The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

the singularity: an appraisal

Noted Scifi writers Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge, Karl Schroeder, and Charles Stross discuss the Singularity. Who better to ask about the future than the guys who make it up everyday?

Let’s face it. Most what we think we know about the Universe may come from science, but most of what we think we know about the future comes from science fiction. So it only makes sense that the New England Science Fiction Association’s annual convention, Boskone, featured a great panel of scifi writers discussing our favorite topic: where the exponential growth in technology is leading us, AKA, the Singularity. On hand was Alastair Reynolds, scientist and author of the Revelation Space series , Vernor Vinge mathematician, computer scientist, and author of A Fire Upon the Deep, Charles Stross, author of Accelerando, and Karl Schroeder, co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Writing Science Fiction. The panelists sought to not only explain how the concept of accelerating technologies has affected their work, but also to take a stab at what might actually happen in our real future. It’s a lot of fun to watch people who spend their lives describe the far flung future scramble to try to understand the next few decades. Hilarity and insight abounds. A video of the panel in its entirety is below courtesy of Michael Johnson, jump past 3:00 if you want to skip much of the preamble.

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kurzweil critiques avatar movie

A genetically engineered human alien hybrid remote controlled body is carrying...a gunpowder rifle? Something's wrong with this picture.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil spends most of his time thinking about how technology will develop in the coming years, so it’s no wonder he took an interest in Avatar, a movie that provides a breath-taking view of a future conflict between technological haves and have-nots on a distant planet. Avatar’s been scorned and lauded by political pundits, praised for its advancement in digital film-making, but rarely analyzed for its assumptions on technology. Kurzweil does just this, questioning why an advanced human civilization that can travel through space is fighting with guns and missiles. While the central technological device to the movie, the avatars, is a remarkable example of prowess in genetics, brain computer interface, and wireless communication, the rest of the movie is littered with mediocre machines that either exist now, or could be developed very soon. Hollywood seems unable to take the great leap forward and show us a future where technology has pervaded and upgraded every aspect of our lives.

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steel robot made with 3D printer

Mani Zamani has produced some amazing robot figures using Shapeways' stainless steel 3D printing.

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone used stainless steel 3D printing to make an awesome looking robot. Little did I realize that robot would be art, not automaton. Mani Zamani, an Algerian artist working in Europe, has taken his amazing looking digital designs and printed them using Shapeways’ stainless steel printing. Combined with Revoltech joints from Kaiyodo, the stainless steel frames allow Zamani to create miniature pieces of robot sculpture with a level of detail and artistry that will blow your mind. His creations have been mentioned several times on the Shapeways site, where you can also find the designs for many of his figures. You need to see how cool these robots look; check out the videos of the printed and hand painted creations below.

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quirky robot art

Nerdbots sells robot art with a backstory: "Arvin likes chess, ballroom dancing and collecting Precious Moments figurines."

Sure, you may know about robots, but do you know about their personal lives? A Missouri couple have taken their hobby of building sculptures of robots and turned it into an online business called Nerdbots. These retro looking robots are cobbled together from old appliances and scrap metal and possess an eerie charm. Nicholas and Angela are selling more than just cute robot statues, however, they’re selling personalities. Each Nerdbot comes with a short description of their likes, fears, and hopes. They even have a section of their website dedicated to track the lives of the bots after they are adopted into their new homes. If you can’t afford the $200+ it takes to get your very own Nerdbot there are prints and ornaments you can get for less than $20. Nerdbots will even work with you to use your scrap metal and found items to create a custom statue. These people are obsessed about getting robots into your life. I love it. Take a glimpse into the Nerdbot world in the video below.

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Jazari Robot drums

Flanagan uses two wiimotes to control his machine drum circle. He can loop rhythms or even have the robots improvise on their own.

Patrick Flanagan’s not in your typical band. Rather than long haired hippies, his drum circle is staffed by solenoids, actuators, and a couple of controllers from the Nintendo Wii. The system, known as Jazari Music, lets Flanagan control a suite of djembe drums, bongos, and other percussion instruments by pressing buttons and tilting the angle of the Wiimotes. He can even create complex rhythms and loop them on the fly – sort of like a good DJ. More impressively, Flanagan has created a series of algorithms that allow him to play one drum and have another automatically generate a response. This is the improvisational version of machine made music and it’s really sweet to watch in action. We’ve got a video of a full length performance by Flanagan and Jazari below. Gotta love the cowbell.

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strandbeest

Jansen's creations are made of pipes, harness wind energy, and move in a way that fools you into believing they're alive.

Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests are a strange combination of primitive robots and kinetic sculptures, but he calls them a new form of life. Assembled from long pneumatic tubes, these mesmerizing creations roam the dunes of Jansen’s native Dutch beaches by using stored air pressure generated by wings on their backs to move their limbs. They’re incredible looking so it’s no surprise that they’ve inspired a huge number of imitations. Search for Jansen’s name in YouTube, Vimeo, or any video sharing service and you’ll find RC robots, paper constructions, and wooden replicas of Strandbeests. There’s something about that way these lifeforms walk that is simply too enthralling to ignore. We have a multitude of videos for you, including plenty of Jansen’s original work. You’ve got to see these things, even the imitations are eerily thrilling to watch.

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ortery photosimile 5000

Place an object in the Photosimile 5000, click a few buttons on your computer, and you've got a 3D image of your product ready for online sales.

Whenever I buy things online I’ll click on the little images for the product and proceed to zoom and rotate until I’ve seen every angle of what I’m spending my money on. It’s about the closest I can come to playing with an object before purchasing it. Those still images and 3D animations typically require the (costly) work of a professional photographer. Well, no longer. Ortery has just started to sell its Photosimile 5000, a photo studio in a box retailing for $16,800 in the US. The Photosimile 5000 uses a SLR camera on a mount and specially calibrated lights to take 70+ photos of an object and generate a crisp 3D image. It looks sort of like someone took the special camera rigging from the Matrix movies and placed them in an over-sized printer. The Photosimile 5000 hooks up to a computer, allowing your average office worker to transform into the resident photography expert with just a few clicks. Check out the promo video after the break.

