So, let’s say I was a tinkerer1 and you told me that you could show me a robot that could make things out of plastic that I would normally have to cobble together out of junk.  I would say that is awesome.

During the most recent Ask An Engineer Woz was2 talking about her knitting machine.  LIGHT BULB.

Honey!  Honey!  Guess what?!   Did you know there are such things as KNITTING MACHINES!?!  I mean, ROBOTS that would do all that tedious knitting FOR you!  We could just program it and it would just make stuff for us!  Isn’t this awesome?!  <Wait for squeals of glee>

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Apparently there’s something about the act of knitting that is considered productive.  I don’t know.  I’m not convinced.

Isn’t humankind just all leading up to the point that we’re all like the Jetsons and I have a robot at work that pushes the single button for me.3 And jetpacks.  Can’t forget the jetpacks.

Where was I?

Oh, knitting robots.  Okay, here’s the thing – I may not be interested in knitting, but a knitting robot interests me. 4 5  I am not interested in knitting something myself any more than I am interested in actually building something layer by layer with a hot glue gun that shoots molten ABS. 6  But, I am interested in having plastic stuff just as I’m interested in having clothing.

Heck, if I had a super big and super fast knitting robot, I’d probably try to weave paper or cardboard into clothing and then wear it and then try to recycle it into something else. 789 1011

Also, this is what I believe a knitting robot would look like:

1. which I am [↩]
2. Was she? [↩]
3. Reminds me of an old joke about a man and a dog and a data center.  Supposedly you only need one of each to run a data center.  The man to feed the dog and the dog to make sure the man doesn’t touch any buttons. [↩]
4. Then again, a robot anything interest me. [↩]
5. A robot carrot, you say?  Tell me more! [↩]
6. I take that back.  Now that I think about it, a molten plastic gun might be kinda cool.  Bad analogy.  That’s not the point. [↩]
7. And, I’d be all, *clap* *clap* Knitting Robot!  OoooooooooHHHhhhhhh Knitting Roooooobot!  Knit me a pony Knitting Robot. [↩]
8. That pony doesn’t look happy enough.  Destroy that pony Knitting Robot.  Make me a HAPPY pony! [↩]
9. Oh, this one is too happy.  Destroy this pony Knitting Robot.  Knitting Robot…  destroy all ponies. [↩]
10. Knitting Robot, are you crying? [↩]
11. Thanks to Dna for the link! [↩]