“Danger, Will Robinson”
I love technology and believe it is vital for children to be engaged in it, at an early age.
Recently, I asked my seven year old great-niece, what is a computer; and she responded perfectly: “They tell you what to do.” I immediately thought, I have some reprograming to do here.
In my desire to connect my great-niece / nephews, to technology, we went out and bought robots. Each of them picked a robot that they wanted to build. I must say, I thought it would be easier than it was; the first one took me over three hours! And then I had a few issues and had to revisit the robot. It became clear that I would not be able to finish building the three robots in one visit.
But what is exciting is that Thaddaeus came to me, when I was at his house, and asked if I had built his robot yet. I thought this is great. He is excited about technology. Thus when I knew they were coming over I assembled Thaddaeus’s robot.
Now, the news continues to get better, because Enoch asked about his robot, and then sadly said: Mine is coming. I have not yet finished his. Though I will definitely be working on Enoch’s robot this week and will be ready for the next steps of showing all of them how we tell computers what to do through programing!
When I think of robots, my earliest memory is the Robot, in Lost in Space. The Robot was more than just a weaponized object with superhuman strength, he was also a friend to Will Robinson, which would laugh and show other emotions. One of the Robot’s catch phrases was, “Danger Will Robinson”, with arms flailing, hard to forget that iconic image.
Fast forward a decade and we have Star Wars casting two robots called C-3PO and R2-D2. C-3PO was wise and gallant and would not only save the lives of humans, but would offer his own parts to help repair R2-D2. Is it a wonder why I like the Terminator?
Recently, I received a call from a client, asking me how to protect their robots; my world has come full circle! Robots are here to stay, and if we are in control of our technology, those robots will work for us and follow our commands, not the other way around.
We no longer live in a world where access to robotics is limited to our imagination. Robots are all around us and will continue to be more embedded in our life, as we go forward. Your children will live in a house with a robot, which they need to master and not be mastered by; stay safely Connected.