Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Story of the Man-Robot: A Koan

One day, Master and a student were sitting in an outdoor cafe when a man walked past. He was draped in toilet paper and walking mechanically.

The student said, "Master, why is that man covered in toilet paper walking like a robot?"

Master replied, "He is a toilet-paper robot."

Upon hearing this, the student was enlightened.

2 comments:

Alberto said...

I have two issues with your post:

- First, toilet paper is associated with poop. And poop is unassociated with knowledge. So I fail to understand how the student would become enlightened upon hearing "toilet-paper robot." Unless, of course, you were trying to be ironic...and, well, that joke is tired.

- Second, your toilet-paper robot falls short of being an authentic robot. A real robot would have a gun, or even a gun as part of it. It would have massacred the student and the master, and then say, "Today is Judgement Day." Have you seen the first two Teminator films, and the new TV show, "The Sarah Connor Chronicles"? Those are real robots.

I. F. VAN SANT said...

in reply:

first, the reason the student could not understand was because he associated toilet paper with a lack of knowledge. he had to "see past that" to truly understand.

second, the terminator is an android. sarah connor is a cyborg. neither of these are outwardly mechanical; you could easily mistake them for a human. being robotic is not a part of these "robot's" lives. also, they are not real.

you seem violent, general. be at peace grasshopper.