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Sunday 10 January 2016

Time Rats 2 and androids

I've decided that the best use of my spare time in the thirty days TIME RATS Book 1, The Trouble with Time, is on Kindle Scout is not to fret over the Hot and Trending chart, or spend time and money whipping up nominations. Instead I'm formatting the print version of the novel, and working on TIME RATS 2. 

EDIT: There's an interesting discussion on Kboards here as to whether this approach is sensible or a big mistake, with comments from writers who have been chosen as well as those who ran a 'successful' campaign and were then rejected. It's worth reading if you are thinking of doing Kindle Scout.

Time Rats 2 starts with a new character called Angel. Here's my elevator pitch for TR2: Angel is Brian’s perfect woman; gorgeous, loving and compliant. She’s also an android. He installs an illegal upgrade to make her as smart as she is beautiful; but once Angel is able to think for herself, what will she do?

While I was researching androids on Google, I came across this striking animatronic sculpture by Jordan Wolfson. Although he was not attempting to make a slavishly true-to-life android, but aiming for something edgier, she is so much more lifelike than those passive Japanese super realistic robots. This particular video, and the comments below it, set me on the road to creating Angel.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for this glimpse into the future Lexi ...... robotic technology is advancing really quickly! Within the next 30 years I reckon we could all have robots as personal assistants, even as companions (girlfriends or boyfriends ?) Though I think that programming human-like emotions and responses may be more of a challenge than appearance and physical movement. The whirr of the servos will help keep things in perspective for a while I think LOL.

    We certainly live in interesting times and Angel may well be for real in the not so distant future!

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    1. Q, you made me look up servo, as I realized I'd heard the word without quite knowing its meaning. 'A servomechanism, sometimes shortened to servo, is an automatic device that uses error-sensing negative feedback to correct the performance of a mechanism and is defined by its function.'

      Yesterday I was writing a bit where Angel is replaying a conversation in her mind, analysing why the others were giving her funny looks, so she can get her responses right another time.

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    2. Lexi, I remember a BBC radio drama series about space exploration (1980s I think) which involved 2 robots called Angel1 and Angel2 ..... Hah google reveals that it was written by James Follet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthsearch

      It was a riveting listen, but as I recall the robots turned rogue in the end!
      The series highlighted the main worry for the future of robots ..... the angels decided to take complete control of the space ship.

      Looks as though your Angel may be starting the process .... evolving her responses to match the humans ...... eventually she may decide that they are redundant! LOL

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    3. I listened to that on 4Extra a few years ago while working! And as much of Earthseach 2 as I could bear. I particularly took against Astra, tiresome woman, always wailing about something. Had I been a robot, she'd have been right at the top of my list for redundancy.

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  2. I miss the Seventh Dimension on Radio 4Extra, but they seem to have run out of material and kept repeating so I suppose they felt they needed a change.

    I'm looking forward to reading both Time Rats books. Now, if only they could restart the Seventh Dimension and feature Time Rats. I'd listen!

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    1. I think that's a brilliant idea, FH! I wish you were running the BBC.

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  3. Time to introduce comment moderation on older posts, perhaps?

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    1. Maybe the robot video attracted Sarah the spambot...

      I don't have much trouble with spam, generally.

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    2. Of course that's it! I should have realised!

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