Two men and a Miro

We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without.

We head into town early afternoon to go to Tony’s talk at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. Ang appears as we get into the main hall of the National Museum of Scotland and Megan is waiting at Auditorium 1. Leila, Rosie, and Bonnie join us in the queue.

Tony and Ian Ritchie are already waiting onstage, seated on incongruous breakfast-TV sofas. Public waiting is a peculiar form of performance art.

Ian is there as a representative of “the great and the good”. His job is to introduce Tony and manage questions later.

Tony’s session is excellent, covering his own career in robotics, as well as research based motivation for companion robots. He pointed out that the root of his interest was understanding humans by modelling them in robots, but it’s clear that the direction of travel is commercialisation.

The auditorium is quite full. There’s a BCS delegation of Paul, Ian, and Kevin at the front. Questions are forthcoming. The whole thing threatens to go off the rail when Ian Ritchie starts talking about the history of vibrators, but disaster is averted.

After the session, there are plenty of people that want to talk with Tony and play with the Miro robot he has brought along. At £2k each, they’re more of a research plaything for the time being.

We head to the Southsider for refreshments, parting company with Bonnie and Rosie. On the way chip butties are acquired at the City Café. Owen and I then get diverted to a mobile phone shop where we are entertained by haggling and ineptitude - we leave with a phone case for Megan.

Em joins us and, later than advertised, we arrive at Annakut. It has a diverse menu, so we leave it to the waitress to choose a selection. They don’t seem particularly busy, but the kitchen can’t keep up and we’re waiting for ages. There’s not a dull dish, and we’ve plenty to talk about, but I’m very glad we had the chips earlier.

Home, via Angus’ flat, where we rescue his snake - it’s time to find it a new home. There’s snow falling, but nothing too serious