Just Because You Can...

...Doesn't Mean You Should.

U.S. Scientists create self-replicating robot.

Each robot consists of several 10-cm (4 inch) cubes which have identical machinery, electromagnets to attach and detach to each other and a computer program for replication. The robots can bend and pick up and stack the cubes.
....
The experimental robots, which don't do anything else except make copies of themselves, are powered through contacts on the surface of the table and transfer data through their faces. They self-replicate by using additional modules placed in special "feeding locations."

The machines duplicate themselves by bending over and putting their top cube on the table. Then they bend again, pick up another cube, put it on top of the first and repeat the entire process. As the new robot begins to take shape it helps to build itself.

Don't these people watch SG-1? Replicators are *bad*.

So if the replicators meet up with some nanites we'll eventually get Cylons and the whole galaxy will be frelled.

Science-fiction has ruined my brain.

To ruin it further, Natasha and I are going to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today. Finally.

So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish

Natasha and I walked downtown today to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Grabbed lunch beforehand and then wandered around Suncoast for a little while, wasting time. Bought Farscape: Starburst Editions Volumes one through three. Because I am *weak*. I told Natasha, "Either talk me out of it or tell me it's ok." Because I don't need to own more copies of Farscape, but they had new stuff on them and the covers are shiny and I couldn't help it.

So now I'm sitting here listening to the brand new commentary for "A Human Reaction" with Ben and Claudia and omg how much do I love them? They're so great together. And "A Human Reaction" is one of my all time favorite episodes. (And that scene in the safe house during the thunder storm is one of my all time favorite scenes in anything ever. "Earth. Minus the sunshine.") It's sort of the beginning of the end for Crichton, even though it's only the sixteenth episode in the first of four seasons. I'm always impressed with how well things are thought out and considered. Ben mentioned in either this commentary or the one of "Nerve" that in almost every, if not every, episode there is a reference to another one. It's all connected and you miss out on something, even a small something, if you miss an episode.

That's interesting - All of the people playing aliens had to make up their own languages because of the lack of translator microbes on Earth. Claudia decided that when she spoke Sebacean, she would just speak English backwards. I always wondered if that was her talking or if it had been treated.

Yeah, I love this show.

ANYway. The movie. Laughed and "awww"ed and truly enjoyed it. Not the book, but that's completely fine. Plus, Douglas Adams did in fact have a hand in the script. Nice little "For Douglas" at the end, which made me sad. Loved the movie.