“Self Aware” Robots
Hod Lipson demonstrates a few of his cool little robots, which have the ability to learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate. At the root of this uncanny demo is a deep inquiry into the nature of how humans and living beings learn and evolve, and how we might harness these processes to make things that [...]
Toys That Make Worlds
In a friendly, high-speed presentation, Will Wright demos his newest game, Spore, which promises to dazzle users even more than his previous masterpieces. Here Wright encourages users to create not households, as in The Sims, or cities, as in SimCity, but the entire universe, from single-celled life forms to galactic physics. While guiding us through [...]
How Does Technology Evolve?
Kevin Kelly uses evolutionary theory to discuss the purpose and value of technology. By asking, “What does technology want?” he shows that its movement toward ubiquity and complexity is much like the evolution of life. Using a discipline-hopping range of examples — from exotic flora to the Big Bang, from the Amish to Mozart — [...]
Technology’s Long Tail
Chris Anderson, the editor of WIRED, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous. To demonstrate this trajectory, Anderson explores the evolution of the DVD player as it passes through each of these four tipping points, then offers specific [...]
