All Robots are Buddhists

I've mentioned before that I think all robots are Buddhists.  They are clearly reincarnated time and time again as their parts are recycled into other robots.  In years past we've even had the occasional "Robot Funeral" prior to a machine being dismantled.  The words of institution being:  "Bolts to bolts, widgets to widgets...."  When the world went insane due to Covid we were a bit less enthused about this, as death seemed a poor subject for humor.  And to be more practically sensitive we often have kids on the team who have parents, grandparents etc facing health challenges.

I think this was our last Robot Funeral back in 2021

But the principle remains.  A robot is born, lives its (?) life, then its components are scattered, not like ashes over a body of water, but to the recycling bin, the electronics cart, the far reaches of the various storage spaces....

Sometimes things come back in unexpected ways.  This year there are new rules for the protective bumpers that competition robots must have.  We are being encouraged to experiment with different materials.  This was rather good fun, and we put together a series of videos for other teams to consider.  Worth a minute or two of amusing time spent, and some things you'll see have "histories". 

After figuring out how much squishing various foam types could take and still recover, we got even meaner....

I especially like the unscripted moment where the obsolete "pool noodle" sample went flying off into oblivion.  A suitable exit for this no longer to be used foam.  But a couple of things made "comebacks" in these videos.  In the first one there is a curiously shaped piece of light grey foam lying on the table waiting to be crushed.  We actually found a stash of this when we cleaned out one of the storage closets.  It dates back to when I ran "Machines Behaving Badly", the madcap 3 pound combat robot class where the entire rule set was "No flame throwers, no hand grenades and no live animals".  This foam was stuff I got at Axman Surplus many years ago.  It was used quite a bit for little robot wheels.  It also turns out to be the ideal material for big robot bumpers!

Ah, the good times......  Several of the occupants of Robot Cemetery used the grey foam, and we also had a chunk we made into a tombstone with the traditional Rest in Pieces caption.

And the Hammer of Persuasion seen in the second video?  That is the most ancient robot artifact of all.  Long, long ago, when my second son was 3 years old, he wanted a sledgehammer for his birthday.  Of course we got him one, scaled down to the size he could wield.  He used it for projects of both constructive and destructive nature, and it was gifted to the FIRST team when it was formed in the fall of 2015.  Hey, this was the kid who got me into Robot World!  In our first year we used it not only to hammer recalcitrant parts into alignment, but to actually stress test our initial robot.  We had never built a FIRST robot before and wanted to make sure it was strong enough!

Eventually the team outgrew its initial home, and the H.of.P. was used to knock apart our storage shelves and such.  It then became a ceremonial object which is presented to our student build lead at the start of his or her tenure.  It is only for the persuasion of mechanical objects, and has been used less as a test of mechanical integrity.  We have enthusiastic robot drivers for that now...

I often start to write something silly and find that the Real World is stranger than I imagined it to be.  So....what do actual Buddhists do for Robot Funerals?  Well, as it happens, in Japan they really do have ceremonies for decommissioned Companion Robots.  Who knew?