DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The first thing that has to be said about Asimov’s I, Robot is that it is not the same story as the new Will Smith movie of the same name. Rather, the movie is “suggested by” the book (quoting IMDB).

I believe I, Robot was the first science fiction book I read, over 20 years ago. I re-read it once in college, and again last week. It hasn’t aged as well as I expected. Or, maybe I haven’t aged as well. In fact that’s certainly the case.

The book isn’t a novel so much as a collection of short stories tied together by a sketchy narrative. The short stories are presented as recollections of famed “robopsychologist” Susan Calvin, in the context of an interview at the end of her career at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. Some of the stories are more successful than others.

Asimov can be credited with one of the great science fiction inventions of all time: the “Three Laws of Robotics.” Three simple sentences outlining a robot’s behaviorial rules gave Asimov a framework for tons of fiction. In this collection, Asimov seems to have sat down with his Three Laws and consciously extrapolated strange situations that would follow from rigidly-logical adherence to them.

In the best of the stories (“Evidence”), a political candidate is accused of being a robot. His opponents’ attempts to prove their case, and the candidate’s responses, provide a master class in political staging and image handling. The story is as relevant today as when it was written in 1946.

All in all, this is an easy and quick read, and serves as a good introduction to the Three Laws of Robotics. Also, it’s a classic. It serves as a good introduction to the genre.

Patronize these links, man:

• Amazon (paperback)

Last Fall, the auto club’s VIA Magazine ran an article about Vancouver, British Columbia. The first paragraph grabbed my attention:

For the last five years, Vancouver artist Kent Avery has spent his weekends stacking stones on the English Bay waterfront… Avery hops down off the seawall and begins to tug and lug, setting one rock atop another until he has engineered a Dr. Seuss skyline of improbable teetering obelisks, sometimes more than a hundred of them, precarious sky castles three, five, 12 rocks tall. Eventually, the incoming tide knocks them all down and Avery starts over. He leaves a tip jar on the wall beside a notebook of facts and photos. [The] book boasts, “It’s all about balance!”

Regular readers of this site may recall my penchant for creating stone sculptures. But mine are lame compared to Avery’s. I use flat stones because they’re easier to stack… whereas Avery finds the round and oblong ones and stacks them improbably on end. Check out this photo from Mike Whybark’s gallery.

During our recent visit to Vancouver, I made sure to seek out Kent Avery and his mastery of balance. We parked in the southwest corner of Stanley Park and hiked north, clockwise around the park. I quizzed every pedestrian, flapping the VIA article: “Have you seen this man?!” Everyone I asked had seen the sculptures, but not that day. It seems Avery had vanished like his ephemeral art.

I believe we found the area where he works, though, so we set about creating a few sculptures of our own. For the first time I tried to do this the hard way — I found a round stone and stood it on end on a boulder. Then I surprised myself and stacked another one on top — although not on end, alas!

Townshend on Michael Moore (seen in Pete Townshend’s diary):

[Michael Moore] will have to work very, very hard to convince me that a man with a camera is going to change the world more effectively than a man with a guitar.

What is the Meatrix?

I consider it a public service, if not a public duty, to explain why pizza can be considered a health food. Allow me to quote from the HerbalGram article on lycopene:

Lycopene is a potent quencher of singlet oxygen (a reactive form of oxygen), which suggests that it may have comparatively stronger antioxidant properties than other major plasma carotenoids… Lycopene has been found to be a potent and specific inhibitor of cancer cell proliferation… Lycopene induces Phase II enzymes which help to eliminate carcinogens and toxins from the body.

The article goes deep into the science behind the claims, and uses the phrase “conjugate reactive electrophiles” which makes me smile because it reminds me of dack’s web economy bullshit generator.

Anyway, in the table of lycopene content of common foods, the highest-rated item is, you guessed it, pizza sauce.