It's the roundup—all the happenings that sparked enough of my interest this week to inspire a blog post. I wage a constant battle NOT to notice things so that I can get more novel-writing done, so this list represents a tragic defeat by the forces of fascination. The war against distraction is real, my friends. Walking Stoically Through a European Rave I saw the new Mission Impossible. I think this installment is called…Falling from High Places Really Fast While Fighting? It was fantastic, a great time, highly recommended if you are a fan of fun. I like fun. The film hooked me … [Read more...]
The Real-Life Stillsuits and Car Vending Machines
It’s time for another future roundup: my review of the smaller, more whimsical bits of innovation on my radar. These harmless bits of science serve as a kind of mini-vacation from the soul-rattling “humans will no longer be human” stories I sometimes traffic in on this blog. Not everything in the future has to be scary. Plenty of it is pointless, silly, and sometimes smelly. 1) Scientists Build a Robot Venus flytrap I kept several Venus flytraps when I was little, feeding them captured houseflies and even little bits of hamburger. That green skin and bright red mouth? Magic. Since … [Read more...]
Human-ish
George Dvorsky over at Gizmodo did a lovely write-up on last week on ten androids at the forefront of our “replacing humanity” obsession. The list focuses less on AI and more on the physical reproduction of human looks and movements, but that’s important too. We have to bridge the uncanny valley so the machine can seduce you before tossing you across the room. I think I had forgotten about ATLAS before this article, the DARPA-funded android most likely to join humans on the battlefield as a humanoid helper. I love the fact that the newest version has a kill switch installed. Watch … [Read more...]
Robotic Bats and Why Scientists Study Zombies
I’ve got another chaos theory roundup for you because the future keeps futuring faster than I can blog about it. Hope you enjoy. The Robotic Bat I’m in the bat fan club. They hoover up insects, fly like fighter pilots with only sonar to see by, and couldn’t be cuter. But as will eventually happen with every form of living species, scientists have created the robot equivalent. Caltech has a new robotic bat that can mimic bat flight, and it’s pretty impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfwX6X4Nx20 This Wired article offers some fun details. The robot bat is only 3 ounces … [Read more...]
The New Luddites
I spend a fair amount of time in coffee shops. I never order the fancy stuff, but at least once a day I see a mug presented to a customer with a heart shape foamed into the top of the drink. It’s an essential barista trademark. Would it mean as much if a robot barista did the same? Does a mathematically perfect foam heart have the same value? I don’t actually think the robot barista is going to become normalized. Personal interaction with humans is an essential component of the coffee shop. But the disappearing world of human work is on a lot of minds lately. Dire predictions about the … [Read more...]