Tag Archives | Cybernetics

Artist Creates Roach Controlled by Twitter

By on December 29, 2012 in News 3

ockroaches are among the very few lifeforms for which I have no sympathy, but I’m wondering if PETA will feel the same…

Via CNET:

…artist Brittany Ransom created Twitter Roach — a discoid cockroach that can be controlled through tweets that it receives on the popular microblogging service.

As it turns out, humans can actually control cockroaches with a device called RoboRoach — a tiny electronic backpack that attaches to a cockroach and stimulates the bug’s antenna nerves, enabling the controller to turn the insect left or right with the press of a button.

Ransom built upon the Roboroach concept and added some Arduino hardware and custom-programmed software to link the bug to Twitter. While on display at the “Life, in some form” art exhibition by the Chicago Artists Coalition, visitors could send the @TweetRoach account commands such as “#TweetRoachLeft” and #TweetRoachRight.”

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National Intelligence Council Predicts Cyborg Enhancements and Augmented Reality

By on December 11, 2012 in News 15

Picture: TenaciousMe (CC)

Remember daydreaming about robots and cyborgs as a kid? They’re almost here! Bad news, though: They’ll be killing machines. What could possibly go wrong? You’re welcome, future.

WIRED reports on some of the predictions of the National Intelligence Council:

We’ve seen experimental prosthetics in recent years that are connected to the human neurological system. The Council says the link between man and machine is about to get way more cyborg-like. “As replacement limb technology advances, people may choose to enhance their physical selves as they do with cosmetic surgery today. Future retinal eye implants could enable night vision, and neuro-enhancements could provide superior memory recall or speed of thought,” the Council writes. “Brain-machine interfaces could provide ‘superhuman’ abilities, enhancing strength and speed, as well as providing functions not previously available.”

And if the machines can’t be embedded into the person, the person may embed himself in the robot.

… Read the rest

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Social Physics with Kyle Findlay

By on July 15, 2010 in News 4

Kyle FindlayVia Technoccult:

Klint Finley: What, as a “social physicist,” do you actually do?

Kyle Findlay: Well, at the moment I’m on my own in this “field,” if you can call it that. It just seems like the best description of what I do and what interests me so hopefully it sticks.

Basically, my interest is in understanding how people act as groups. As emergent entities that have their own (hopefully) predictable and describable topological forms. That’s the lofty idea anyway. And the tools of chaos theory, systems theory, network theory, physics, mathematics, etc. help describe this.

Do you have a background in physical sciences?

None at all. I studied “business science” at the University of Cape Town. My first job was for a company with a strong academic background, started by a professor of religion and a professor of statistics. They used a 5-dimensional catastrophe cusp model to describe people’s relationships with ideas.

… Read the rest

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Hypersigils Reconsidered

By on February 18, 2010 in News 7

The InvisiblesVia Technoccult:

I’ve been thinking recently about Grant Morrison’s “hypersigil” concept, but considering as not an occult/magical practice, but as as a cybernetic phenomena. [...]

The way I see it, the online persona, fictional self, or avatar one creates can create feedback loops to reinforce behaviors and perceptions and have a create significant “real world” changes in a person’s life over time.

In the case of Grant Morrison, he was also shaping his persona in the letters column of The Invisibles, in interviews he gave, and his public persona at comic conventions.

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