Monday, May 12, 2008


Lecture May 20th- Sci-Fi and Future Technologies

Science advances that challenge us to think about things differently. The way of the future?
Alan Kay-" the best way to predict the future is to make it."
Learning about history helps us make good decissions for the future.
Its crazy to think about how long robotics have been around. All the way back to Da Vinci's designs. Its also crazy to think about how advanced robotics have got. An example is bios [bible]'2007. Which is a mechanical arm that writes out the bible constantly. It acts just like a human hand would. Only stronger. When i picture this it does make me think about what I've seen in movies. I think in some instances the movie has come up with these concpets before scientists.
Its very exciting living in this time, where technology is advancing so much. But if real life does keep following along the lines of movies, sooner or later the robots will take over the humans!

Stelarc- '1/4 scale ear' -The tissue culture and art project: "disembodied cuisine" http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/ -meat that doesn’t involve killing animals -Eduardo Kac. "Alba" florescent bunny


Victimless Leather- A Prototype of Stitch-less Jacket grown in a Techno scientific "Body"










Science fiction: some of the best writers

-Mary Shelley (Frankenstein 1818)
-Jules Verne (journey to the centre of the earth 1864)
-H.G. Wells (The war of the worlds 1898)
-Isaac Asimov (Foundation Series and I, Robot 1950)
-Philip K. Dick (Minority Report 1956) -Robert A. Heinlein (1959)
-Arthur C. Clark (The Sentinel 1948 Later adapted to the Book and Movie 2001: A Space Odyssey)
-William Gibson (1984)
-Neal Stephenson (1992) Battle star Galactic, Star Trek, Minority Report.


What comes first? The increase in science technology in society or the ideas in media such as books and movies? Arthur C. Clark wrote out all the details for geostationary satellites and how they could be used for communication well before the first rocket had gone into space. Isaac Asimov wrote about the laws of Robotics and the way they could function to help the world before the first computer had been built. The technology in Minority Report did actually function and many of the amazing looking gizmos are in labs as prototypes.

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