Transhumanism and Humanoids

So far I have only watched episode one, which fits this weeks topic: Transhumanism.
The best bits:

- Steering a wheel chair with your brain starts at 12.30
- A baby-like robot called iCub, which learns like a child! starts at 23.30

This one is incredible!!! Still can't wrap my head around it, if you want to learn more about iCub please visit:

iCub.org - an open source cognitive humanoid robotic platform


"Professor Stephen Hawking presents a global exploration of the scientific breakthroughs that are transforming our lives in the 21st century.

With the help of some of the world's leading scientific figures - including Sir David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins, Aarathi Prasad, Lord Winston and Maggie Aderin-Pocock - this five-part series reveals how science is striving for humankind's next leap forward."




Episode 01: 

 "The team showcase breakthroughs in technology and engineering that are creating a new generation of machines.

Mark Evans fuses his brain with a computer in Switzerland to test a new breed of machine.

Kathy Sykes hits the streets of San Francisco to have the ride of her life as she experiences the future of transport in a driverless car.

In Italy Jim Alei-Khalili comes face to face with a remarkable, baby-like robot called iCub, which learns like a child.

Joy Reidenberg discovers the extraordinary exoskeleton that can make the paralysed walk and give one man the strength of three.

In the Canary Islands Maggie Aderin-Pocock visits one of the world's biggest telescopes, where they're searching for new planets in the furthest reaches of the universe - planets that we could one day colonise."

#edcmooc, #Transhumanism, #opensource, #robotics, #documentary

Utopia / Chris Anderson's Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

"But I do know that, when you give a kid a 3D printer and they have access to Thingiverse and easy tools to customize, that the imagination runs riot.
And what these kids know is that anything they could imagine they can make real.
Right now, they can make it real in plastic in one color. Soon it'll be plastic and multicolors. Soon it will be much higher resolution. Soon it'll be multi-material. Then they'll be able to integrate the electronics into it. They'll be able to print in metal. We can see the way this is going. It's not going to take 20 years to get professional quality manufacturing on your desktop."


"Now there is nothing standing between ideas and practice."
I so want a 3d printer!!!

Chris Anderson (formally of WIRED) speaks about his new book:
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

"The technology is there and easy and in place. And now we can just fill it with our ideas.
And the nice thing about hardware is that there's no crazy debate over the business model.
The business model is you sell products for more than they cost. Period. That's it. Business school professors keep saying, explain your business model. It's like, we sell products for more than they cost. We made money on Day 1. We actually sell it at 2.6 times the actual cost. 2.6, that cost is the Bill of Materials plus labor. And 2.6 is like this magic number. It's basically two 40% margins, one for us, and one for our distribution partners, a wholesale and a retail margin, if you will, 2.6. 2.6 times the Bill of Materials is like an order of magnitude cheaper than closed-source, sometimes two orders of magnitude cheaper. It's not rocket science. We learned it from other people in the Open Hardware Movement."

I read Free: The Future of a Radical Price last year and found it to be equal parts scary and incredibly hopeful. I haven't had the chance to read Makers yet, but I will.
All I can say: after watching this talk is: "WHOA!"
If you are a creative person there is no way you are not going to root for 3D printer utopia.




Chris Anderson, the groundbreaking author of the Long Tail visits the RSA to outline a dramatic new change in the way our economy functions.

picture credit: wiki commons

#edcmooc, #3Dprinter, #ChrisAnderson, #makers, #opensource, #utopia,


Text by Céline Keller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Files, Pictures and Videos might not be.

Aaron Swartz Memorial at the Internet Archive

I highly recommend to take 90 minutes and listen. I believe what happened to Aaron and what he fought for is at the heart of the learning revolution.
RT@timoreilly
The text of @carlmalamud's passionate defense of Aaron Swartz: https://public.resource.org/aaron/army/ 
"I see the army of Mahatma Gandhi walking peacefully to the sea to make salt for the people. 
I see the army of Martin Luther King walking peacefully but with determination to Washington to demand their rights because change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, it comes through continuous struggle."


Amara Video Link with Subtitles



Text by Céline Keller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Files, Pictures and Videos might not be.

#aaronswartz    #publicdomain    #opensource    #creativecommons  #openaccess  #edcmooc