, I'm guessing, in the 70s or probably 80s. But when he was in college, he made Karakuri Ningo. He actually did these in school. I mean, my understanding is, so do this, like, if you want to be a computer programming, they're like, okay, here's a really old, you know, computer set. So learn about transistors and, like, learn about logic gates and all that kind of stuff first before you, you know, move on. So they haven't had him and his classmates doing that because then if you were to go and make robots, you know, you'd want to start off with this thing. Before we move on from this book, there was one other thing.

There's a sidebar in one of the early chapters that's, what is a robot? And they ask people, a lot of the people who are, this is from the 80s. So they ask a whole lot of people who are kind of instrumental in the early days of electronic robots to define. what a robot is. Joseph Engelberger, quote, father of the industrial robot. I may not be able to define one, but I know one when I see one.

An advisor to Kawasaki said, a robot is a slave, a mechanical slave that can do very hard work for humans as tall. A designer at the Bondi toy company said, a robot is something that gives boys' dreams and bravery.

And there were children who were Japanese children who responded, is a robot? Robots, like in Star Wars, and another one said, something interesting that transforms. So those answer is probably just about as good as all the answer is given by adults. They're all on the same level of everybody showing that they, ah, not really, what is a robot? I don't know. So as we said, you know, Japanese doing a lot of cutting edge work in robotics, and they're doing a lot of work in robots that can mimic human capabilities. The one that really caught my eye

earlier this summer was the article about the robot that plays rock paper scissors. Have you guys seen this one? I haven't, no. So they have developed a machine that never loses at rock paper scissors. It just plays with you. It not only plays rock paper scissors. Does he get to go second? It never loses.

The short answer is it cheats. Does it watch your hand basically? It watches your hand. The thing is so fast that it can tell in one millisecond what hand formation you're going to throw. So as you're playing with it, it has a camera.

It's basically, it's a little simulated hand and a camera. And as you throw your rock paper or scissors, in the one millisecond, it can detect what you're going to throw and throw the sign that'll beat it. And it is so fast that it looks as if it's playing fair, but it's not. It's reading what you're throwing. Can you? I know. Like, oh, maybe it looks like scissors, but it's a rock.

Unfortunately, the judge is a robot too. It's robot biased. Oh, man. You guys talk about Japan and how there were kind of the shiny example of old-timey robots. And I would say France was too, particularly a Mr. Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739. He was like an artist in Tinker and he created a lot of automaton's. And one of his most famous creations is called The Duck. So this is an automaton robot duck.

It's gorgeous. It's meticulous. It's just a marvel. Marvel in engineering at that time. The cutting edge of duck roboters. Yes. A marvel of the Wonder Age. In each wing alone, there are over 400 moving parts in one wing.

This duck robot can flap its wings. It could move. It could even look like it's drinking water. It could even eat. It could even eat grain pellets. Like it would gobble it up and would go into the robot. And it does one additional thing. and, yep, you've guessed it.

It poops. It even poops. Now, I need some details here. When you say it poops, what do you mean by that? It is the illusion of pooping. So, voqueson, one of the most brilliant engineers of that at that time, spent his time and energy trying to simulate the digestive track of ducks. And so he didn't really quite make it there because he was really trying to make

as real as it can get from a robot duck. I can't believe it's not duck poop. Did he get to the point where he sewed three ducks together into one chain? No. Duck apiece is a little bit of fudging. So the duck would eat the pellet, and then it gets hidden in a canister. And then there's another canister that holds a pre-mixed duck poop, and it comes out from the duck butt.

There's a little canister. I was mixed in a duck somewhere else, a real duck. You know, a lot of these robots were kind of for entertainment. it and people would kind of sit around this robot contraption and watch this duck eat grains and then poop it out and you know he was really trying to design a fully digesting system but he never got there and even Voltaire Mr. Voltaire he said he saw the duck poop in action he said without the duck of Vaucanson you will have nothing to remind you the glory of France I like how you focused on the poop or not

the flying like yeah like spends 400 little pieces in each wing and it just opens its wings yeah it just we got machines that fly we got those we don't have machines that poop we need it to like make real poop organic right it's a way of understanding the world around you or the world inside who colored glasses seeing the world through brown colored glasses

wow Colin just has the grossed out look on his sorry Colin Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online GoPASS ahead of the show at go-transit.com slash tickets. No frills, delivers.

Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. Anyways, let's take a quick break from robots and debut a new segment that we're going to call the Brainiacs Book Club, inspired by our sponsor. sponsor Audible, but also inspired by a lot of our listeners. People often ask us, where do we get our crazy stories and facts? And people ask us if there are any books or resources that we read to help us stay sharp. And here are some of our recommendations. Well, I mean, in terms of

secret histories and trivia in a fun way, for me, my favorite author is Bill Bryson. Yes. And I have absolutely mentioned him on the show before. He is kind of like the grandpapa of trivia. I think that's true. I think that's what I put it. Yeah, in a relatable story. He turns trivia into stories. So his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything is almost exactly what the title says.

He starts with the origin of the universe and comes all the way up through modern day living. And just entertaining, funny, and yeah, just chock full of trivia. It's great stuff. So I would say the grandpapa of zombie apocalypse survival is Max Brooks. And I listened to World War Z from Audible. I read the book. And then I loved it so much.

I wanted to listen to it. If you think about what you would do if the zombies came, and I've, after listening to it, I've reconciled with myself that I'll probably, like, go pretty early. But you've come to peace with that. I would try to, like, get bit and then, like, rest somewhere while I became a zombie. I don't want to be torn apart. It was graphic, and it was illuminating. And then you hope that you would be a good zombie, you know?

A successful zombie, but, like, in fact, many people. It's not like a zombie with a heart of gold. No, no, no, you want to be like a boss, boss-level zombie. A strategist zombie. Middle management zombie. Right. So listen to this book, if you want to learn how to be the boss zombie. You don't want to be shovel fodder, basically.

Yeah. I actually just finished rereading the book Wise Guy, which is, I mean, everybody's seen the movie Goodfellas. But what you don't know about Goodfellas until you read the book Wise Guy is that so much of the dialogue, all of Henry Hill's descriptions of events that occurred and life in the movie, the mob that Ray Leota does such a good job of performing. It is verbatim out of Wise Guy and Wise Guy just pulls verbatim out of

the interviews that the author Nick Pilegi did with Henry Hill, the gangster. So much I mean there's a couple little things in the movie where they either embellished or added on to it but even in those cases it's taken from real life events. It's like so many

movies that are quote unquote based on a true story are extremely loosely based on that true story, but man, the amount of things that were just taken straight out of Wise Guy dialogue that was just taken directly out of this book is fascinating. So you've got, if you like Goodfellas, do yourself a favor, go read Wise Guy, or in this case, listen to it. So my recommendation, a lot of people can tell you, and my dentist can tell you that I love candy and I love sweets, and one of my favorite books of all time is Candy Freak by an

author called Steve Allman, and his last name really is Almond. It's not like a rock star name or anything. And he is also a big fan of candy. And Candy Freak, he kind of documents the origins and kind of the history of American local candies. He's also a really good storyteller, and he's a funny guy. So you're getting a lot of these facts, but also with a lot of anecdotes and interviews with people that are just really, really addictive in nature. So did it make you eat more candy? It did. It did. After reading the book, I went online and I just ordered a whole bunch of candy that he talked about in his book.

So these books are all available as audiobooks on Audible. So if you want to give it a try, go to audiblepodcast.com slash good job, Brain, for your free audiobook download. All right. Let's jump back into robots. And we talked about real robots or robots in history. Let's talk about some fictional robots. Fighting monsters High in the sky

Astro boy, there you go Will you fight thread or foe Cosmic Ranger Laugh at Danger Everything is go Astro Boy Crats will cheat Yay, that was Astro Boy, of course Not a lot of people know that he's a robot

All right well I think in terms of fictional robots We can all agree that two of the most recognizable robots are from batteries not included that and Star Wars yes oh no wonder it's like a Christmas tree over here

yes any excuse to talk about Star Wars so without getting too geeky and two in universe we're all familiar with R2D2 and C3PO right okay everyone knows R2 the short little squat one and C3PO the tall golden one

Lucas has talked a lot about his inspiration, you know, he's a big cinephile. A lot of the things that inspired Star Wars came from other movies, like Westerns or World War II gunfights for the X-wing battles. The droids, he has said several times, were inspired by two characters in a Kurosawa film, The Hidden Fortress. And in that movie, which is a story about a princess and a general on their adventures to try and, you know, save the day, they're accompanied by two peasants. And the peasants in the Hidden Fortress are kind of the comic relief. And they're sort of bumble. and sometimes wise without meaning to be wise.

