FAQ  •  Login

Anyone seen Phil?

<<

Kipple

User avatar

Honorary Member

Posts: 1266

Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Satellite 2

Post Sun Feb 12, 2006 2:41 pm

Anyone seen Phil?

Missing: robot named Phil

Sat Feb 11, 12:26 PM ET


MEMPHIS, United States (AFP) - Philip K. Dick is missing. Not the American science fiction writer whose novels spawned hit films such as "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall" -- he died more than 20 years ago -- but a state-of-the-art robot named after the author.

The quirky android, which made a major splash at Wired Magazine's NextFest in Chicago in June, was lost in early January while en route to California by commercial airliner.

"We can't find Phil," said Steve Prilliman of Dallas-based Hanson Robotics, which created the futuristic robot with the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis, the Automation and Robotics Research Institute at the University of Texas at Arlington and Dick's friend Paul Williams.

"We're very worried because it's been a few weeks now," said Prilliman. "We're pressing hard to find Phil."

Robotics wizard and lead designer David Hanson built the robot as a memorial to Dick, whose 1968 book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" inspired the 1982 classic "Blade Runner" starring Harrison Ford.

Short stories by Dick, who died in 1982, served as inspiration for other hit films including the 1990 "Total Recall," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the 2002 "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise.

In Blade Runner, set in a Los Angeles of 2019, Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckhard, a Blade Runner or policeman whose job is to track down and terminate escaped human clones known as "replicants."

The irony of the situation -- a missing replica of the very author who championed "replicant" freedom -- is not lost on Phil's creators.

But they still want him back.

"We really need to find him soon because the Smithsonian wants to put him in a traveling collection in the fall," said Prilliman referring to Washington's Smithsonian Institute, an organization of museums and art galleries.

Along with an eerie likeness to the author, the robot features award-winning artificial intelligence that mimics the writer's mannerisms and lifelike skin material to affect realistic expressions.

Top-of-the-line voice software loaded with data from Dick's vast body of writing allows the robot to carry on natural-sounding conversations, although it does come off as a bit doddering at times.

Biometric-identification software and advanced machine vision allows the robot to recognize people -- even in a crowd -- read their expressions and body language and talk to them sounding a lot like a normal, albeit slightly senile, author who likes to quote his own books when he gets confused.

Prilliman and others close to Phil balked at giving too many details about his disappearance including the name of the airline that was transporting the robot when he went missing.

Hanson officials said news of Phil's disappearance could hamper the ongoing investigation and search for the robot.

The company officials said they feared ransom demands might be made or Phil could turn up listed for sale on an internet auction house such as eBay.

A spokeswoman, Elaine Hanson, said the company is considering building a new android if the original Phil does not turn up.
Last edited by Kipple on Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
<<

THX1138

User avatar

Moderator
Moderator

Posts: 1411

Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:00 pm

Location: Denver, Colorado

Post Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:16 pm

He got a mind of his own and ran away! lol. Check all the coffee shops or worst yet, check all the eye doctors!
"Don't be a dick!" -Wil Wheaton
<<

BladeRvnner

User avatar

Rookie Rep Detect
Rookie Rep Detect

Posts: 46

Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2005 1:49 pm

Post Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:06 pm

Call the Blade Runner Unit, this is one replicant in need of being found and retired... LOL!
OMG, Bit Torrent rules...
<<

ridleynoir

User avatar

Veteran Blade Runner
Veteran Blade Runner

Posts: 1335

Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2002 6:00 pm

Location: Rochester NY

Post Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:23 pm

This is so bizarre, I bet when it is finally resolved it will make an interesting basis for a movie. The kidnapping of an android...droidnapping??? repnapp??? :shock:
Image
<<

Centauro

User avatar

Blade Runner
Blade Runner

Posts: 729

Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Bogota, DC [CO]

Post Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:32 am

DAAAAAMMM...!!! Kipple you beat me to it. I was gonna post it yesterday and forgot...! I even had my funny-but -only-to-myself post already written, aargh, it was this:

***
ATTENTION ALL UNITS: PKD Robot went rogue

All Blade Runners are to gather any information on the whereabouts of Philip K. Dick Android, allegedly "lost in shipment" some weeks ago. Rumor has it that the suspect simply walked away when nobody was looking, after making some comments on "being bored" and expressing its "wish to go find his buddy Horselover Fat", commments that its caretakers at the moment just thought of as "odd but funny".

Upon detection, bring the suspect to LAPD HQ, ASAP. No retiremet order issued.

