Statistically Perfect but Sexually Confused

"Androgynous android, statistically perfect in physical appearance but confused about own sexuality, WLTM open-minded males, females and appliances for friendship, evenings out and no cables attached fun, possibly leading to LTR. Bristol, Bath, North East Somerset"

Advice from the Manufacturer

Each robot is individually hand-crafted and built to perform in a wide variety of applications, including entertainment, research, animation, and even consumer households. Over the years, we have mastered the art of bringing to life amazing characters by sculpting them into crowd drawing masterpieces. All HumanKind robots have the following capabilities:

• Emulate over 62 facial and neck muscles
• Embedded micro-cameras providing vision recognition
• Utilizes the latest in A.I. software technology for face and speech recognition, eye tracking, and conversational operations
• Capable of running in full autonomous or Robo-phone mode, meaning that you can turn off the A.I. to use the robot for local/remote pupeteering or even research
• Portable and can run on up to 1/20 the power required for comparable products
• Interface with standard computers (included with robot)
• Can function in a variety of environments.

Well, you know what they say...
Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

My Queer Studies

I hope you'll excuse me for deviating from my normal standards of trivia and frippery to discuss something that matters to me.


Some of you know, and some of you don't, that I've been working on a PhD thesis, and a fine old mad-making piece of merriment it has proved to be.


I've been researching Lloyd's of London: how the insurance industry negotiates contracts, and the difficulties of designing an electronic environment to negotiate in, instead of doing everything face to face in this fine, shiny building on the corner of Lime Street.

Over the weekend I discovered an important concept that explains something what I've been trying to explain. To my surprise, the insight comes from Queer Studies; specifically, it comes from the insights we get once we stop thinking about nature and culture as fundamentally separate, and look at meeting the universe halfway: how we perform the world into existence by the ways we study it, interpret it, and try to change it.

So there you have it: the application of Queer Theory to the insurance industry. For example, performing New Orleans into existence, again, after Hurricane Katrina. (That seems to be a very slow project.)

I shouldn't allow myself to get distracted, but there's another chapter in the same anthology called 'An Unfinished Conversation About Glowing Green Bunnies'. I mean, that's got to be worth a read, hasn't it?