But the thing that Lucas says he liked about him is that you have these two lowly characters and the whole story is told through their eyes. And so that's what he wanted to do with Star Wars. And so if you think about it, all of... Like they're kind of stuck in the middle of all the stuff. Like, Rosen, Kranz and Golden Stern. Yeah, a lot like Rosen Kranz.

Yeah, they're sort of witness to these grand things going on around them. Interesting. And so in the Star Wars saga, the R2D2 and C3PO, those are the main POV characters. Everything that takes place, they are involved somehow. They're in one of the scenes. It's sort of shown, we follow their travels. That is so cool.

Which one are you? I think you're R2. I think I'm an R2. I think I'm an R2. I think I might be C3Pio. You know, what's funny, he talks about, you know, and he really wanted to kind of pick pick the perfect odd couple. So, like, there are a study in contrast.

You know, one is short and squat and doesn't look very human. One is tall and thin and elegant and is very human. Right. R2D2 is like as far from human as you can possibly. Right, right. He doesn't use language. Yeah, there's no discernible face. And it's funny.

I mean, ironically, he might be the one that most people feel more attached to him, even though he's not the one whose job is to interface with humans. As we think he was kind of prissy, a little bit of a jerk. You know, we talked earlier about Metropolis. He was directly inspired by the golden android of Metropolis versus Supripeo. It is not a coincidence. So there's just some interesting stories about actually creating these movies with these. Because there were people inside there.

So, you know, a lot of people, obviously, you know, there was a person inside C3Pio, maybe not as many people realize there was a person inside the R2D2 robot as well. He was a little person. He was three foot eight, and he fit inside R2D2. Kenny Baker is his name. Did he drive it? Well, so when they made the movies, there were actually two R2s. There was a remote controlled one that was fully radio controlled. And then there was the one that Kenny Baker would get inside.

And the way you can tell is if you see the R2D2 with three legs, that's a remote. That's the remote-controlled one. So they had to give it three legs for stability so they could drive it around. And if you see the R2D2 with two legs, Kenny Baker's inside there. They did most of the desert scenes in the first Star Wars movie in Tunisia. But they had to come back and do some pickup shots at the end for coverage. And they couldn't fly all the way back to Tunisia, so they filmed them in Death Valley in California. And as they were filming, they were getting interference from some of the nearby Air Force space.

And there were a couple occasions when R2D2's controls actually just went haywire. and he would start going off in directions on his own. Whoa. Because they were getting interference, right? So they had to... Art two come back. Yeah, hard to come back. I mean, especially when you're filming near rocks and cliffs and things like that.

I just built that thing. I've only got two of them. He just drove it off the cliff. That's on the Louisiana. Exactly. But having to be inside these costumes in the middle of the heat as well was just a nightmare for these guys. Yeah, just being surrounded by metal in the 100 degree heat. You know, for me, the droids and Star Wars are hands down the most, the most lasting image, the most charming part.

Yeah, and they're not the humans. All right. I have a robot character quiz that I made for you guys. All right. And I'm sure you guys will get a lot of bees. All right. Number one, get your buzzers ready. Actor Steve Gutenberg traded in his police academy uniform for a lap coat to play a PhD inventor in this movie.

in this movie about a particular robot officially named Saint number five. What movie? Chris. A short circuit. And Saint number five lovingly called Johnny Five. Johnny Five.

Number five is alive. Bonus question for everybody. There is a famous scene where Johnny Five is dancing to a movie that's playing on TV. What movie was he watching? Was it Flash Dance? It is a dance movie Because he's dancing to it The song was more than a woman

Oh, Saturday Night Fever Yes, Saturday Night Fever Number two The first half of this beloved robot movie Is described to be an homage To the Charlie Chaplin era Of silent films Is that Wally?

