io9: revolution

New America Revolts Against The USA

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:49:00 PDT

In the 22nd century, there's a new America, on a new planet 50 light years away, and the colonists are planning another American Revolution. That's the premise of the Sci Fi Channel's next backdoor pilot, Revolution, which could make for an absorbing series, with challenging political issues and a hardscrabble alien planet. (Or it could be another Flash Gordon.) Depending on how you felt about his performance in Ghost Rider, the fact that Peter Fonda is starring as the "robber baron" grandfather of the Hart family is either a good sign, or not. The fact that the U.S.A. is now called the United State of America has a nice dystopian ring to it. Fingers crossed. [The Futon Critic]

MechaSquirrel Leads BioSquirrels to Victory Over the Humans

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:12:49 PDT

While Japan gets ready to become the world's most robot-friendly nation, the United States is more interested in helping integrate robots into rodent society. Hence the creation of robo-squirrel Rocky at Hampshire College in Massachusetts (pictured), where researchers are studying whether the robot's squirrelly ways will allow it to mingle with the fully-biological, acorn-chomping natives.

Apparently things are working out pretty well — Rocky can make the proper noises to communicate, and knows how to warn other squirrels with special shakes of his tail. Once we can create a Rocky who has the capabilities of Big Dog, the autonomous robot who can recover his balance after being kicked around by humans, we may have to worry less about whether it will join the squirrels and more about whether the squirrels will join it. A mechasquirrel may be just what rodent culture needs to have its revolution and overthrow the grain-hoarding humans.

Over at Technovelgy, Bill Christensen also thinks we should integrate the roboquirrel with a tree-climbing bot. Basically, I'm all in favor of any creature who can integrate cuteness with ninja powers, so that sounds good to me.

RoboSquirrel [Technovelgy]

Doctor Who: Revolutionary Or Tool Of The Man?

charliejane — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:00:16 PST

Why didn't the Doctor do anything to fix the oppressive alien society he met in the Doctor Who Christmas special? Because most of the time, the Doctor only tries to preserve the status quo. But occasionally he visits a dystopia where he launches a revolution and smashes the system. Click through for our chart showing the Doctor's waxing and waning revolutionary tendencies over time.

In general, we noticed the Doctor is more likely to overthrow the government on alien planets, or in the distant future. When he visits present-day Earth or our history, he's an arch-conservative. (He ousts Harriet Jones as prime minister of England in "The Christmas Invasion," but that's not the same as destroying the whole government.) Also, the Doctor acted out way more during the Thatcher era than any other period. During the Blair/Gordon Brown eras, he's been quite well-behaved.

Methods: We counted the number of stories in each season where the Doctor overthrows the status quo. (For example, in "The Savages" and "The Happiness Patrol," he encounters a stable society and leads a revolution.) Then we divided that number by the total number of stories in that season, for a percentage. Then we included other events at the time that could explain the Doctor's changing politics.