Another vital Xmas present please, it connects to your mobile phone via bluetooth and gives you a hug determined by the caller, intensity, length of time etc. Where do I pre-order? – CuteCircuit

We have seen this robot before but the Geekologie ‘take’ made me laugh so I have included their comments below.

‘Twendy-One’ is the horrible name of a new robot coming out of Japan. His claim to fame is his gentle touch, thanks to the 241 pressure-sensors in each hand, which allow him to grip bread without breaking it. Wow, just what I’ve been waiting for — a bread gripping robot. He stands five-feet tall, and the team responsible for his development hopes to get his price down to $200,000 by 2010. He was designed to serve breakfast, but so far only has a 15 minute battery life. Which makes perfect sense. I mean really. Who needs a warm breakfast on the table when you can have a robot that puts bread in the toaster, turns on the stove, powers down due to a low battery, then lets your house burn to the ground? All for only $200,000. Where can I pre-order?

Geekologie

The reeds give way to the wind and give the wind away.

A.R. Ammons, “Small Song”

Digital Ethnography and seminars will never be the same.

http://www.livescribe.com/uk/

Translations include Waterstone’s and Blackwell’s apparently?

Some new video reports from BBC science, the first is an impressive jumping robot from Boston Dynamics and the second video is a round up of the latest developments in medical robots.

A Heartbeat That Has Lasted a Hundred Million Years:

“The great life of the cosmos is never-ceasing. Each breath we take, each beat of our hearts, is a part of this unending movement. Before all else, we must awaken ourselves to the cosmic life within us. Otherwise, we cannot begin to know the world we live in as it really exists.” (Masahiro Mori, 1981)

After reading Mori’s ‘The Buddha in the Robot’ I was looking for a definitive connection between Buddhism and Social Construction and this paper is a compelling example. Most authors who consider themselves to be writing within the Social Constructionist perspective seem to pass over its connections with the Buddhist tradition and teachings.

 ”If you call this a stick, you affirm; if you call it not a stick, you negate. Beyond affirmation and negation what would you call it?”  (12th Century Koan of Tai-hui) – “a constructionist centrepiece” – Gergen  (2006)

 I’d still like to go to heaven or nirvana though please, even though I’m an existentialist (to boot)? - Sometimes I’m actually glad it’s only me that reads this rubbish!!!!

Elektro, from the New York World’s Fair in 1939, it was built by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It could be said that we haven’t come as far as we think regarding Humanoid Robots, Elektro is 60 years old?

Maria is the creation of Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, probably the first Robot or Android on the ’silver screen’.

Wheels or Tracks?