arnold@gatech.UUCP (06/10/83)
I know this is going to start an avalanche, but what the heck. I have a question for the SW-freaks of netland. In SW-ANH and TESB, who was the *Real Hero*, without whom everyone else would been lost, and everyone would have fallen into the hands of the Empire? Of course, I have my own answer, which I will give along with my reasons. The answer is R2-D2! The reasons: 1) In SW-ANH, it was R2-D2 who was carrying the schematics for the Death Star; it was R2-D2 who went to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, who in turn enlisted (or drafted) Luke Skywalker, which got the whole ball rolling. Without those plans, the Rebellion could never have destroyed the Death Star. 2) In TESB, towards the end, Lando, Leia, Chewbacca and Luke are all aboard the Millenium Falcon (along w/C3-P0), and are getting ready to kick into hyperspace. They don't know that the mean old Empire mechanics disabled the hyperdrive. Darth Vader feels the ship in his grimy clutches..... when R2-D2 starts mumbling about the hyperdrive to C3-P0 (who is only partially reassembled). R2 heads off towards the back of the ship, plugs in a few wires, the hyperdrive kicks in, and EVERYBODY IS SAVED!! (Yay, clap hands, cheer, etc) Ready to cover my head from the falling rocks, Arnold Robbins -- The parchment and quill pen of Arnold Robbins Arnold at GATech (CS Net) Arnold.GATech at UDel-Relay (ARPA) School of ICS ...!allegra!gatech!arnold (uucp) Georgia Tech ...!decvax!cornell!allegra!gatech!arnold Atlanta, GA 30332
drforsey@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Forsey) (06/15/83)
In addition to the comments about the "real hero" of SW, and ESB, does anyone else get the feeling that the little droid is not your everyday run of the mill astrodroid? Comments like Luke's in SW: "I've never seen such devotion in a droid before" R2-D2's ability to work undercover, both in tricking Luke into remove the restraining bolt in SW, getting into all sorts of high- security computer systems (the ever-present I/O port), and getting the light saber to Luke from Jabba's sail-barge, all seem to indicate that R2 is a very special machine. Granted these impressions are due to the fact that the trilogy does not give much info on what a normal droid can do, but since the droids are the only characters that will appear in all nine films perhaps there is something different about them. Even C3PO exceeds his design specifications (SW: "I'm really only a interpreter, and not very good at telling stories") when he gives his account of his adventures to the Ewoks.
tom@rlgvax.UUCP (06/17/83)
References: <206@gatech.UUCP> <489@watcgl.UUCP>
In response to the question about who the REAL heroes of the Star Wars
saga are:
You are quite right. There IS something very special about the `droids.
At last the truth can be told (although marketing is obligated to deny it
until the yet-to-be-born Empire is reborn).
R2-D2 and C3PO were/will be/are being (depending on your time perspective)
programmed by us here at RLG Corporation (aka CCI, Office Systems Group).
We are in the midst of it now, and anticipate finishing sometime very far
in the future in a galaxy very far away.
The reason it will take so long is that we have been taking John Mashey's
talks at the UNIX conferences to heart. We are working on a "small is
beautiful" concept so we have a very small staff working on the project
(particularly small when you consider that the project is essential for
the salvation of the Empire). This also explains R2-D2's height. We are
also employing the scouts, fast prototypers, et. al. from Mashey's "A Tale
of Bulldozers and Motorcycles". We anticipate that Robbie the Robot is
actually the result of one of our future fast prototypers.
Perhaps the most interesting point of the project is that the 'droids
are not the direct result of an AI project, as might be suspected. Rather
our attempts to program these clever little 'droids are the direct result
of the combined requests from marketing for "essential" features in
"OfficePower", our Office Automation product.
As proof of my claim, you can easily see that R2-D2's extreme hardiness
and durability is the consequence of CCI's "PerpetualProcessing" fault-
tolerant design.
- Tom Beres
RLG Corporation / Computer Consoles, Inc.
{allegra, seismo, we13, mcnc, brl-bmd}!rlgvax!tom
PS - There is yet no proof to the claim that the breakup of Ma Bell
will result in the eventual evolution of Bell Labs into the Jedi
Knights. However, we feel quite sure that the underlying battle
between the good and the dark sides of The Force is actually yet
another instantiation of the age-old conflict between ASCII and
EBCDIC.tom@rlgvax.UUCP (06/17/83)
References: <206@gatech.UUCP> <489@watcgl.UUCP>
In response to the question about who the REAL heroes of the Star Wars
saga are:
You are quite right. There IS something very special about the `droids.
At last the truth can be told (although marketing is obligated to deny it
until the yet-to-be-born Empire is thoroughly defeated).
R2-D2 and C3PO were/will be/are being (depending on your time perspective)
programmed by us here at RLG Corporation (aka CCI, Office Systems Group).
We are in the midst of it now, and anticipate finishing sometime very far
in the future in a galaxy very far away.
The reason it will take so long is that we have been taking John Mashey's
talks at the UNIX conferences to heart. We are working on a "small is
beautiful" concept so we have a very small staff working on the project
(particularly small when you consider that the project is essential for
the success of the Revolution). This also explains R2-D2's height. We are
also employing the scouts, fast prototypers, et. al. from Mashey's "A Tale
of Bulldozers and Motorcycles". We anticipate that Robbie the Robot is
actually the result of one of our future fast prototypers.
Perhaps the most interesting point of the project is that the 'droids
are not the direct result of an AI project, as might be suspected. Rather
our attempts to program these clever little 'droids are the direct result
of the combined requests from marketing for "essential" features in
"OfficePower", our Office Automation product.
As proof of my claim, you can easily see that R2-D2's extreme hardiness
and durability is the consequence of CCI's "PerpetualProcessing" fault-
tolerant design.
- Tom Beres
RLG Corporation / Computer Consoles, Inc.
{allegra, seismo, we13, mcnc, brl-bmd}!rlgvax!tom
PS - There is yet no proof to the claim that the breakup of Ma Bell
will result in the eventual evolution of Bell Labs into the Jedi
Knights. However, we feel quite sure that the underlying battle
between the good and the dark sides of The Force is actually yet
another instantiation of the age-old conflict between ASCII and
EBCDIC.