The Washington Post put together some impressive Tokyo panoramas in this site. I recommend using the “Full View” option, is pretty impressive. These are some screen captures I did while using the panoramas.
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Month: July 2008
Danny knows that I like Ghost in the Shell and he gave me the latest tachikoma figure made by GoodSmile. This is how a tachikoma looks like in the anime:
And this is how my tachikoma looks like, cool!
The legs are metallic and robust.
Tachikoma is a police robot with arachnid anatomy. It has four legs, but instead of feed it has wheels at the termination of each leg; this allows him to move really fast.
What I like the most about tachikomas is how their AI works. A group of tachikoma can communicate among them, they can discuss, interchange opinions and decide the best strategy to deactivate a bomb in a building or whatever. It happens that during a mission each tachikoma has different experiences, therefore each of them learns different things. At the end of each mission all tachikomas gather and synchronize their “brains”, they end up learning everything as a group, they end up knowing exactly the same things at the end of the day! This has many philosophical consequences, at the beginning of each day all tachikomas are the “same” and it is easy for them to agree about something, during their missions they diverge and it is more difficult for them to decide, there are more conflicts when trying to decide something.
It is interesting that as a society-culture, at some level we are like tachikomas. Reading the same newspapers, watching the same news, living in the same city… it all “synchronizes” our thinking, what we are worried about, and what we care about. I find it easier to agree on something with someone who reads, lives in the same country and has the same hobbies as me, than agreeing with someone who reads different books, watches different movies, lives in a different place. I’m not saying that being “synchronized” is good, I think variety is VERY important, and I always try to read from as many sources as possible, and I like not “agreeing” and learn new things discussing.
Related links: Goodsmile Tachikoma figure, interesting photoshoped pictures with tachikomas.
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Security for the G8 summit
These last days I’m noticing LOTS of extra security measures in Tokyo, even though the G8 summit is in Hokkaido (1.000 km away from Tokyo). I’ve seen many police, some streets with extra security controls, and even some areas in Shibuya and Shinjuku where traffic was cut for some reason.
Here there are two posters that can be seen in many places since last week.
