Editing 695: Spirit
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{w|Anthropomorphism}} is attribution of distinctly human characteristics to animals or non-living things. We make parallels between ourselves and objects, to the point where some people even jocularly worry about hurting the feelings of, say, an automobile. We call ships "she". We see human faces in objects like the arrangement of lights on the front of a car. | |
− | It | + | The {{w|Spirit rover|''Spirit'' Mars rover}}, like many high-functioning robots in real-life and fiction, shares many physical similarities with a human being or animal. It has a head, eyes, neck, body, legs, feet, arms and a hand. And it strikingly resembles sentient robots from fiction, such as Johnny 5 from ''{{w|Short Circuit (film)|Short Circuit}}'', or {{w|WALL-E}} from the film with the same name. |
− | {{w| | + | Thus, this comic explores what the ''Spirit'' rover's life would be like if it were sentient like those robots. The rover was never intended to return to Earth, and lasted 5 1/4 active years on the Martian surface, far exceeding its mission duration of 90 Martian days. A sentient robot might assume that after his initially planned 90 {{w|Timekeeping on Mars|Martian day}} mission was over, he'd get to return home. So, heartbreakingly this did not happen, ''Spirit'', possibly in a pun on his name, keeps his hopes alive as he continues analyzing rock after rock for ''years.'' |
− | + | It would be cruelty of the absolute worst kind to create an intelligence with such feelings, and then abandon it on an uninhabited planet with no intention of ''ever'' bringing it home. So one is rather heartened that the ''Spirit'' rover ''is,'' in fact, just a programmed machine. | |
− | The | + | The title text has an apparent miscount: January 26, 2010, is more like sol (Martian day) 2156 by JPL's [http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spiritAll_2010.html#sol2151 mission status site], not 2274. |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
:[The ''Spirit'' rover is on the surface of Mars.] | :[The ''Spirit'' rover is on the surface of Mars.] | ||
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:''Spirit'' (thinking): 89 days to go! | :''Spirit'' (thinking): 89 days to go! | ||
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:''Spirit'' (thinking): It's okay, I'll do the next one better. | :''Spirit'' (thinking): It's okay, I'll do the next one better. | ||
− | :Day | + | :Day 1293 of 90 |
:''Spirit'' (thinking): Sandstorm. Power dying. | :''Spirit'' (thinking): Sandstorm. Power dying. | ||
:''Spirit'' (thinking): But a good rover would keep going. A good rover like they wanted. | :''Spirit'' (thinking): But a good rover would keep going. A good rover like they wanted. | ||
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:[''Spirit'' rests in the middle of a vast Martian landscape.] | :[''Spirit'' rests in the middle of a vast Martian landscape.] | ||
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+ | ==Trivia== | ||
+ | *In a blog post Randall mentioned an [http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/02/08/android-bug-reports-songs-rovers/ Blog post mentioning alternative version of this comic]. | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Comics with color]] | [[Category:Comics with color]] | ||
− | [[Category: | + | [[Category:Robots]] |
[[Category:Science]] | [[Category:Science]] | ||
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