Profiles

Festo’s Industrial Automation Robots: Design Inspired by Nature

by Socrates

Pablo Picasso once said: “Good artists copy, great artists steal!” Well, if that is true, then, Festo certainly must fit within the group of great-artist engineering companies for they truly know how to steal from nature. Festo’s “Inspired by Nature” series of air and aqua robots look both graceful and surreal while accomplishing such a hard thing — making man-made objects look as if they were made by nature — look so easy. The first 3 videos bellow are from the bionic learning network series of Festo short docs which explains the inspiration behind each design, its development and its industrial application in factory and process automation. The videos go through the features of the fluidic muscle, the aqua and air ray, the air fish, the air and aqua penguin, the bionic tripod, the interactive wall, the elephant trunk, the [...]

Read the full article →

They Were There: Errol Morris’ Centennial Documentary About IBM

by Socrates
Thumbnail image for They Were There: Errol Morris’ Centennial Documentary About IBM

Last week I interviewed James Martin for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. Among many other things James spent decades at IBM and was among the key people who super-charged the company’s rise to dominance during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, and in the process changed the world. During our conversation James noted the vital importance of companies such as IBM, HP, Google and Microsoft, and stressed that it was firms like those (and not governments) that deserve credit for technological innovation and progress. Yesterday, as I watched Errol Morris‘ centennial documentary about IBM, I recalled Martin’s words about the pioneering work the company has done for the last 100 years. While the movie was most likely commissioned by IBM itself, and does not go over some of the few dark spots of the firm’s history, it does a fantastic [...]

Read the full article →

James Martin on Singularity 1 on 1: We Can Control Accelerating Technology

by Socrates
Thumbnail image for James Martin on Singularity 1 on 1: We Can Control Accelerating Technology

Yesterday I was privileged to have an hour long Skype interview with James Martin for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. James Martin is Andrew Crofts‘ archetype Change Agent in addition to being a world-renowned computer scientist, author, lecturer, teacher, philanthropist, futurist and film-maker. During our conversation we cover a whole spectrum of interesting topics such as: James’ interest in computers in particular and technology and futurism in general; his book that eventually turned into a movie -  The Meaning of the 21st Century, his current project titled the Transformation of Humankind; the technological singularity; the risks and promises of exponential growth of 21st century technologies such as genetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnologies. So, go ahead, listen to or download the audio above or scroll down to watch the video of the interview in full. Most importantly – don’t hesitate [...]

Read the full article →

Programming Life: J. Craig Venter On 60 Minutes

by Socrates
Thumbnail image for Programming Life: J. Craig Venter On 60 Minutes

This video is the full profile interview of controversial genomics scientist J. Craig Venter. It is only 13 min long but covers a great deal of issues surrounding Craig Venter’s persona and work such as: his project of sequencing the first complete human genome, his anti-establishment and arguably arrogant behavior, his religious beliefs (or lack thereof), the designing and creation of the first synthetic species and its implications. Other relevant videos: Andrew Hessel: An Introduction To Synthetic Biology Synthetic Life Video Presentation Synthetic Biology Breakthrough: Programming Life On Your Computer Screen

Read the full article →