From: "Dr. Charles Rubenstein" <ny000832@mail.nyser.net>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 94 10:56:15 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Robot Wars!
Message-ID: <2987000426.6.ny000832@mail.nyser.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Dear punkers
With all the latest government and crime bill and clipper
bandwidth being spent I thought you might find this message,
posted to PACS-L interesting.
-CR
Short sig: The Internet does not belong to us.
           We belong to the Internet.
           - from Chief Seattle's "Earth" quote 

------- Forwarded Message
Message-Id: <9408232357.AB16213@mail-in.worldlink.com>
Date:         Tue, 23 Aug 1994 18:42:47 CDT
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.sf.ca.us>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Sender: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Subject:      Robot Wars! ("robot wars"?)
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
re: Robot Wars! ("robot wars"?)
August 20, 1994 -- San Francisco
Where else in the world could you assemble 1000 paying members of the
general public for a day to watch little mostly - metal machines rip,
tear, shred, ram, saw, and blow each other apart?

In California, of course -- the land of the crazies -- and in San
Francisco, where all the truly crazy ones are. (I am San Franciscan.)

Nearly every combination computer - nerd - machine - geek - homicidal -
maniac in the electronic world -- one hopes that there are no more than
1000 of them -- is assembled here in San Francisco's Fort Mason today
to watch "The First Annual Robot Wars", a full day of competitive
events in which these little creations, 1) "Escort" each other around a
trap - filled arena, then, 2) "Face - off", duel with each other one on
one, and, finally, 3) "melee", engage in free - for - all group
destruction. And they -- all of them including the robots -- are
communicating back and forth using the same electronic technologies
which I've been using for looking up books in libraries.

This is a very live show, featuring home - made robots built by high
school students, Industrial Light & Magic wizards (ILM's Marc Thorpe is
the event's" Creator and President), and even some elderly (in their
40s) engineers.

The crowd is on bleachers, surrounding an arena equipped with great
pinball - style paddles, net - like traps which descend upon the unwary
contestants, and a great swinging cannon - ball which arcs high over
nervous spectators' heads, occasionally slamming into an unwary little
competitor. There is a "Madonna Bra" entry: "Zomo" -- made from a
suspended stainless steel mixing bowl mounted on something like a
little remote control racing car, emblazoned with slogans like "Kiss
Me", and "Revenge", scrawled in pink lipstick. There is an entry by the
guy who invented SimCity:  "Julie - bot", complete with war - painted
Barbie Doll head -- "The Barbie from Hell!", the crowd cried.
"AndyRoid", a Charlie McCarthy - style ventriloquist's doll mounted on
a kid's plastic BigWheel trike -- trailing a lethal Coke can on a
string which it/he uses to ensnare and destroy opponents -- screams
"child abuse! child abuse!" when it/he is hit, and, after the swinging
cannonball strikes it directly in the head, "tylenol! tylenol!". There
are contestants with names like "Spiny Norman", "SlowMo", "PainMower",
"The Beetle", and "The Master": sort of a cybernetic TV wrestling list.

There are some bright people at this thing. A few of them are the folks
who brought us films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Cobra, Ghost,
Terminator 2, Forrest Gump, and Mask. There are some international
folks, camcorders and flipphones are everywhere, I see some press
luminaries and at least one tv station, and there are plenty of
mysteriously - important - looking people.

Talk about a 1990s event. Technology, brutality, war, metal. Fitting, I
guess, that it takes place on the piers from which the US made war on
Japan a half century ago. Somebody should tell me whether this is
cruelty or catharsis -- there were plenty of "thumbs down" signals
being given, received, and acted upon -- and how far a robot has to be
taken before it becomes anthropomorphic?

I was interested because there are a lot of Entertainment Industry
types involved in this, and I am curious about current predictions that
the Entertainment Industry is about to take over information
networking. Anyone who thinks this technology is tame either, a) hasn't
read William F. Gibson, or, b) has read him but doesn't believe it, or,
c) wasn't at "Robot Wars".

More can be found out about present and future Robot Wars, I'm told,
via e - mail to: robotwars@aol.com.

Jack Kessler
kessler@well.sf.ca.us
------- End of Forwarded Message