Freedom Ain't Free

I don't know if you guys are at all familiar with Brother Ali. He's a lyricist, and is quite fantastic in my opinion. Here's some stuff from a song, "Freedom Ain't Free."

One half of all the two on the scene are too timid to dream
Cos failure is far too depressing it would seem
So they take whats given
Thats your decison, I just don't consider that living
If I'm to die whether or not I try
I might as well let the dice fly
See what I see and know that freedom ain't free


Hmmmm.

Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It.

I found this online, and it ties in pretty well to all this talk about Deep Blue...

Science fiction often depicts robots of the future as machines that look like people and feel, or at least hanker after the ability to feel, human emotions. A team at Vanderbilt University is turning this notion on its head by developing a robotic assistant whose goal is not to develop emotions, but rather respond to the moods of its human master. By processing information sent from physiological sensors the human counterpart wears, the Vanderbilt robot can detect when its master is having a bad day and approach with the query: "I sense that you are anxious. Is there anything I can do to help?" But do people really want a machine sensing their anxiety and offering assistance? If that's all the Vanderbilt robot was intended to do, it wouldn't have much shelf life. But the research team has a specific kind of service in mind for its mechanical assistant. Researchers envision the emotion-sensing robot serving military personnel on the battlefield.

"The human commander may get into trouble but be unable to ask for help," said Nilanjan Sarkar, team member and assistant professor of Vanderbilt University's Department of Mechanical Engineering.

"In cases like these his robot assistant will be able to detect his stress and either communicate the need for assistance or assist in some way itself."

The robot's sensors consist of an electrocardiogram to record heartbeat, a skin sensor that can detect tiny changes in sweat production, an electromyography sensor that detects minute muscle activity in the jaw and brow, a blood-volume pressure sensor that measures the constriction on the arteries and a temperature sensor.

"The robot uses algorithms to translate the information it gets from the sensors into a format it can understand," Sarkar said. "One of our most important claims is that the robot can process this information in real time."

What do you guys think of this? Helpful or just ridiculous?