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graffiti robot

Carnegie Mellon students got this ABB robot to tag a wall using the new Graffiti Markup Language.

Dang-blasted kids with their music, and their clothes, and no respect for authority. They’ve gone and corrupted law-abiding robots, teaching them how to graffiti! Students at Carnegie Mellon University’s new Fabrication Lab programmed an ABB robot (4400 model) to graffiti using a two inch black marker. The ‘tags’ were downloaded from #000000book, a website where graffiti artists can record digital copies of their signature work. The CM students then converted those digital records into motion controls for the robot and – bam! – instant robot delinquent. Check out the video after the break to see the ‘Robotagger’ robot mark its turf.

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m museum art belgium

Art created using a 3D printer has the potential for combining utility and stunning detail.

3D Printers are changing the way we approach fabrication and design, and I’ve just seen proof that they’re impacting art as well. The M museum in Leuven, Belgium is running an amazing exhibition of sculpture created using 3D printers. The Parallellipipeda Project (named after the geometric shape), features art that takes full advantage of the unique capabilities of the new technology. Insane furniture, spiraling light fixtures, and random pieces of mind twisting sculpture are on display now through February 11. There’s even a large 3D scanner from Eyetronics so you become part of the experience. If you’re like me and don’t have the funds to jaunt off to Belgium, don’t worry. One of the sponsors of the exhibit, iMaterialise, has posted a video of some of the amazing pieces from the show. Watch it below.

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If you printed it out you would have an image 105 meters long and 35 meters high, almost the size of a football field. It’s the world’s largest photo ever taken and it displays the beautiful skyline of Dresden, Germany. Taken by Holger Schulze with a 400 mm lens camera by AFB Media GMBH, the image is a composite of 1,665 photos each about 21 megapixels (Mpx) in size. A robotic stand was used to capture the city during a slow rotation that took 172 minutes to complete. A specially made computer (with a whopping 4 terrabytes of hard disk space and 48 GB of memory) was needed to stitch the photos together into the final image. The process took 94 hours over 11 days. Still, talking about the photo doesn’t really do it justice. You can view the interactive version on the official website and watch a video about its creation after the break.

This image really doesn't do it justice. Go check out the full 26 gigapixel at the official website.

This image really doesn't do it justice. Go check out all 26 gigapixels at the official website.

Schulze worked in association with SZ-Online to produce the photo as a means of securing the world record. It beats out an earlier skyline photo of Paris that measures around 20 Gpx. As impressive as the Dresden creation is, I think we all know that its only a matter of time before such a record is shattered. Digital cameras are roughly following Moore’s Law and current models are available near 160 Mpx. So it should take less than 5 years before Gpx photos are available in retail outlets everywhere. That is, of course, assuming we need bigger photos. Most people probably cannot tell the difference between a photo taken with 3 Mpx and 6 Mpx. Anything beyond that is likely to be used exclusively for high detail and zoomable online work. Still, the advent of Gpx photos may change the way we think of photography. Already we’ve seen how mobile phone cameras can be adapted to microscopy. Maybe we’ll find a new use for high resolution images beyond simply looking cool. In the meantime, congrats to Herr Schulze and his record, however long it may stand. I wonder what kind of enormous projector he uses to show the photo to his friends when they come to visit.

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Wow!  I just stumbled upon a blog called Conceptrobots that has a fantastic collection of seriously awesome robot concept images to drool over.  I’m not talking about crappy amateur images that anyone can make.  These are high quality, creative images that you won’t want to miss.  Conceptrobots is brought to us by the people behind conceptships – an equally impressive site that is also worth a peek.  I have included a few of my favorite concept robot images below, but you really should head on over to the site to get the whole enchilada.  You won’t be disappointed.  Props to BotJunkie for finding this.

robot-egg-goro

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by Aaron Saenz on December 11th, 2009
A giant hissing cockroach guides the RoachBot by moving on top of a trackball.

A giant hissing cockroach guides the RoachBot by moving on top of a trackball.

I’m not a big fan of cockroaches, and that goes double for the giant hissing kind. So I find Garnet Hertz’s RoachBot to be both interesting and revolting. Hertz, working at UC Irvine, built a three wheeled robot with a trackball on top that controlled its movement. On that trackball, he secured a giant hissing cockroach from Madagascar, allowing the insect’s scurrying to guide where the robot moved. The roach, in turn, was guided by lights on the robot that shined in the direction of nearby objects. This primitive cyborg demonstrated how biology and robotics could be combined to form a powerful device capable of navigating dynamic terrain. It also fascinated crowds. Check out the RoachBot video after the break.

The RoachBot project is actually a few years old (2006) and no longer in development. Earlier this month Hertz earned his PhD from Irvine in Visual Studies. That’s right, he’s not a robotics engineer by trade, but rather an artist (and Fullbright Scholar). Hertz’ many projects explore how technology, reality, and creativity merge together. In that way, RoachBot is as much commentary as it is experiment. The cockroach has been an important inspiration in robotics, and engineers mimicked its design in robots like DASH. Likewise, cyborgs have captivated imaginations with the unique molding of biology and machine in a way that often captivates and repulses us. The RoachBot concept has merit as an engineering design – World War II scientists used a similar system to have pigeons guide missiles. More importantly though, RoachBot generates interest in the field of cybernetics with its uncanny and engrossing take on the living machine. Cool stuff…and congrats, Dr. Hertz, on your doctorate.

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