Benders sense of taste

[Reply #40 on:]

Of course. That, and peer pressure.

As said in Fry and the Slurm Factory,
Leela: Bender?? Why did you jump in??
Bender: Everyone was doing it, I just wanted to be cool!

Jeez, I'm just snagging TOTPs everywhere!

[Reply #41 on:]

Even though the writers had him do that because they couldn't think of another reason (nothing else would be as funny) for getting him to join in the adventures they had in the factory ^^;;

[Reply #42 on:]

True, true. Peer pressure solves everything. Give in, kids! Be just like Bender! Smoke!


Okay, but seriously, don't, kids.

[Reply #43 on:]

When Bender says "I don't need to drink, I can quit any time I want", it's actually a nod to his addictive personality and incipient alcoholism. Of course he needs to drink. He's just in denial, since there are alternatives. Just like we need to eat, but there are alternatives (such as tube-feeding, or becoming genetically modified to enable photodsynthesis  ).

Bender does not have a sense of taste - not as humans would understand it. It is clear that robot food - a combination of metals and oils and fuels that are good for robots can be "tasted". This is most likely a chemical analysis with "good" equating to "tasty" and "toxic" equating to "foul". However, human food is unlikely to contain anything of value to a robot, and thus Bender is unable to detect anything that registers as a "taste" with his chemical analysis equipment. He just sees it all as complex hydrocarbons - certainly valuable as fuel if he takes on board enough of them, but alcohol is going to register higher on any index that he uses to measure energy content.

Thus, Bender cannot taste human food to any degree that we would be familiar with. Therefore he has no human understanding of "delicious" or "disgusting", simply of the various chemicals that go into it. Couple this with a basic lack of bilogical and anatomical understanding and it's no wonder that he decided to serve the Neptunian slug with 10% less salt than would be lethal.

As far as choking and smoking go, yes. Bender needs to take air in to react with the fuel in his systems. Smoking would also add trace elements to the air mixture which could be useful to a machine. When Bender's air supply is cut off unexpectedly, he will choke. In space or other environments where Bender has no access to air, it is reasonable to assume that he is running solely on stored power and will eventually become drained of energy. When this happens, I would assume that he will switch off.

I don't think that these things are "goofs". I think that they're actually pretty good sci-fi.

[Reply #44 on:]

 

Originally posted by totalnerduk:In space or other environments where Bender has no access to air, it is reasonable to assume that he is running solely on stored power and will eventually become drained of energy. When this happens, I would assume that he will switch off

Bender must have a pretty good battery, then...he was floating through space in "Godfellas" for weeks with no noticable ill effects.

[Reply #45 on:]

That is the truth. But then again, he had the lil guys build him a microbrewery. Was that a need for alcohol, or just a want?

[Reply #46 on:]

I think it's a combintation of both. He needs something to fuel his power cells but it doesn't have to be alcohol.

[Reply #47 on:]

Even so, he was only getting mere drops of alcohol despite the best efforts of his "subjects", probably less than a single bottle of LowBrau.

[Reply #48 on:]

Then, in accordance with how much he drinks, how was he able to sustain himself whilst traveling through space?

[Reply #49 on:]

Solar power. Nuclear pile.

[Reply #50 on:]

 

Originally posted by saucie:
Solar power. Nuclear pile.

Bender wasn't near enough to any particular star to attain any useful amount of solar power. And if he were nuclear, everyone at Planet Express would become a mutant like Leela. 

[Reply #51 on:]

Radiation doesn't work like that Nasty

[Reply #52 on:]

It might in the year 3000...

[Reply #53 on:]

lol good point.

[Reply #54 on:]

If he could reflect sunlight in a manner that would set fire to the civilization, surely he could also glean solar power from that same source.

[Reply #55 on:]

That's true. He also has been shown to have a solar collector in BBS.

[Reply #56 on:]

I think we're all reading to deeply into this, yes it's a show with plot holes and contradictions, but just try to enjoy it for what it is - a comedy.

[Reply #57 on:]

I don't consider cartoons comedies necessarily, and defiantly not Futurama. I think it's too deep to be just considered a comedy. This is going to get complicated so lets go with funny cartoon >>

[Reply #58 on:]

If that works for you.

[Reply #59 on:]

I think I'm reading too deep into the classification of the show o_O

[Reply #60 on:]

I think this thread has nearly died.

[Reply #61 on:]

ummmmmm. ok if he needs alchohol how could he go 1000 years without it in roswell that ends well

[Reply #62 on:]

Standby mode.

