Comments on: Boxing Robots of the 1930s

By: Ben Evans

Ben Evans — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:00:21 +0000

I’m sure you just LOVE to hear all these “but what about _____” comments. So here’s another. Popeye once got into a boxing match with a robot in the Thimble Theater newspaper strip. He also boxed with a gorilla, so maybe that was also a trend at the time?

By: cr0sh

cr0sh — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:11:44 +0000

What about mention of the “fighting robots” in the movies “Westworld” and “Futureworld” (ugh – cheesy 70′s sci-fi!)…? Of course, you also have today’s form of fighting robots, in the hobby/sport of “combat robotics”; aka “BattleBots”. Finally – the best form of “Rock-em-Sock-em” I’ve ever seen was these life-sized versions at Burning Man: http://lumerian.com/Photos/RockEm_SockEm_Robots/

@Wutzke: It’s interesting that you complain about Prohibition setting back the “prohibition” of a different substance (personally, I think we should be treated as adults, and be allowed to ingest whatever we feel like, with certain restrictions like DUI laws and the like).

By: HeywoodFloyd

HeywoodFloyd — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:34:25 +0000

On a tour of the Edison museum, the park ranger mentioned Edison’s distaste for cigarettes. The ranger said that Edison himself smoked cigars, and had no objection to smoking cigars or pipes. Edison believed it was the paper in cigarettes that was harmful, not the tobacco.

By: Wutzke

Wutzke — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:44:56 +0000

Ah, is there anything that Prohibition *didn’t* screw up? From gangster violence to illicit drinking (which encourages alcohol abuse), from empowering the mafia to today’s neo-prohibition, the misguided efforts in the “war on drugs”… Now it turns out that efforts to restrict smoking were also set back about 1/2 a century by Prohibition. Wonderful.

By: Matt Novak

Matt Novak — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:27:06 +0000

@Ian While I love the Twilight Zone, that episode originally aired in 1963. This post was just looking at fighting robots from the 1930s.

By: Ian Bentham

Ian Bentham — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:06:02 +0000

No mention, either, of the excellent Twilight Zone episode, “Steel,” which is entirely PaleoFuture worthy. The episode is based on the same Richard Matheson short story that “Real Steel” was based on.

(Is that connection enough to make me sit through the schmatzy-sounding, CGI-heavy movie? Probably not. In fact, it makes me appreciate the value of the low-tech Twilight Zone effects in properly conveying its conflicted mech-human message.)

By: Matt Novak

Matt Novak — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:45:39 +0000

Though I love Boilerplate, he was created in the year 2000, not the 1930s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boilerplate_(robot)

By: Denis Kitchen

Denis Kitchen — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:38:20 +0000

What?! No mention of BOILERPLATE?!? I realize he disappeared in 1918, but many of us believe he survived into the 1930s and beyond. If you’re unfamiliar, check out the amazing BOILERPLATE book by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett from Abrams, or the web site. I understand there’s a movie in the works too.