Almost as old as human civilization itself, building houses of brick has been perfected over the millennia. Placing over 700 bricks an hour, the fastest human bricklayers are pretty fast. Continue reading… “Man Vs Machine: Bricklaying robot can place 1,000 bricks an hour”
Two robots, Frois and Yukirin, married this past weekend in Tokyo, even sealing their union with a kiss. Continue reading… “Tokyo hosts first Robot wedding”
Futurist Thomas Frey: If it weren’t for their glowing eyes, I would have sworn they were live fashion models dancing in the store window.
Moving smoothly to match the music playing in the background, each of the seven perfectly proportioned mannequins swayed to a carefully choreographed set of moves designed to draw attention to the clothes they were wearing.
The eerie feeling that they were watching me as much as I was watching them was not a mistake. They were indeed looking at me. Continue reading… “The Great Mannequin Vs. Fashion Model Showdown”
At first glance, these things might not seem connected: the struggling economy, our struggling democracy, the income gap, and technology and artificial intelligence. but upon closer inspection, I find they’re all part of one impulse, and together they create the web of humanity—and our future. Continue reading… “Surviving the robot apocalypse”
“We are interested in robots that create and are creative,” Hod Lipson describes his Creative Machines Lab captures his ambitions. Lipson is an engineering professor at Cornell University. He is one of the world’s leading experts on artificial intelligence and robotics. His research projects provide a peek into the intriguing possibilities of machines and automation, from robots that “evolve” to ones that assemble themselves out of basic building blocks. A few years ago, Lipson demonstrated an algorithm that explained experimental data by formulating new scientific laws, which were consistent with ones known to be true. He had automated scientific discovery.
Continue reading… “Can the rapid advances in technology create a jobless future?”
Futurist Thomas Frey: A couple weeks ago I was asked to speak at the 8th annual Turkish Postal Symposium in Antalya, Turkey on the future of the postal industry. This was a fascinating gathering of thought leaders to discuss next generation postal service.
I focused my talk around a central question – “How long will it be before we can mail a package and have it travel to a city on the other side of the world without ever being touched by human hands?” Continue reading… “Creating Humanless Distribution Networks”
Futurist Thomas Frey: It’s ironic, this whole effort to work so hard to make working obsolete, or in the case of artificial intelligence, the effort to think so hard to make thinking obsolete.
But then it should really come as no mystery. Machines are far superior to people. Every worker brings their own set of baggage to the workplace, and officials have created countless laws to protect these workers, making the human side of work messier than ever. Continue reading… “The Black Hat Robots are Coming”
It might sound like science fiction, but someday, thanks to creative scientists and engineers, our world may contain autonomous or semi-autonomous robots working with people, helping us do tasks that are better suited for machines. Continue reading… “What technologies will be required for the robots of the future?”
Don’t blink when you watch the video below, because the Quadmovr is one of the fastest, most nimble drones you’ll ever see. Continue reading… “This is probably the fastest quadcopter you’ve ever seen”
Think tank Third Way published in early April, research by Henry Siu and Nir Jaimovich that attributes to robots and automation the fact that routinized jobs have all but vanished from the economic recovery. Continue reading… “Growth statistics are being infiltrated by Robots”
Matternet, a company working on perfecting drone-based delivery systems, will be helping the Swiss postal service, Swiss Post, in attempting drone deliveries for the first time ever. Continue reading… “Matternet to test drone delivery system in Switzerland”
Last year a group of Swiss artists thought it would be cool to program a bot to scour the “dark web” and buy $100 worth of random goods each week using a regular Bitcoin allowance. Items purchased by the robot include a Hungarian passport, a baseball hat that had a hidden camera installed, someone’s entire Lord of the Rings eBook collection, and some ecstasy tablets. Continue reading… “Cops arrest robot that bought ecstasy with Bitcoins”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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