***

Well... I think it's very likely that the skinjob is gonna end in Japan in private hands.
-------------------------------------------------------------- Revel In Your Time --------------------------------------------------------------

Image
<<

mike81859

User avatar

Rep Detector
Rep Detector

Posts: 53

Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2003 6:00 pm

Location: Illinois

Post Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:35 am

pkd robot mia

here is the post on found on boingboing.net.

pdk robot mia
Thank you Blade Zone!
<<

Kipple

User avatar

Honorary Member

Posts: 1266

Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Satellite 2

Post Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:58 pm

Losing One's Head

Somewhere on a shelf in a cavernous warehouse in Alabama rests the life-like noggin of Philip K. Dick, quietly dreaming of electric sheep. Or maybe the robotic head of the legendary sci-fi author got blown up. These are among the possible explanations for the bizarre disappearance of an artist's homage to Dick. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. This tale of loss should start from the beginning.

It's a story as strange as anything PKD ever wrote - a body of work that includes the short stories behind the movies Blade Runner, Total Recall, and A Scanner Darkly. It involves, naturally, a robot, a group of confused humans, and a series of misunderstandings. The head was built by David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics. The self-described sculptor-roboticist, who has a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and did some undergrad work in AI, specializes in creating amazingly realistic robot faces sheathed in a rubbery polymer he calls f'rubber. The bots have a wide range of facial expressions driven by dozens of tiny servomotors. They make eye contact with passersby through motion-tracking machine vision and can engage in complex conversations via AI speech software. They even recognize familiar faces.

It was PKD - the author - who drew Hanson to robotics in the first place. "Reading books like Valis motivated me to build robots that would help save humans from their own destructive tendencies," he says.

The creator of several robots, including the Albert Einstein head for the bot that appeared on the cover of Wired in January, Hanson spent $25,000 of his own money building his hero.

Hanson and software developer Andrew Olney studied the author's life and used his novels - particularly We Can Build You - as a blueprint for applying PKD's personality to the robot. The head won first place in a competition sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and the Smithsonian was planning to exhibit it this fall.

Until December, that is, when Google invited Hanson and Olney to demo the PKD head at company headquarters in Silicon Valley. Hanson had been traveling for weeks, making two trips to Asia and pulling 15 all-nighters in 40 days. "I got on the plane in Dallas at 5 in the morning, after getting maybe 45 minutes of sleep the night before," he recalls. "I stuck the bag containing the robot head in the overhead bin and fell asleep. I didn't even know we were changing planes in Las Vegas. The flight attendant woke me up, and I walked off the plane in a fog - with the robot head still in the overhead bin."

When Hanson arrived at the San Francisco airport, he finally realized he had left his bot behind. Hanson was determined not to lose his head, having already lost Philip K. Dick's. "I thought, 'OK, OK, everything's going to be cool; they're going to find this bag,'" he says. "There's no mistaking this bag - it's got a robot head in it. When you open it, it's just wires and flesh and a bearded dude's face."

On the ground, Hanson says, America West officials told him that the plane carrying PKD was en route to Orange County; the crew would look for his robot when it landed. They said PKD had turned up at the Las Vegas airport after all. It was packed in a secure box and would be put on the next flight to SFO. The flight landed safely, but the head didn't. Somewhere over the Sierra Nevada, it had vanished.

America West officials say they've looked everywhere and that the search continues. If the head doesn't reappear, they told Hanson, they may consider a "happy ending" scenario, like sponsoring a new bot. In the meantime, the head could be resting on a warehouse shelf at an Alabama salvage company that buys items unclaimed after 30 days. Hanson suspects the head was either stolen by an unscrupulous baggage handler or fell victim to an overzealous security guard who called in a bomb squad. "That would be a really strange ending," Hanson says, "if the head of a Philip K. Dick robot wound up being exploded by another robot."

- Tom McNichol
From Wired Magazine

Issue 14.04 - April 2006
Image
<<

Kipple

User avatar

Honorary Member

Posts: 1266

Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Satellite 2

Post Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:43 pm

D?nde est? la cabeza de PKD?

Image
<<

Centauro

User avatar

Blade Runner
Blade Runner

Posts: 729

Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Bogota, DC [CO]

Post Sat Jul 01, 2006 6:01 pm

A legend is born.

Hey Kipple, me gust? mucho el cuento que inicia con el ni?o d?ndole la moneda al mendigo. (Sorry people, if you can't read spanish you won't enjoy that blog of the last link... I wonder if some english speaker has had the same idea... it is a short-tale literary contest; the topic: What happened to the artificial PKD head? If not, go ahead, share your own stories here at the forums, in your own language!)
-------------------------------------------------------------- Revel In Your Time --------------------------------------------------------------

Image
<<

Kipple

User avatar

Honorary Member

Posts: 1266

Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Satellite 2

Post Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:51 am

Re: D?nde est? la cabeza de PKD?

