Cypher integrated into LBS: See For Yourself

Posted by dt on Friday, 11 July 1997, at 11:07 a.m., in response to Re: dt,
posted by big dog on Thursday, 10 July 1997, at 9:25 p.m.

Ahhhh, big dog.....

> then big dog go dixie see cypher. have party much fun
> many m&ms. cy have barba q big dog like much. big dog play
> tennis. hunt wham yellow ball. sound like this. much
> honor hunt for yellow ball. taste good too. Woof. Growl.
> big dog like hush puppies too.

I'm not that mean to Cypher, as a matter of fact, I have a little LBS story
about him which you may enjoy. I only mention this story because you will
actually get to see what Cypher looks like BIG TIME.

Present LBS -

Visualize a meeting where a bunch of uniformed military types are all
sitting around a long rectangular table. The smell of old coffee is in the
air. Oh, the meeting site is within the confines of the US Army's Ft.
Benning in Georgia.

Anyway, they are about to begin discussion on a robot. The robot is planned
to be used hopefully for infantry as a surveillance and recon tool. Well,
just as the meeting starts, in walks a silent figure dressed in civilian
clothes; he sits at he opposite end of the table from an Army full bird.
"Huummphh" sounds are heard to come from the other officers just before the
full bird says, "What are you doing here?" The figure understands the
resentment felt from the officers around the room. The figure simply states,
"I'm interested in your work."

[note, too, that the full bird is a close friend of a certain junior USAF
officer who also does not like the figure very much]

After a moment, the meeting proceeds with many questions and responses about
how to test the robot. The figure at the end of the table doesn't say a
word.

Eventually, the figure asks, "Have you guys (he's very irreverent as he
knows the officers are all thinking he came up through the ranks, that is,
he's not an Academy man)considered miniturization?" "What for?" was the
retort from the full bird. He continued, "I thought you were only interested
in 'Biobots'? We understand we also have to test your SAI [Special
Artificial Intelligence], too, so don't worry. And, we appreciate you being
here, but we are not intested in turning our robot into an assination
machine like you do." The figure quickly responded, "Don't you worry Colonel
I have enough mid-night butterflys (see reference below) already."

Well there was some technical blah, blah, blah.....

One of the officers asked, "What the hell are we going to name this sucker?"
He was referring to the robot. This hurt some of the Sikorsky engineers that
were also present.

Another officer chimed in, "Maybe -censored- can offer a name since it has
some of his people's 'Smart Ass Intelligence' junk(the officer was returning
the irreverence)in it." The figure thought for a moment and said, "Yes, I
think I can name your robot for you because I know a real smart ass." A
captain says, "Is he still alive?" All the other officers either smirked or
laughed (only because the full bird did). In the interest of keeping the
upper-hand, the figure with his best straight face countered, "For the time
being." Knowing the figures background, the laughter stopped immediately.

The full bird said, Well?"

The figure said, "Name it "C-y-p-h-e-r."

Someone mentally figuring it out from the spelling said, "Cypher?" The
figure said, "Yeah, you be glad to know, he's a local boy, too." With that,
the figure gets up and leaves the room.

*******

To anyone who reads this LBS, you should turn to page 84 in the July 1997
issue of National Geographic to see Cypher.

-dt