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You are here: Home / Archives for robotics

This One Broke My Brain

August 19, 2019 By Walker McKnight Leave a Comment

I haven't posted in ages. Been busy writing, aging, shouting at clouds, exploring exciting new donut flavors, writing, thinking about writing, writing, and not posting. Then a friend passed along a real head-kicker, and I had to share. Tokyo's A-Lab Co and the Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto unveiled a robot modeled after Kannon Bodhisattva, designed to educate visitors to the temple about Buddhism. The video below sent my brain spinning in a way few bits of futurism news do these days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKhgSCc6OAE The video shows monks bowing to a robot as it explains the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: AI, Buddha, futurism, Japan, Kannon Bodhisattva, robotics, science fiction, Walker McKnight, writing

This Robot Cuttlefish Taught Me How to Love Again

June 21, 2018 By Walker McKnight Leave a Comment

robots, robot, cuttlefish, robotics

My emotional relationship with our robot future is ever changing. On the whole, I’m skeptical that rapid robotic advancement is going to be net positive in the long run (and I’m far from alone on that score). However…we don’t seem to be doing a great job with decision-making on our own these days, so who knows. Sometimes, however, I toss the deep thoughts (it’s easy—I have television and internet) and base my emotional responses to new robots exclusively on the following metric: are they cute? I’ve recently fallen in love with this adorable and not-yet-terrifying underwater robot that mimics a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee and Chaos Theory Tagged With: AI, anthropomorphic, artifcial intelligence, robot, robotics, science fiction, scifi, Walker McKnight

The Future is For Optimists

February 7, 2018 By Walker McKnight Leave a Comment

future, optimism, robots, robotics, AI

Optimism is hard. For most of us, thinking good thoughts about the future doesn’t come naturally. Even trying to be optimistic about the next few months feels like running uphill (and I hate running). These days, optimism in one particular subject—the effect of technology on our collective future—can feel downright impossible. There’s a good reason you don’t see happy movies about the future. Off the top of my head, the only one I can recall is The Fifth Element, and that’s more fantasy than sci-fi. Even the new Star Trek (from what I’ve read) has traded cerebral hope about the good of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee and Chaos Theory Tagged With: AI, biohacking, future, futurism, optimism, pessimism, robotics, science fiction, Walker McKnight

The Uncanny

November 8, 2016 By Walker McKnight Leave a Comment

hands mimicking human faces is the ultimate uncanny.

Facebook drops a lot of creepy things into my feed because it knows me (unfortunately). Usually I glance, chuckle, and move on, but this one STAYED with me, so I had to share it. It’s a kinetic sculpture by artist Tim Lewis. He calls it “Pony,” but I’ll just show it to you so we can all live the same wonderful nightmare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJhYIzJrbaE How perfect is this? Bird and human and transportation device all at once. I know it’s not cool to ask for the commercialization of an art piece, but I really want one of these. The use of human hands for both feet and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Finding the Weird, Geek Love Tagged With: futurism, kinetic art, Labyrinth, robotics, scifi, Tim Lewis, uncanny, Walker McKnight

Meet Sophia, Your Adorable Overlord

August 18, 2016 By Walker McKnight 2 Comments

Sophia the humanoid robot

When I started this blog, I promised myself never to post more than one futurism story per week. It's an important rule. Futurism (i.e. the present) can be dangerous in high doses. As a constant consumer of the best of the worst of what is to come, I’ve learned that consuming futurism more than once per week can result in all of the following ailments: Night Terrors Day Terrors Sweat Neck Expanding Waistline Head Sadness Irritability Swimmer’s Hip Canine Madness The Vapors Scurvy Brain Softening Spontaneous Leg Dancing Summer Complaint Grocer’s … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coffee and Chaos Theory, Fiction & SciFi Tagged With: fantasy, futurism, Hanson Robotics, humanoid, robot, robotics, scifi, Sophia the robot, Walker McKnight

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Walker McKnight writes about worlds of the now, tomorrow, and Other while plotting future crime with his asthmatic house panther, Bullet.
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Recent Posts

  • Big Talky Stuff January 16, 2020
  • News From the Corner of Screen and Writing… October 17, 2019
  • This One Broke My Brain August 19, 2019
  • 1999 May 2, 2019
  • Red Poppies, Green Fairies, and Drones for What Ails You November 20, 2018

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