[Infowarrior] - ‘You’re welcome, humanity!’

[Richard Forno]

‘You’re welcome, humanity!’

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen January 4, 2013
 
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/welcome+humanity/7776196/story.html

People looking for news from NASA’s Curiosity rover may have been startled to read this message on Twitter recently: “Just did a science on some rock dust from Mars. It was dusty and made of rock. You’re welcome, humanity!”

What, after all, is “a science?” And why is Curiosity being bitter and sullen?

Like this: “Mornings on Mars are very cold. Not just temperature-wise, they’re also emotionally distant and withholding.”

While more than a million people are reading NASA’s official Twitter feed about Curiosity’s activities on Mars (in the first person, as if the rover could talk), a smaller but enthusiastic crowd is getting its Mars feed from Sarcastic Rover.

It is the irreverent creation of Jason Filiatrault, a 32-year-old Calgary screenwriter and amateur space geek.

Sarcastic Rover talks like this: “If you love atoms and molecules, then Mars is your kind of planet! (so long as you don’t also need to breathe or live).”

It’s no surprise that Filiatrault’s material is funnier than the official feed from a huge government bureaucracy. But what is surprising is Filiatrault’s ability to paint a sharply accurate picture of what the rover up to.

And along the way, he has given his little rover personality. Sarcastic Rover is female, to begin with. She feels lonely on Mars, bored with looking at rocks and more rocks. She feels left out of all the Christmas parties. She has a sense of fun, too, but her humour is often black, like this:

“If I sent a picture back from Mars of a desiccated corpse in a Santa suit ... that would scar some children probably, right?”

Or this, written as the Mayan doomsday approached: “Now that I’m on Mars, a giant asteroid hitting Earth is less something to fear and more potential entertainment. KAPOW!”

Filiatrault calls his creation “bitterly enthusiastic” because she loves science but resents her NASA masters for sending her far away.

He wrote his first few tweets for fun on the day Curiosity landed last August -- “and when I woke up the next morning I had 2,500 people following the account.” So he kept at it.

Real NASA tweets are upbeat, clean, a little dull: “What are your goals for 2013? I’m looking forward to using my drill & driving to Mars’ Mount Sharp,” says the real Curiosity, filtered through NASA.

Sarcastic Rover chimes in: “My New Years Resolution is to find evidence of life and then laser it to science-death.”

And with recent Mars rovers called Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, Sarcastic wants the next one named Apathy — to connect with youth.

Sarcastic Rover is also far better than NASA’s Twitter writers about jumping on the news. When false rumours leaked out last month about possible signs of life on Mars (it turned out to be some carbon compounds, origin unknown), NASA tried cheerleading.

“Turn that frown upside down: We’re fewer than four months into a multi-year mission. We’ve only just begun!” it tweeted.

Sarcastic Rover twisted the knife: “NASA is doing a great job of lowering all the expectations they raised.” And: “Almost forgot about my awesome discovery … It’s carbon. I found some carbon. Not sure how it got here. YOU’RE WELCOME.”

And finally: “Why is NASA not discussing Will and Kate’s fetus? No wonder people are getting bored with science!” (The royal baby announcement came the same day.)

Sarcastic Rover has quirks. Doing an experiment is called “doing a science.” Filiatrault doesn’t really have an explanation for that. It just sounds right, and now there are T-shirts and coffee mugs, even at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, with his slogan, “Let’s do a science.”

He’s not a scientist, but Filiatrault is clearly comfortable with his subject and researches what he writes. A fan asks whether Sarcastic Rover can throw snowballs up there. Reply: “Only at the poles … I’m equatorial. Plus it’s Carbon-Dioxide snow, which makes terrible snowballs.”

NASA has taken notice. He has talked to many of the mission’s staff, including two of the robot’s drivers — the people who guide Curiosity past rocks and craters.

“A lot of planetary science people have been really supportive. Bill Nye the Science Guy follows me, which is kind of crazy. Los Alamos National Labs were really supportive.”

His attraction may be the gentle humour: “I didn’t want it to be mean. I didn’t want to misrepresent the science of the (mission). Honestly, I just thought it was sort of funny that this robot is sent off to do this mission and it probably has its own thoughts about things.”

But don’t heckle a professional comic with 106,650 Twitter followers. One reader objected to the joke about a big ball of fire, claiming it was really plasma. Filiatrault was polite but firm: “‘Ball of plasma’ just sounds less amusing. Don’t blame me, blame the inexorable laws of comedy.”

And, of course, there’s the $2.5-billion Curiosity price tag. Sarcastic Rover comments: “Great news! I touched a rock yesterday! It was hard and rough and made of rock-atoms! 2.5 Billion! Science! Exclamation!”

Sarcastic Rover didn’t win her campaign to be chosen Time magazine’s Person of the Year. But she soldiers on, digging up rocks, doing a science, abandoned far from home but hoping for the best: “Whenever I flip a rock over on Mars I always yell “SURPRISE!” — just in case.”

The Twitter account is @SarcasticRover.


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/welcome+humanity/7776196/story.html#ixzz2H8CFCcS7

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.