Robert Hickson • Aug 24, 2016 •
Ten years ago we were largely communicating with computers through key pads and mice. Then came touch screens, and more recently voice recognition systems such as Siri, Google Now, and Cortana. Tim O’Reilly has written a good article on LinkedIn about the voice recognition technology that sits within Amazon’s Echo, and what it signals for the future. O’Reilly makes … Read More
Robert Hickson • May 25, 2016 •
In one of my very first Ariadne posts I referred to the prediction pundits. You have, perhaps, noticed the prevalence of this species in the technology world. In a recent newsletter the folks at CB Insights have called this the pundit industrial complex, and illustrate it with various headlines about the future market size for drones and virtual … Read More
Robert Hickson • May 21, 2016 •
Here’s a really absurd mis-reading of biology from a Professor of History in a Huffington Post interview: The whole of biology since Darwin can be summarized in three words: “Organisms are algorithms.” I wasn’t aware that we were living in the Matrix. This is the type of talk you most commonly hear from Silicon Valley folk talking or writing about technological progress and what … Read More
Erica Mather • Apr 29, 2016 •
New Zealand competed at the VEX Robotics World Championships held in Louisville last week and are world champions for the eighth year running. The VEX Worlds provides the opportunity for the hard work and dedication of a growing community of robotics teams to be recognised. The competition requires students in small teams, with guidance from their teachers, to design and … Read More
Robert Hickson • Mar 03, 2016 •
Hard on the heals of robots getting “bullied” … … are humans now “stealing” robot’s jobs? No. As Forbes notes, it is more an evolution of robotics within the auto industry. Big clunky first generation industrial robots are being replaced by smaller more agile machines which can work more safely and efficiently alongside human workers. A … Read More
Robert Hickson • Dec 22, 2015 •
I was in Mega Mitre 10 on the weekend and noticed that they had a Dremel 3D printer for sale. For $1700 you can print your own little plastic figurines. It’s a bit cheaper on-line, but I still prefer to look at the woodworking tools. Nonetheless, I thought it interesting since it is the first I’ve … Read More
Victoria Metcalf • Nov 06, 2015 •
If you were in Christchurch anytime over the last few weeks you would have probably noticed posters advertising the Big Science Day. This event, run by Science Alive and with funding from the Unlocking Curious Minds fund, an initiative within the government-led “A Nation of Curious Minds” programme, took place on a stunningly fine day, Saturday … Read More
Robert Hickson • Sep 09, 2015 •
Following on from my last post about robots, evolution, and metaphors, the Journal of Economic Perspectives has, for a non-economist, a surprisingly good pair of other articles in the same issue. Both Mokyr et al. and Autor provide good historical perspectives on how economists and others have a poor track record of predicting future … Read More
Robert Hickson • Jun 08, 2015 •
There may be some schadenfreude going around following the recent DARPA rescue robot challenge But some, at least, will rise again. There is still a lot of hand wringing about the impact that robots, algorithms, and artificial intelligence may have on the human workforce. I’ve noted this previously. National Public Radio in the … Read More
Robert Hickson • Oct 10, 2014 •
Some of you may recall “The Hoff” and his smart car KITT in Knight Rider. With the advent of Google’s autonomous cars, parallels between them and KITT have be drawn. But apart from self-driving ability, there’s not a lot of similarity (and the Trans Am is way sexier than a self-driving Prius). Now though, Volvo … Read More