{"id":1709,"date":"2010-02-22T00:52:56","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T05:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2010-03-08T10:54:36","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T15:54:36","slug":"the-souls-in-our-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=1709","title":{"rendered":"The Souls in Our Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/spirit-part.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1711\" title=\"spirit part\" src=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/spirit-part.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"159\" srcset=\"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/spirit-part.jpg 639w, https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/spirit-part-300x103.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I recently saw a <a href=\"http:\/\/xkcd.com\/695\/\">xkcd strip about the Spirit rover<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m notoriously immune to the usual causes that are supposed to make women weep.\u00a0 But tears sprang to my eyes when I saw the strip.\u00a0 Just as I wept while I watched the little robots tending the spaceborne trees in <em>Silent  Running; <\/em>at the launches of the Voyagers; and when I saw the drawing of Sojourner that showed it leaving human footprints on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>These are just instruments.\u00a0 They\u2019re not fluffy, they\u2019re not cuddly.\u00a0 But they represent the best in us \u2013 the builders, the gardeners, the explorers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Swirl.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1733 alignnone\" title=\"Swirl\" src=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Swirl-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"264\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>ETA: My friend Calvin asked an important question in his comment to this entry: &#8220;Do you think these robots are pushing our neoteny buttons? The Spirit  rover (as well as Wall-E) have the large &#8220;eyes&#8221; of a child. And the  squat proportions of the robots in Silent Running (as well as R2D2) also  seem to echo the proportions of a child.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I considered this possibility.\u00a0 But the Mars rovers and the Voyagers lack several crucial attributes of neoteny: roundness, softness, cooing gurgles.<\/p>\n<p>R2D2 adhered more closely to the neotenic model, and he didn&#8217;t arouse these reactions (in me, at least).\u00a0 For me, their roles are what make them so enormously touching &#8212; the quiet, uncomplaining, unsung preservation and propagation of supremely &#8220;humane&#8221; values.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Green.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1708\" title=\"Green\" src=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Green-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Green-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Green.jpg 762w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a> Images:<\/p>\n<p>Top, a portion of the xkcd strip <em>Spirit<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Center, <em>Swirl<\/em>, by Joe Bergeron.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom, a gardener in <em>Silent Running<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently saw a xkcd strip about the Spirit rover. I\u2019m notoriously immune to the usual causes that are supposed to make women weep.\u00a0 But tears sprang to my eyes when I saw the strip.\u00a0 Just as I wept while I watched the little robots tending the spaceborne trees in Silent Running; at the launches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-science","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}