5. Tiny Lister - The Fifth Element
4. Terry Crews - Idiocracy
3. Donald Pleasance - Escape From New York
2. Morgan Freeman - Deep Impact
1. Dennis Haysbert - 24 (not a movie but still my favourite portrayal of a US president)
For more of Mark's favorite things, visit http://markwilson.wordpress.com or www.ffundercats.com.
I've always said no one should get married without watching War of the Roses.
Well, Vaughan at Mind Hacks says anyone who takes a course in artificial intelligence should be forced to watch Terminator. And perhaps the Pentagon should get out the projector because New Scientist reports that a new Pentagon request involves developing a pack of robots "to search for and detect a non-cooperative human." They call it a Multi-Robot Pursue System. (Or MRPS, I'm sure.)
From the Pentagon document:
Typical robots for this type of activity are expected to weigh less than 100 Kg and the team would have three to five robots.
PHASE I: Develop the system design and determine the required capabilities of the platforms and sensors. Perform initial feasibility experiments, either in simulation or with existing hardware. Documentation of design tradeoffs and feasibility analysis shall be required in the final report.
PHASE II: Implement the software and hardware into a sensor package, integrate the package with a generic mobile robot, and demonstrate the system’s performance in a suitable indoor environment. Deliverables shall include the prototype system and a final report, which shall contain documentation of all activities in this project and a user's guide and technical specifications for the prototype system.
PHASE III: Robots that can intelligently and autonomously search for objects have potential commercialization within search and rescue, fire fighting, reconnaissance, and automated biological, chemical and radiation sensing with mobile platforms.
Vaughan adds:
PHASE IV: Die puny humans die!
PHASE V: To the bunkers! Run for your lives! Arggghhhhh!
PHASE VI: Sarah Connor, we're going to send you back in time to make a movie to warn everybody about the coming annihilation of the human race. Recruit a political leader so people will take it seriously - like Governor Schwarzenegger, for example.