Yes, it is Wally Bonus question for everybody similar to Johnny 5 and short circuit there's a famous scene in Wally where Wally is dancing to a movie that's playing on a TV screen what movie was he watching

Chris Hello Dolly Correct Hello Dolly Okay number three What robot lives in an industrial complex Along with Rusty, Brock Hank and Dean

Oh crap It's on the Venture Brothers Yes, the Venture Brothers is the show. It's the skinny blue one. Oh, my God. What's his name? It's Helper. Helper, the Red.

Helper is the Venture Family Personal Robot. Number four. Who is, quote, a girl unlike other girls. She's a miracle, and I grant you she'll enchant you at her sight. Dana. It's Vicky from Small Wonder. Vicky, yes. From the TV show Small Wonder

And that was an acronym, right? It was like V-I-K-I or... Oh, no, no, no, child-identicants. Yes, yes. All right, number five, this robot from a 1968 classic is listed as the 13th greatest film villain by the American Film Institute. I need the robot name, listed as the 13th greatest film villain.

Is it how? Yes, correct. How 9,000... 2001 Space Odyssey. I don't know if I would count him as a robot. That might just be my interpretation. I think he's more like a ship. A computer program.

Yeah, he's like a sentient computer program. All right. Number six. Iron Man's Butler had several reincarnations in comics, cartoons, and most recently, and famously, he was represented as an artificial intelligence system in the Iron Man movies. What is his name?

Jeffrey Oh God Geoffrey It's so on the Jeffrey Geoffrey Geoffrey Barathe They're the worst robot

It is Jarvis That's right I wanted to say G's But I know that wasn't it Okay Jarvis Right So there is a theme Among all the robots

I had in my quiz Can you think of the theme What is the common theme Of all of the robots I've mentioned Is it that the all acronym names? Yes. They are all acronym names. Yeah, I don't know where that came from the use of an acronym that spells out the name of person. Are you going to tell us? There is a trope, a common TV and film trope that usually robots are named after their function, bender from

Futurama. He's a bending robot bender. These names that with acronyms, they're normal names, but they have a function in the acronym. And so Johnny Five, the official name is the saint robot. And I don't know if you guys remember, Johnny 5 was a robot design for Cold War. It was a military. Yeah, it's a military robot. I remember that. He's Saint number five. There are five saint robots, strategic, artificially intelligent, nuclear transport. Do you guys know what Wally stands for? It's something about loading. It's like waste something, something loader E class. He's waste allocation load lifter Earth. His robot girlfriend. His robot girlfriend. friend Eve in the movie is extraterrestrial vegetation evaluator, which is its function, right?

Right. And helper is humanoid electric lab partner robot. And Vicky, like you guys said, is voice input child identicant. And Hal, this one's a little bit of a stretch. Is it a heuristic algorithmic logic? Yes, a heuristically programmed algorithmic computer. And Jarvis, Jarvis is based on a real. character, Edwin Jarvis, was his name, but they actually did have an unofficial

backeronym, which is just a really very intelligent system. Nice. So there you go. We love robots with acronym names. I think that's why they named them that. So people go, ha, ha, ha, ha. It's very Tony Stark. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it

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Well, speaking of forced names, forced acronyms for robots. What? This was a setup? We have a visit from an old friend here. Elvis. Yay! A long time. no scene. It has. I don't think he's made

a appearance since we actually officially named him. And what does that stand for again? It of course, Chris, stands for electronic, lyrical, vocal, interface system. Not forced at all. So, our friend Elvis is going to sing,

and by sing, I mean speak, aloud. As best he can. Yes. Opening lines of famous songs. Famous rock or pop songs. And your guy's job will be to name the song. To make it a little bit extra special, there is a theme Tying together all of these songs.

Elvis is getting smarter. All right, first song, get your buzzers ready. Elvis. I'm so in love with you. Whatever you want to do. It's all right with me. Cause you make me feel so brand new. You guys all scanning.

I think that was Karen. Is it Al Green? Yes, yes. It is Let's Stay Together. Let's Stay Together by Al Green. By the Reverend Al Green, that's right. All right, second song. Like Elvis is hitting on me.

