Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for May 27, 2021

Must be very careful of sentient robots…..!

Gasp! If it becomes sentient, set up an elaborate systems of switches and buttons so it can talk to you! Don’t kill it. Unless it becomes evil, but all it’ll really be able to do is run over your feet, so…just don’t let it sing “Daisy, Daisy.”

Now I am on the couch with Kang and Shadow… later!

If you don’t take the batteries out the instant you realize it’s sentient (or worse yet, sapient), Arnold will show up on your doorstep, asking for, “Sarah . . . I mean, Georgia Dunn?”

What if it whimpers when you try to take the batteries out?

So is the Ro Voom the model 5-27 of Georgia Dunn vacuums?

LOL Oh! So you really think the robot’ll let you near enough to take the batteries out? They can generate advanced shields and strike out with electricity if they sense you’re attempting to take them off-line! Mark my words! ;p

Ensign Stabby!

I cannot adequately convey how excited I am to see whatever comes next. Chaos? Joy? Robot uprising??

Also I would pay so much money for a roomba with a little screen that made little faces when it bumped into stuff, and smiles with happy beeps when you pet it.

Aww, you’ve got your very own DRD!

The Batteries are included now?? They never used to be when saving the apartment blocks.

I don’t know why cat’s aren’t scarred of the robo vacum.

I note that there is no clear picture of the alleged “Mailman”.

Pucky needs to make a poster of Azimov’s three laws of robotics and post it in a prominent place in the broom closet.

Dirt Vader.

This arc keeps making me think about Curtailed’s comic about one of the downsides to roombas: https://www.curtailedcomic.com/comic/034-sock/

I want to get a robotic vacuum, but I can’t decide between the “Dalek Dust Exterminator” and the “Cyber-Manservant 5000”.

Robert Heinlein envisioned a more sophisticated robot vacuum in his 1956 book, The Door Into Summer.

“What Hired Girl would do (the first model, not the semi-intelligent robot I developed it into) was to clean floors . . . any floor, all day long and without supervision. And there never was a floor that didn’t need cleaning. It swept, or mopped, or vacuum-cleaned, or polished, consulting tapes in its idiot memory to decide which. Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray on its upper surface, for someone brighter to decide whether to keep or throw away. It went quietly looking for dirt all day long, in search curves that could miss nothing, passing over clean floors in its endless search for dirty floors. It would get out of a room with people in it, like a well-trained maid, unless its mistress caught up with it and flipped a switch to tell the poor thing it was welcome. Around dinnertime it would go to its stall and soak up a quick charge-this was before we installed the everlasting power pack. There was not too much difference between Hired Girl, Mark One, and a vacuum cleaner. But the difference-that it would clean without supervision-was enough; it sold.”

In the famous words of somebody – “What could possibly go wrong?”

If it becomes sentient, it won’t LET you take the batteries out.

I read just yesterday where somebody’s robot vacuum picked up a dog poop and dragged it all over the house. Beware.

Are we going to see one of the cats in a shark costume taking a ride on the new vacuum in a future strip?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2HU3LGdbo

Shades of HAL.

Sentient, eh? See, folks? I had warned you. Woe is we.

It’s so easy to clean a room

It’s so easy with their new Ro Voom

Sent by a fan of sci-fi tools

Can we just say, the Nana rules

It seems so easy

Just needs a beanie

It sucks so deeply

Where dirt’s concerned, buh-bye’s the word

It’s so easy to clean the house

’Til Ro is swiped by a Robber Mouse

(Buddy Holly / Norman Petty – It’s So Easy To Fall In Love)

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

At the Afar Public Library Koffee Shop, flying broom server enters. Elvin-Anum Poofs.

Beatrixia: Broom-Sweepa!* Long time no see!

Broom-Sweepa: Yeah, I’m working part time here at the library and koffee shop. Sorry to scare you, Elvis-Anum.

Elvis-Anum: I wasn’t scared. You just startled me flying in like that.

Puckmosis: Anyway, how’s the family?

Broom-Sweepa: Just fine. My little guy Whisk is at Brush Camp this week.

Beatrixia: Really? He’s getting so big.

Broom-Sweepa: Tell me about it. Now what can I do you for?

They place their orders.

Puckmosis: (Whispers) Uh, can I have a word, Broom-Sweepa?

Broom-Sweepa: Is it about Lupinium’s order?

Puckmosis: Yeah.

Broom-Sweepa: You got it.

*Baba-Stet’s magical broom, introduced in the August 16, 2020 comments.

I’d love to have a robot vacuum cleaner, but living on three levels means it would probably kill itself on the stairs.

I think my cats might like a sentient Roomba…

Just remember…I warned you!

Behold! The twilight of mankind…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuNkImgMkyo

This is not gonna end well Elvis is gonna freak! On the plus side free rides around the house for Lumpkin….

love the sentient part … chuckle

You’ll be sooooory!

“Obey the walrus” type or a “I Feel Fantastic” type?

“Batteries not included” (anyone remember that movie? :) )

I shall endeavour to keep an open mind on the subject of robot vacuums.

A Georgia Dunn Brand Ro-Voom! I hear those are the best around.

update on sushi: yay! he is better!!! just had a little problems yesterday, my dad thinks it might have been cause the heat, (boy it was hot yesterday) and at his old age he forgot or doesn’t drink enough water. but today he is better!!! hooray!

You know, she’s got a seriously cool mom. :D

…or if it runs into the refrigerator, like Robbie did this morning, cut off his imbibing time.

all righty – which cat gets the vac and which one gets the BOX?

The Nana strikes me a lot like Mary Poppins.

Looks like Nana is perhaps a fan of the old Amazing Stories magazine (or maybe has watched the Customer Service episode of Love Death and Robots on Netflix. Not really recommending this Netflix Show (I think the target audience is 13yo gamer boys with occasional themes thrown in for everyone else) -but it does remind me of the hundreds of short Sci Fi/Fantasy stories I have read over the decades.)

hopefully the Cylons are not controlling it.

well thanks a lot. Now I can’t get that tune out of my head!

Backwards, the vacuum is a MOOV-OR!

Which is what it will be with Lupin riding it. :-)

In the middle ‘50s when my brother and sister were pre-school age my folks got them a battery powered ladybug about the size of a robovac. It rolled around the room and when it bumped into things it changed direction. It was mildly amusing for 10 minutes or so although I was 9 at the time so I probably wasn’t the target demographic. Once I figured out that the antennae worked a switch I was done.

I’m worried for my cat.. she had a bloody stool and I raced her to the vet.. she may have colitis? Been feeding her special diet for a few days but I’ve yet to see another stool since Tuesday.. :(

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

I have a roomba. Unfortunately, it got stuck under the couch and i had to fish it out with a broom.

Now let’s see it in action!

Book recommendation! Penny: A Graphic Memoir by Karl Stevens, a year in the life of an introspective house cat in graphic novel format. Excellent. The artwork is fantastic. I think everyone here would enjoy it immensely.

Mom’s obviously been watching Love, Death & Robots.

I thought it was “mail person”? According to the mail guy saving Bea that one time? He was almost as cute as “the man” and my own local mail man.

My prediction is: Elvis will FREAK, Lupin will RIDE IT wearing a cowboy hat (white, of course!), and Puck will nervously try to make friends with it. Not sure what Goldie will do yet. Figure out how the batteries come out if the thing becomes sentient, probably! :)

Aren’t you supposed to remain calm and shout paradoxes? “This statement is false!”