Hacker Cinema
Speed Racer
マッハGoGoGo
1967 · TV series · 30 min episodes · 1 season
Created by Tatsuo Yoshida
AnimationFamilyActionAdventureScience FictionFantasyKidsComedy
Speed Racer is a teenage driver who races around the world in his super-technological car, the Mach 5, created by his father, a former racer. The car has several special features that help Speed tackle difficult terrain and get rid of dishonest opponents—which happens frequently. He experiences these adventures alongside his girlfriend Trixie, his younger brother Spridle, and his pet monkey, Chim-Chim. Together, they face thrilling challenges and show that courage and fair play make all the difference.
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I'm not really into either "mecha" (or anime for that matter). But man I loved "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot" in the U.S. in the 1970's. (I know, I know — it was "Giant Robo" in Japan.)
Like "B movies" this was "B television". Easy to dismiss — but having seen the series again (with horrible dubbing) as an adult, I can see now why young me was attracted to it: there was an attempt at a story arc across the series with the robot becoming more human and less machine-like by the end (in fact, disobeying a direct order in the final episode).
There was something kind of weird and wild about the times when small, independent television stations across the midwest would try to go toe to toe with the "Big Three" by importing "Speed Racer", "Ultraman", and other bargain television from overseas for the after-school time slot.
I don't think people realize how much better Google search has gotten over the years. We tend to remember the annoyances or failures, and not remember all of the successes that are second nature to us.
Consider vague long tail queries. Google knocks these out of the park compared to Bing, DDG or others. Let's say there's some old movie you vaguely remember details about:
"movie where evil is in microwave" => Google "Time Bandits". Bing: Nada. DDG: Nada
"dystopian movie with a motorcycle named einstein" => Google "Warrior of the Lost World" Bing: wrong, DDG: wrong
"song about cocaine in california" => Google: Hotel California, Bing, DDG: bottom of page
"star trek episode where spock is possessed" => Google: Return to Tomorrow, Bing/DDG: Spock's Brain (wrong), but nice try"
"previous name of java language" => Google: link to Oak as second item, Bing/DDG: worse result (must click through links to find answer)
"cartoon about plants and a kid with a ring" => Google: Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Bing/DDG: Nope
"tv show with scientist named blackwood" => This one is EASY, Google: War of the Worlds, Bing/DDG: Nope
"guy who tried to bomb parliament" => Google: Direct Answer, Others: links
"tv show with alien who has necklace powered by sun" => Google: 1st result, The Phoenix, Others: 3rd or lower
"cartoon car that has auto jacks" => Google: Speed Racer 2nd result, Others: nope
"flying characters similar to thundercats" => Google: Silverhawks, Others: nope
"movie with guy who owns last car" => Google: The Last Race, Others: nope
"commodore 64 game where alien knocks on window" => Google: Rescue on Fractalus, Others: nope
"toy where you program trailer to dump" => Google: Big Trak, Others: nope
You can play this game all day, trying to come up with the vaguest possible query about old things you remember bits and pieces of from decades ago, and I'm often amazed at how vague and obtuse I can get. Google does these queries much better than others. Yes, it fails a lot too, but the instances where it fails, and others succeed are much more rare than the instances where it succeeds and others fail.
But Google isn't an AI yet. And what Larry is speaking about is achieving Star Trek: a computer that can read the meaning of words, understand, rather than just index characters.