Robots and Robot Aides: The Science of Over the Edge

Robots, robotic aides and/or bionics figure in Over the Edge, but they're in the background, like toasters or refrigerated air units: they're not missed until they're broken and not seen until they're necessary to the story. That's the way technology should be, actually, it shouldn't really be a character in a story (well, humanoid robots who think and have feelings may be the exception).

Probably the most dramatic bionic use found in Over the Edge is a character's ability to save to an electronic medium images captured by the eye, sounds heard by the ear and thoughts recorded and verbiage stored as text documents. No privacy if someone's got the access codes. Add the ability to access that saved information at any time from anywhere, total, literal recall, and the power to control a spaceship by thought command, a spaceship captain finds his ship an extension of his own being. This happens to a lesser extent when people drive. Experienced drivers naturally extend their concept of personal space and boundaries to include the vehicle they're driving. They become attuned to the normal rattles, clicks and rumbles of their healthy machine and take note when sounds change. Well, some of us do. Others of us don't pay that good attention, not even to our own bodies. But that's another subject.

The article posted below from National Geographic highlights how robots or robotic aides are already integrating into human life and what may lie in the future.

Bionics

Over the Edge Romance series: What Does A Guy's Car Say About Him?

Unlike most previous posts, this one is just for fun. The Over the Edge Sci Fi Romance series tell the stories of ordinary women who meet and (maybe) fall for men from space. While they're on planet earth the guys have got to have something to drive. What will they choose and what does a guy's vehicle choice say about him?

What Does a Guy's Car Say About Him?

What Would Spaceship Launches Really Look Like?: The Science of Over the Edge

This post is just for fun, although it does plug into the Science of Over the Edge features which appear here every so often. What does it look like when a missile is launched? Well, here's a photo:

This image is from a blog on the Discover web page titled: Awesomely Weird Expanding Halo of Light Seen from Hawaii This picture is a still taken from a video by Kanoa Withington. It shows the beginnings of an expanding halo--watch the video on the blog link posted above--probably created by a missile launching into space from California. Check out the blog post.




 This next photo is also from the same blog, but you may have seen it awhile back, the weird spiral over Norway. Here's a still image of that:

This turned out to be an out-of-control rocket booster jetting into space. Video of that incident is posted below.






Google "weird spirals over Norway" for more videos.

Here are some more links from Discover magazine online about werid sightings:

Falcon UFOs

Great Balls of Fire Over Australia

Russian UFOs

So what would it look like if earth had a sure-enough space port where real spaceships going places distant and amazing launched? Maybe very much like these images--well, except for the out-of-control rocket, hopefully a person wouldn't see many of those.