What would be the Turing Test for Life Itself?

The 'Turing Test' is an idea for a way to test a machine to see if it is indistinguishable from a truly intelligent being. What would be a way to test for autonomous life? (Are virus' living?) This seems to be the question that is asked in this new NPR article about my favorite kinetic sculpture, Theo Jansen. http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/08/08/210130502/beach-beasts-on-the-m...

New Structures for a 3D Printed Commercial Airline Plane

Anyone who knows me well has heard me rant about how the technological revolution of the last 20 years has brought us endlessly amazing new innovations that we have never even imagined before, yet it has somehow passed a blind eye over airline travel. Aside from having WIFI and low-res video screens on the backs of chairs, the airplanes of today might as well be the jets of the 1970's - that's 40 years ago!) I blame part of this on NASA. The agency...

MorpHex: Sculptural Sphere that Transforms into a Hexapod

MorpHex is described by it's inventor, a Norwegian engineer named Kåre halvorsen, as a "piece of art that is a remotely controlled robot." MorpHex is a modification of a hexapod. Is morphs into an omni directional sphere as well as a six legged walker. There are some impressive, quick moving and agile hexapods out there. This one does not skitter about, but is very elegant in it's movements. This iteration of MorpHex rolls in a slight arc, but...

A One Trillion Dollar Story

Columbia University offers a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine. Yale Medical School has a required class where students learn to observe art. Corporate CEO's are attending Hollywood scriptwriting seminars. What gives? A few years ago I reluctantly agreed to be the MC for the school's Student Film Festival. Reluctant because I suffer from serious performance anxiety when I'm in front of a large audience. In my introduction...

2 Pi R and Making Nantucket Baskets

2 π (r+1) - 2 π r = 2 π ? My lovely wife, Etsuko, was recently excited to tell me about something she had recently figured out about making Nantucket Baskets and how she discovered it using basic math. First the plug: Etsuko makes museum quality Nantucket Baskets. Go to the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum on Nantucket Island and you can usually see one of her more recent works. The Photo above is a Nantucket Lightship Basket made...

Geek is the New Black: Why This is Important Pt. 2.

Read Part 1 (You don't have to because it is a separate topic):   There is a favorable opportunity in the fashionable trends and climate of "cool" for educators wanting to inspire students to fuse art, design, science and technology. Remember when people said "It's hip to be square?" Or the Huey Lewis song? It's an interesting sentiment but it never meant much in academics. That was more about growing out of the free wheelin' hippie lifestyle...

Shapeways

Something that got me really excited last year was when I had discovered Shapeways. Shapeways is an online service that allows users to upload their 3d designs to their website. Shapeways will then 3d print your model in your choice of a variety of materials (including stainless steel, sterling silver, gold and a variety of plastics) and ship the model to your door. Since then I've been pondering the possibilities and brainstorming ideas for...

3d Printers, CAD, and custom Jewelry

By Monalisa Jewelers - This is not made with a 3d printer. The other night I had dinner with a friend of mine, Arman, who is an extremely skilled and talented jeweler. He is the owner of Mona Lisa Jewelers Custom Handmade Jewelry in downtown Boston. Arman began working as an artisan in Turkey when he was 12 years old. I told him about the two day teachers workshop I've helped to organize. Arman told me that 3D printing and CAD (Computer...

Why THIS is Important: Part 1

There are 2 reasons why "this" is so important, why it's important NOW and why there is a favorable opportunity.         1) Fashion         2) Excelling in this new economy I'll write about 'Fashion' in another post. In this post I'll explain what the "this" is, and how it applies to excelling in this new economy. Surely we can all agree that in today's world, students must learn to be...

"The Walls Between Art and Engineering Exist Only Within Our Minds" - Theo Jansen and his Strandbeasts

Theo Jansen Creates some strikingly beautiful kinetic sculptures. The designs are highly technical. Many of his designs move by air power and some store air power. You can now purchase miniature working models of his designs at shapeways.com. One of the remarkable things about the Shapeways models is that the models are 3D printed, completely assembled and ready to move. See Theo Jansen's miniature 3d models on my Shapeways post here...