[Reply #63 on:]

Than he must have one hell of a battery to be on standby for 1000 years

[Reply #64 on:]

Lithium-ion, apparently. 

[Reply #65 on:]

thats how Lithium combusts? I'm not familiar with Lithium (or in fact any element or whatever thats considered @_@)

[Reply #66 on:]

Interesting point, Xanfor.

Ah... Bender... you and your confusing need for energy...

[Reply #67 on:]

 

Originally posted by Futurama Llama:
Bingo. So there are multiple examples in the show showing how our dear Bender can, indeed, taste. Leela is just a crazy *CENSORED*.

Then how come in 30% Iron Chef Bender tells Helmut Spargel "Oh I have 8 other senses, but I'd give up them all, even smission to be able to taste" (I think that quote is close to right)

[Reply #68 on:]

 

Originally posted by Xanfor:
[Image]

Lithium-ion, apparently.   

Show-off.
 

Originally posted by JackedOn:
thats how Lithium combusts?

Lithium can burn two ways. Normally it will burn red, but if it is a violent enough reaction, it will burn white.

Originally posted by JackedOn:
I'm not familiar with Lithium (or in fact any element or whatever thats considered @_@)

Yes, JackedOn, Lithium is a chemical element. The third element on the periodic table; the lightest solid element, an alkalai metal that-

[*Ahem*]

Sorry about that...

Xanfor is essentially correct.
If you care to become less unfamiliar with Lithium...
I'll just ooze back out under the laboratory door now...

[Reply #69 on:]

I'm surprised you didn't remind me what episode that framegrab was from.

It should've been 'Dilithium-ion'. 

[Reply #70 on:]

 

Originally posted by Xanfor:
I'm surprised you didn't remind me what episode that framegrab was from.

It should've been 'Dilithium-ion'.   

Xanfor, my friend, you are the greetest!
By which, I mean "geek with more free time on their hands than other geeks." 
Ach, Capt'n, I tried shovin' a wiener in th'warp-drive, boot it dinna'do ah bit'a gude!
And just for the record, I'm more interested in real physics than Trek physics, but *please* don't stop with the reference-making. 

[Reply #71 on:]

i think the first disk of the first season had the most stuff ups. the biggest one i noticed was when Bender claimed he didnt need to drink and that he could quit anytime.

[Reply #72 on:]

If you define 'drinking' as the ingestion of beverages which consist to some degree of ethyl alcohol, as is commonly done even during the contemporary era, then Bender is quite right, he does not need to 'drink'. As he states in Hell is Other Robots, it is quite possible for him to function simply with good ol' mineral oil.

As for whether he can give up ethanol consumption any time he wants, that's an entirely different matter, altogether.

[everyone]That's an entirely different matter.[/everyone]

</airplane!>

 

Originally posted by SpaceCase:

By which, I mean "geek with more free time on their hands than other geeks."   

I wish. But thanks for the compliment. 

[Reply #73 on:]

but he 'drinks' mineral oil, literally drinks it! i have not seen any other way bender recharges his batteries, besides drinking!

[Reply #74 on:]

Sorry for the confusion, dear chum, I'm afraid I was being pedantic again. What I meant to say is that it is possible to reconcile  Bender's admission of 'not needing to drink' with definition two of 'drink'.

[Reply #75 on:]

 

Originally posted by Xanfor:
... I'm afraid I was being pedantic again.

"Again," tends to imply you stopped being pedantic at some point and then resumed.
Xanfor? Stop being pedantic?

Oh, Mr. Xanfor, sir, SAY IT AIN'T SO![/b]

Perhaps, "still?" 

Also, you have excellent taste in reference materials...
Now who's being 'pedantic'? 
 

[Reply #76 on:]

Again, Xanfor, pedantic.....the who did the what now?

[Reply #77 on:]

who, what, where, when and why?!

Well ive finished being crazy for now...

[Reply #78 on:]

Pedantic: ostentatious in one's learning

In layman's terms: a show-offy nerd is "pedantic"

[Reply #79 on:]

In BBS Bender uses something that functions and slurps like a tongue. He may have the hardware (like standard robot mouth assembly RM-017-A or something) for tasting but not the software and/or tasting chip. It might be considered useless in a bending unit and make it more expensive.

A good theory, however if he could tell whether the anchovies tasted good or bad then howcome in "The 30% Iron Chef" Helmut Spargle said that because Bender couldn't taste he would be better at cooking.