Today I returned to my alma mater -- Carnegie Mellon University -- and delivered a short keynote address during the
Robot Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The event inducted David (from the movie A.I.), the Sony AIBO, Gort (from The Day the Earth Stood Still), the SCARA robot arm, and Maria (from Metropolis). It was nerd heaven. The Master of Ceremonies was none other than
Anthony Daniels -- the guy who played C-3PO in every Star Wars movie. Needless to say, I had a very good time.
Here's a bit of my speech:
"Robots have always been a combination of fact and fiction. The fictional robots in movies inspire us to build real robots. And those real robots go on to inspire Hollywood producers to pay Arnold Schwarzenegger $30 million dollars to get naked in yet another Terminator movie. It's a beautiful symbiosis of imagination and technical skill."
