I’m back with another roundup of my favorite mini-future developments. No robots, no immortality, no space travel, and no VR nightmares. I’m talking about the little tech innovations and weird trends that seem to pop up at a crazy pace. Edible rocks and designer cats and glow in the dark hair, that kind of thing… Let’s go. 1) The First Cryogenically Frozen Human Being No, the story about Walt Disney’s head is not true (much as I would like it to be). And yes, it’s possible someone has had their own head placed in a freezer before, but this is the first time everything is on the up … [Read more...]
Cyborg Semantics
What exactly is a cyborg? The term is becoming more common but remains somewhat vague, so I decided to drill down through the etymology and how it's evolved to get a better understanding of its exact meaning. The term was first coined by Austrian neuroscientist Manfred Clynes as a combination of “cybernetic” and “organism.” Organism—that’s easy. “Cybernetic” is a bit more difficult. The official definition of cybernetics: “the science of communication and control theory that is concerned especially with the comparative study of automatic control systems.” So that’s no … [Read more...]
A Robot Is the Highest Form of Flattery
Describe your favorite robot invasion nightmare. Chances are it involves humanoid machines from the uncanny valley; they look almost like us but miss the mark on just a few key details. Big creep factor. Or maybe you worry about perfect imitation; a world in which we can’t use our eyes to tell the difference at all. Turing Test/Voight-Kampff territory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGY44DIQb-A Ok, so this was partially an excuse to post the disco dancing scene from Ex Machina. Don’t blame me. Given my own lack of natural rhythm, I have to live vicariously through humanoid … [Read more...]