tofuwatch.com

Meet Tofu: No, not the food, robot from MIT, the whale or shark – the toy robots

 

There must be something about humans and our relationship to bean curd that I still have not figured out. Perhaps, in one sense, my thinking is too literal.

When I hear the word “tofu,” I typically think of the food. Recently, I heard about TOFU, the owl-like robot created by a graduate student at MIT.

This week, I learned about the humpback whale whose tail was so white that it prompted biologists to name her after soybean cake.

Then, I read an article about a whale shark found off the waters of Taiwan. Its meat apparently is similar to tofu. People have dubbed it the “tofu shark.”

Now, thanks to an online search, I came across spicybrown’s playful collection of Tofu Robots – Original Extra Firm – on flickr.

A great slideshow of the toy robots is here.

These bots certainly ”pop” in the sense of popular culture. The green eyes on the white bodies are a nice touch.

The colors used in the photographs are catchy. I like the images when one tofu robot is standing on its head.

Some images show them sitting next to bottled beverages. In others, one is using a knife to cut what looks like cabbage (the teamwork is duly noted).

One is cooking food in a frying pan. And another is wearing a crown – demonstrating that tofu robots should not be deprived of luxuries that humans enjoy.

I’m not that old. But I’m not as young as I once was.

This might prompt some younger people, after encountering my literal thoughts, to cry: “Old man, you can’t think that way anymore.”

Life changes, as the saying goes. Definitions expand.

And I’m glad, in another sense, that our brains are churning out new thoughts by the second.