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August 14, 2014 Sophie Weiner

Scientists at Harvard University have created a colony of robots that mimic self-organized systems in nature. Their 1,000 robots — dubbed collectively as the “kilobot” — is the largest self-organizing group of robots ever created. Previously, researchers had only used up to 100. This was accomplished by simplifying the designs of the robots to include only their essential qualities. Navigating […]

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August 6, 2014 Sophie Weiner

ANIMAL’s Radicals Of Retrofuturism uncovers stories by the technological rebels of the past in vintage media and looks at their predictions in the context of today’s digital world. This week, we look at Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock” in the Realist and beyond, circa 1970.  Alvin Toffler‘s Future Shock, unlike the other bits of futurist ephemera we’ve discussed so […]

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July 31, 2014 Sophie Weiner

Cloud Piano by artist David Bowen is an instrument played by the sky. A live feed of clouds and its patches of light and dark are interpreted into “hand” movements. As the sky changes, so do the notes played. Creative Applications explains, “MaxMSP patch uses the video of the clouds in real-time to drive a robotic device that presses the […]

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July 17, 2014 Sophie Weiner

The UK Ministry of Defense has released their annual report on the future. Entitled Global Strategic Trends — Out Till 2045 [PDF], it sets out predictions until 2045, when the world will allegedly be engulfed by chaos and despair. Wired UK broke it down to a list of nine of the very worst things that will happen in the future, […]

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