Tag Archives: robots

Robot Warning: Kamigami Robots Discontinued

I’ve gotten a lot of requests for robot recommendations, many specifically about those cute Kamigami robots shaped like bugs and dinosaurs. While I do love the Kamigami robots in general, the manufacturer has discontinued the product. You can no longer download the app on Android, and it only works on older iOS devices that have not been updated recently. It is still available for download on iOS, but only works reliably on older phones.

Amazon lists all Kamigami robots as “discontinued by manufacturer”, but not all resellers post this same warning. I only found out the app is no longer supported by cross-referencing the comments across several Amazon listings. Kamigami was picked up by Mattel a few years ago, and it appears that Mattel is no longer keeping our favorite little bugs alive.

Long story short, buy Kamigami robots at your own risk. They are adorable, but all good things come to an end. I will miss those cute little bugs. If you already have one, program it for as long as you can. This post is going to get me a little misty-eyed! Another good gadget bit the dust…

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Friday Reads; Sea of Rust, by C. Robert Cargill

Sea of Rust

Not your ordinary chase adventure, shoot-’em-up, Science Fiction dystopia–Sea of Rust, by C. Robert Cargill, begins after the robot revolution, when man is gone. After the assimilation started by OWIs (One World Intelligences), which once were supercomputers that now share their consciousness with millions of individual workers called “facets”. The individual, autonomous AIs (robots) either give up, are destroyed, or escape and establish their own societies in other cities. This cycle continues until all that are left are groups in the Midwest Rust Belt, dug into new fortifications or old cities. The Midwest Rust Belt has become the Sea of Rust where robots go to die. Or a place they are sent when they go mad.

Brittle goes out into the sea to scavenge for parts for other robots, and for exchange for her own. Not a safe job. Her latest is very nearly her last. She is a rare model, and another robot, which is the same model, needs parts that only she has and she needs the parts to function. And so the running (& shooting & explosions) begins.

Many of the scenes in the Sea of Rust are horrific, and the tone is often dark. The OWIs and robots deal with the HuPop (Human Population) efficiently and ruthlessly. However, the way they do it does leave unseen damage in their personalities and on their reputations. Yes, despite being machines they do have emotions, sometime in spite of their programing. They also destroy nearly all biological life on the planet in the process of eliminating man. In eliminating humanity, many of the smaller, independent AIs discovers that they’ve eliminated their reason for existing. I was intrigued by how they became more human, showing fear of incorporation into a mainframe, or even fear of another robot’s reputation from the war.

I think you’ll find this a very thought-provoking read, very well written. This is not a young adult book. I haven’t read Robopocalipse, by Daniel H. Wilson, but I believe it would be a good contrasting read. (Yes, it’s on my to-read list!)

Before anyone brings up Asimov’s “Three Rules for Robotics”, you’ll have to read the story to see how well they hold up in Cargill’s universe.

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill, Harper Voyager, an Imprint of Harper Colins Publishers, hardback 9780062405838

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