Not in a creepy way, though. Not in a creepy way, an adoring way. I took my baby on a Saturday bang. Boy, is that girl with you? Yes, we're one and the same. Now I believe in miracles, and a miracle has happened tonight. Chris. That was Michael Jackson's black or white.

That was Michael Jackson's black or white. Now, you don't want the theme yet, right? You can work on it. I'm not surprised if you've pieced it together. We'll ask at the end. We'll ask at the end. All right. The third song, here we go.

We started living in an old house. My mom gave birth and we were checking it out. It was a baby boy, so we bought him a toy. I don't know. It is the White Stripes, Hardest Button to Button. Oh, hardest button to button. See, and you've heard it before. And yet, yes, as soon as you hear it, it's when you take all the melody out of it, it's hard.

All right, here we go. Next one. There must be something in a way I feel that she don't want me to feel. This hair she bears cut me. I don't care. You see, so what if I bleed? It is, could have lied by the red hot chili peppers. All right, last one, guys.

Let's close it out here. I guess I should have known, by the way, you parked your car sideways that it wouldn't last. See, you're the kind of person that believes in make-now once. Love them and leave them fast. A little red corvette. It is Little Red Corvette by Prince. That's my go-to karaoke song. Well, I think Chris clued into the theme a little early.

Would you care to let us all know what it is? I believe it's color. It is colors. Little Red Corvette by Prince, could have lied by red hot chili peppers, Al Green, black or white by Michael Jackson, and white stripes. I was looking for a pink Floyd, too.

I was looking for a deep blue something. Oh, that's good. Oh, that would be a good one. That would be a good one. Thanks, Elvis. Thanks, Elvis. You're the best. Well, guys, I know that we all have Elvis,

but I actually have heard a music musical quiz. A real music round. Yeah, exactly. But something is kind of going wrong with this. So why don't you go ahead and listen to this music quiz And if anything weird happens We'll just work through it How's that sound?

All right I'll play the file here Like a team I took an animal life She got to run in the stock of the length of an equation Everything should be my wife She got a face in a lock and a scrap and turn around And I'm going to dig in the bone

And I'm going home to the lady My mother How are you're receiving me? Hello? Good. Greetings, you bumbling bundle of broadcasting blowhards? This is Carmen San Mateo. And I'm sorry to tell you that I have stolen your precious little quiz.

In fact, I'm handing it off right now to one of my top agents, Mama Cass Torium. And you'll never be able to track us down. Sorry I can't stay longer. I've got to catch a train. Ciao! Oh, no. That's what was going wrong. Carmen San Mateo.

Has stolen our quiz. Oh, no. And we got to figure out where she is. So what did she say? She's getting on a train. So she's getting on a train. And then there was music. That music actually sounded pretty familiar, too.

I can't figure it out, you guys. We are going to have to turn this one over to the listeners. Oh, yeah. All right, well, hopefully you have all the clues that you need. If you know where Carmen San Mateo and the vile Mama Castorium have taken our musical quiz, maybe you should write in and tell us. You can email us at jb.podcast at gmail.com if you think you have the answer. I want to get back that music quiz because I need the answer to the song of the time.

Well, it doesn't matter now. Oh, man. Well, that's a weird way to end our show, but that's our show. Thank you for joining me and thank you guys, listeners, for listening. Hope you guys learn a lot about pooping duck robots and rock-scissor paper robots and Uncanny Valley and our new villain, Carmen San Mateo. Yeah, man. Fair use. Totally not. Yeah. Parity, guys. Completely not who you were thinking about. Totally a satire. Don't worry about it.

You can find us on Zoom Market. place on iTunes, on Stitcher, and also on our website, which is good jobbrain.com. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye. episode of the show dives deep into a science question you might not even know you had, but once you hear the answer, you'll want to share it with everyone you know. Why do rivers curve? Why did the T-Rex have such tiny arms? And why do so many more kids need glasses now than they used to? Spoiler

alert, it isn't screen time. Our team of scientists digs into the research and breaks it down into a short, entertaining explanation jam-packed with science facts and terrible puns. Subscribe to Minute Earth wherever you like to listen.