Dryden Seeks Ethnically Diverse Cylons

This has got to be one of the stupidest procurements I've ever seen NASA issue. It's a total waste of taxpayer money.

What's with NASA's interest in having robots of this type (not talking about the ones that are actually useful) anyway? First it's KSC, and now Dryden. Can't they just use real people?

The female robot should stay home and knit circuit boards.
(Am I the only one who thinks it would be cooler if the robots just looked like robots?)

Since the female has to be "ethnic", does that imply, since they didn't specify, that the male is assumed to be a WASP?

Maybe the Urkelbot is still available.

These folks are diverse
Kraftwerk - The Robots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ
If the robots could do half this well we might have something

whereby a female of somewhat ethnic background may add additional comfort to a more diverse audience or when wanting a female to speak at an all female event.

Why is this a requirement and stated as it is?
Is the diverse audience that racist and is the female audience that sexist? Thought the goal was to get away from these sexist and racist dispositions and accept people and, um, robots as individuals with out regard to their national origins and gender ( real or apparent ).
Seems a bit segregationist. And what about the robot for the all male audience? No mention of that at all.

wtf?

Seriously?

I mean I'm hoping this is some sarcastic prank, but as was explained so well in MIB:II, G-man don't have any sense of humor that they're aware of, ma'm.

Dryden's showpieces were flown by humans. The best part of a tour there is hearing the stories of these people, and this is enhanced by the guide's personal account of them. What will a robot do, rattle of the specs of the vehicle in a metallic voice? If I want an animated puppet, I'll go to Universal Studios, thank you very much.

I'm still hoping this is a delayed April's Fools joke.

LOL... Thats one small step for a robot, one giant leap for getting Americans out of HSF...

Hi!

This is my first comment to NASA Watch. As to this being the stupidest procurement that NASA has done, just wait. Procurements like this one from Dryden and other centers just illustrate how dysfunctional NASA is. Just wait and something more ridiculous will turn up.

I had to treat empty insect spray aerosol cans as hazardous waste and attended safety meetings where the topics included paper cuts and holding handrails as one walked up and down stairs.

There is a focus at NASA on correctness and not on doing what is right. Many organizations are completely dysfunctional as this procurement illustrates.

Hey! It could be worst. Wait a minute! It is!

I think a lot of the outrage shown here is overblown. It's a tool designed for outreach and tourism so it will basically be an expensive toy for marketing. As such, the marketeers and artists have a major (I'm guessing) say in the design. I think we are all looking at this as engineers who have a technical mission in mind, which of course this would be ridiculous to have these specs. I still think it's kind of silly but not really offensive as some seem to think.

Yeah, I think this is kind of dumb.
If you want presenters who look humans, hire humans.
If you want to use robots, that's way cool-- but let them look like robots. Make a robot that looks like Robonaut, for example: now there's a NASA robot that will make the kids go "wow, cool!"