Have you ever been rude to a celebrity?Whilst at school we had a field trip to the Ironbridge Gorge museum. Oddly enough kids TV presenter Johnny Ball happened to pick the same day to make a visit. We were rather excited and crowded round asking questions. Johnny took this rather well and held an impromptu lecture. This was all fun and games until a kid at the back threw a small rock at his head. Silence fell for a moment then Mr Ball blew a gasket and did the whole "no one is leaving until I get a confession" routine. Er.. typing this out makes me feel rather sorry for the chap. Anyway - can you beat that?
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rob, Wed 14 Apr 2004, 19:06)
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Professor Kevin "Captian Cyborg" WarwickI got into a bit of an argument with the afformentioned dog-tracker-chip-injecting AI specialist at one of his book signings. He'd just written a book about how, if AI became suitably advanced, the machines would rise up and enslave humanity, just like they've done in bad science fiction for years. He spoke a bit about the book, and about his research projects (he had a few robot buggies with him, scuttling round a ring).
I never bought the book. I didn't get anything signed by him. I did however, when he asked if there were any questions, ask if he felt that AI researchers should have a moral responsibility to not to create super-robots which would enslave humanity, citing Asimov's 3 Laws, Robocop's Directives and the Ten Commandments in the process. After blustering a bit about the impracticallities of telling an AI Cruise Missile "Thou Shalt Not Kill", his final considered response was to call me "sad" and imply that he'd shagged my mum. Cranberry. I'm hoping he's first against the wall, come the robot revolution. Preferably during the Christmas Lectures.
Also at a book signing, I apologised to Michael Palin for being too poor a student to afford his book. He signed the bit of paper I provided as an alternative "Piss off. Yours sincerely, Michael Palin". But in a nice way.
(, Thu 15 Apr 2004, 22:39, Reply)
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