Kipple wrote:D?nde est? la cabeza de PKD?
You Tube



http://www.whereisdickshead.blogspot.com/


Can be translated using Babel Fish
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
Image
<<

ace2_heart

Rookie Rep Detect
Rookie Rep Detect

Posts: 2

Joined: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:23 am

Post Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:06 am

Hi from Barcelona

Hi, I'm controlling the contest "Where is Dicks Head" (http://whereisdickshead.blogspot.com) you've talking about.

I just post there and translate a text Centauro wrote (I hope it is ok), and may be we can do something so you can participate in the contest. Arrange some translations, or something..

thanks for the link.

Miguel
(http://elforastero.blogalia.com)
<<

Centauro

User avatar

Blade Runner
Blade Runner

Posts: 729

Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Bogota, DC [CO]

Post Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:59 am

We got synch Miguel. I was just translating the terms of the constest into english to post them here (I don't like babelfish much, while acceptable the software still has a long way to go). Shoould I continue? Just reply to this or send a PM, I'll be glad to help.
-------------------------------------------------------------- Revel In Your Time --------------------------------------------------------------

Image
<<

Centauro

User avatar

Blade Runner
Blade Runner

Posts: 729

Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2001 6:00 pm

Location: Bogota, DC [CO]

Post Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:06 pm

OK, here are the translated terms and conditions of the contest. I should mention that Miguel told me via email that he could do the mandatory spanish translation for the foreign entries, so if you can't do it yourself don't worry. Maybe I could help with that too, if someone from these forums decides to enter the contest, I'll be glad to help. Be warned that these guys wrote the terms in a light hearted manner.

======================================================
BASES

1. This contest for short tales, if possible fantasy or sci-fi themed, or even magic realism or any other variant or style, is called "Donde est? la cabeza de Dick, Doctor Hanson" (Where's Dick's head, Dr. Hanson?) inspired by the strange events that happened to the famous doctor, which can be read here .The tales must tell theories, stories and adventures about this missing head.

2. The lenght of the submitted, previously unpublished works, must go from 1 to 5 pages, and some formal criteria are expected, such as orthography, syntax and grammar (ok, that means your tale must be understandable, readable and nice).

3. Works in any planetary language will be accepted, provided that they come with their respective translation into spanish. We will consider the possibility of accepting works in other languages such as dead languages, cuneiform writing or extraterrestrial languages.

4. The works will be properly published in this blog as they come in. Works must be sent under pseudonym and, if possible, with an original image representative of the topic: the head of Dick (sharpen your creative skills, authors)


ENTRY TERMS

5. Format: A text document in *.doc, *.rtf or *.pdf format.

6. Entries must be sent via email to whereisdickshead@gmail.com, the text file and graphic file(s) must be in attachment form, and the body of the email message must contain the author's name, country and city of residence, title of the tale and your chosen pseudonym.

7. Entries will be accepted until the end of september 2006, so everyone can participate. No date alterations will be allowed.


AWARDS

8. There will be a first, second and third place, awarded in a date to be announced in this blog.

9. The first prize will be an electronic musical portable device, from a renowned brand. Also, the first place winner gets an original, genuine tridimensional object, a PKD bust replica, made by an unknown and efficient sculptor.

10. Second and third place will be awarded with cultural gifts plenty of printed types and images.


JURY

11. Upon closing date for entries receipt, a jury, highly qualified and duly formed to that end will be appointed. We count on the participation of well known experts and promising movie stars (come on, we don't have the slightest idea of who will help us with this compromising task. Still, several candidates and lovers of the Dickian universe will be invited to join us as judges.


RESPONSIBILITIES

12. The promotors of this initiative deny all responsibilities regarding the eventual failure to comply with any of the preceding terms caused by external events as, for example, sudden alien invasion of civilizations coming from Orion's belt, Crab nebula, or visiting veterans from near and future wars. We also deny all responisibilities in case of meteor strike, formation of time-space loops and other paranormal phenomena afecting this continuum.

13. We promise to avoid a narrow outlook and to try and trespass the fine layer of reality.

14. By default, all texts belong to their respective authors. Any further project with these same works will be renegotiated. This document, this website and this project are registered under the Creative Commons license.

======================================================

Original Source: http://whereisdickshead.blogspot.com/2006/04/bases.html
-------------------------------------------------------------- Revel In Your Time --------------------------------------------------------------

Image
<<

ace2_heart

Rookie Rep Detect
Rookie Rep Detect

Posts: 2

Joined: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:23 am

Post Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:50 am

thank you

Centauro, thanks fot the translation, it is already posted in: http://whereisdickshead.blogspot.com/

Altauhg the basis was written in light manner, we are serious people and we hope we can get some original and well-donne works.

I hop all you people participate in the contest.

Return to Philip K Dick

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests

cron