From: "Alice K. Turner" 
Subject: Re: (urth) robot desires -- Jonas tells a joke
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 21:55:23 -0400

Mused mantis:

> In the joke that Jonas tells, a woman interviews three sailors to find out
> what each one wants the most.  The first says power, the second says
> (social) polish, and the third says love.
>
> The woman laughs and says that they are all robots.  The first sailor says
> that is true, and he can see how she figured it out from the first two
> answers, since power and polish are things all robots look for, but he
> couldn't figure out how she detected a robot in the third answer.

[snip]

> Now this joke does a number of things.  It establishes a hierarchy, almost
> like Mazlow's [sp?] hierarchy (which starts with food, then shelter,
etc.),
> but for robots: "power" becomes "food" in addition to "recognized
> authority" (because robots run on energy); "polish" becomes "physical
> appearance" in addition to "social graces" (because the robots have skins
> that shine -- the Tin Woodman becomes nickle-plated on his elevation, and
> he is always getting polished, getting new accessories, etc.); but what is
> "love" in robot terms?
>
> Well, in addition to that answer, love is also love, and something which
> some (perhaps not all) robots can desire.

But aren't you forgetting that the TW desired love too, as well as
polish--his first desire was a heart, to love but also to be loved. And he
became Emperor of the Winkies, so he got power too.

Mark, Edward !IV was 6'3" and "broad-breasted," a giant of his time. Richard
III at probably about the norm, 5'7" or so, would have been dwarfed.

Also, just curious, does Smart own a cat?

-alga



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