SyFy Q of the Day: Humanoid Robots

NASA's Astrorobonaut

Before I even started this blog, I would occasionally pose a SyFy Question of the Day to my facebook friends. Sometimes, it was directly related to what I was writing, and I really did want some input to help me decide what direction to take with the story. Other times, it was purely fun. Here’s one of my favorites, from June 2011:

SyFy question of the day: Why make robots humanoid, other than for the familiarity and novelty?

Tony Because robot chicks are hot? 🙂

US_Nessie Good point…

Tony At least on TV they are. Not sure about real life. Never seen one… that I’m aware of. 🙂

US_Nessie And it’s considered rude to “check” whether they are male or female when one does meet them in person.

Tony Yep, part of their programming.

Emily that way you can have the “perfect” man… program him to your likeing… and store him in a closet when you need you space

Josh Because it makes the special effects easier.

Shane ‎@Emily: The man could be perfect, as he has a Linux OS. All the lady robots run on Microsoft platforms….

US_Nessie My platforms would be manolo blahnik.

Matthew I won’t comment on this one….

Geri Because humans are programmed from birth to look for human characteristics. If a robot doesn’t have them, humans will ascribe them…which gets creepy. Paranoia sets in, people start violently dismantling their robots, anarchy sets in, and civilization teeters on the brink of oblivion. You know…or else people just won’t use them.

Emily ‎@shane: lol your version of Men are from Mars Women are from Venus… Male robots are from linux Female robots are from Microsoft…

US_Nessie But… R2D2 was cute!

Geri See that’s the thing…R2 was completely NON human in any way – no arms, wheels, random round and/or square bits. It’s gotta be one way or the other, so if the robot needs to be able to do fine manipulation (or stairs) it’s gotta be humanoid or you move into the creepy anarchy scenario again. LOL

Shane ‎@Emily: It would appear that I have publicly embarrassed myself again. That book was absolute dreck.

US_Nessie Some of us (esp the writer types) count on your willingness to embarrass yourself publically.

Shane Then let me be your inspirational jackass….

US_Nessie I have a stablefull! Though some are refusing to comment on this one…

Rocco Because Isaac Asimov did it so brilliantly there can be no other way

Lisa The costumes fit better?

I would love to hear what you think! Even if you are reading this post a year or more after publishing, I hope you will leave a comment with your own ideas on this topic.

Post Script: I’ve wavered back and forth about the whole SciFi vs SyFy thing for a long time. Saving just one little letter in a tweet isn’t really saving much, and the Polish translation is a really strong argument against SyFy! I’m not one to make changes lightly. But I think that, at the end of this year, along with other structural changes I might make to the site, I will change SyFy Question of the Day to the name SciFi Question of the Day.

Joe will be happy.