[extropy-chat] predictions for the robot races

[Hal Finney]

The Foresight Exchange (Idea Futures) game is giving about 1 in 3 chances
that the prize will be awarded (i.e. a vehicle will finish in 10 hours).

http://www.ideosphere.com/fx-bin/Claim?claim=RbtCar

DARPA announced this morning that 15 teams will compete,

http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/media/qid_results5.pdf

Only 7 managed to actually complete the qualifying course at the speedway
in Fontana but apparently the rules never actually said that they had
to finish it.  I think the other 8 did at least manage to get partway
around.

It's a sequential start, with the first vehicle, the one from CMU, going
out at 6:15 PST tomorrow morning.  I don't know what the intervals are
after that.

http://www.grandchallenge.org is supposed to have live updates from the
race tomorrow, including a map that will show where each vehicle is.

The Louisiana team has an amusing and colorful blog at
http://www.cajunbotjournal.com/site.php which describes the event
from the point of view of one of the underdogs.  CMU has a blog at
http://www.redteamracing.org/racelogs.htm which presents the view from
the opposite side of the standings.

Some observers describe the mood among the CMU entrants as being sheer
terror of the wrath of the team leader "Red" Whittaker if they don't win.
Among other things, I gather that the students' grades depend on the
outcome (or at least, they have been led to believe that).  Whittaker
writes the blog, and here is how he concludes today's entry:

   There is no more practice, just impeccable execution.

   Saturday will be a lot of dirt, speed, and brutality.

   We can win this. Spare nothing. Victory or demise.

That last was probably "victory or death" but he decided to tone it
down a little, it was too scary in print.  He sounds more like a general
ordering his troops into battle than a professor instructing his students.

So anyway, CMU is apparently determined to beat the odds, and if fear
can trump physics, maybe they'll do it.

Hal