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Robotic Obama Not Ready To Lead Nation
An audiotronic-animatronic Barack Obama has joined the other 42 robotic presidents at the newly updated Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Take a look at this brief video and judge for yourself.
Disney calls the new President Obama figure "the most dynamic figure Disney has ever created." "We're very proud of the technological advances that allow this to make him come to life so realistically," Jacobson said
(Robotic Obama video)
Unfortunately, this Obamabot is not an autonomous robot; it's essentially computer-controlled a puppet with a very limited script.
Science fiction fans have already been prepared for the idea of robotic national leaders. For example, in the Star Trek episode The Return of the Archons, a computer presents itself as Landru.
(Landru from Return of the Archons [ST:TOS])
SF fans might also recall the robot pope from Robert Silverberg's 1971 story Good News from the Vatican.
There are a wide variety of sfnal artificial intelligences capable of leading a city, a nation or a world. See the city fathers from Cities in Flight by James Blish (1957), the Central Computer from The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke (1956), and Vulcan 3 from Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K. Dick (1960) for examples.
Via CNN.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/4/2009)
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