In 1964, The New York World's Fair opened in Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York. I was in high school way back then (yeah, I'm an old geezer) and I couldn't wait to go. The great day finally arrived and my parents, our next-door neighbors, their daughter, and I dressed up in our Sunday best for the wondrous exposition we were about to see. (Those were the days when you wore a jacket and tie when you traveled by air. How times do change.)
Under the direction of Robert Moses, the man who gave the New York metropolitan area it's parkway system, it's parks, and some of the finest beaches in the world including Jones Beach on Long Island, the Fair did not disappoint. Moses did nothing on a small scale. Just as he was larger than life so too were his projects. Spread out over an entire square mile, it was the largest world's fair ever in the United States. It's hundreds of exhibitions and pavilions representing major companies and countries on six continents, it was a wonder to behold. Ranging from the sublime (The Vatican's exhibition of Michelangelo's Pieta) to the ridiculous (the Wheel of Art at the Belgian Village) it had something for everyone. It was so enormous that no one could see it all in just one visit.
The central theme of the fair was the future but mostly in terms of future technology. So GM and Ford had two huge exhibitions where you squeezed into scaled-down versions of their cars and were whisked through displays and dioramas predicting what our daily lives would be like some twenty years hence. Unfortunately we still don't have those skyways in New York City. Nor did Bell Telephones prediction of a future filled with video phones in every home come true. At least not on the level they envisioned. But of all the corporate and national exhibitions, the two that were the stars of the show and the ones with the longest lines were Disney's "It's a Small World" and General Electric's "Progressland".
And the reason they were the stars was Disney's introduction of life-like, built to scale, human beings and animals. Disney called them "audio-animatronics". (All of these innovations would eventually become the centerpieces of Disney's Epcot Center.) With stiff robotic movements and pre-recorded speech, they were a technological marvel. Nowadays, the same things would be considered pretty hokey and certainly non-state of the art. But back then they were show-stoppers. (Although Disney still seems to be getting away with them.)
Since that time we have seen more highly sophisticated versions of the almost human robot; granted they are only digitally-generated computerized cinematic inventions. The most famous of these being the governor of California's character in the "Terminator" series. But now it seems the humanoid robot has finally leapt off the big screen and walks and talks among us. I refer to, of course, Sarah Palin. (Odd...she's a governor of a western state too. Hmmm.) Apparently those geniuses at Industrial Light and Magic and the Disney studios have nothing on the Rovian Institute of Robotics.
And she is so life-like. With her natural physical movements and sparkling crystal eyes, one would be hard-pressed to tell her from the real thing. Of course, there have been a few programming glitches such as that unfortunate verbal repetition: "So I said thanks but no thanks...(click) So I said thanks but no thanks...(click) So I said thanks but no thanks." But it's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a quick trip back to the lab in Anchorage. And of course giving her a real human family was pure genius. The only thing that is a dead give-away though is that artificial voice.
But so far, she's wowed them on the campaign trail. In fact, she's such a star attraction that when John McCain appears without her nobody bothers to show up. And her programmed speeches and responses to pre-recorded questions are perfect. Unfortunately though, like so many other marvels of technology, they have their brief moment of faddish glory and fade into history. (Does anyone remember what a Sony Walkman was?)
So to it seems that the Sarah Palin Automaton(tm) has begun to loose its fascination and sadly will soon go the way of the video game "Pong". But rest assured, those devilishly creative folks over at the Rove Institute are already working on a new and improved model. One that they hope to have ready by 2012.
Comments are closed on this story.