Tag: demarchy

Latest in 3D Printing: Invisibility Cloaks and Mind-Controlled Printers

anti-grav3d3-D printing continues to grow by leaps and bounds, being used to generate anything from components and models to complex machines and living tissues. And as the technology improves, the applications continue to grow and coalesce with developments made in other fields of scientific research. And in the last month alone, there have been a number of announcements that have both scared and impressed.

The first came from Duke University, where engineers have made yet another breakthrough. Seven years ago, they demonstrated their first “invisibility cloak” in a laboratory. Now, thanks to 3D printing, the fabrication process is a lot more accessible. And while invisibility might be a bit of a misnomer, that’s precisely what this object does as far as microwave radiation is concerned.

3dprinted_invisibilityThe object, which resembles a frisbee, has a large hole in the center, with seemingly random holes in the disc. The size, shape, and placement of these holes have actually been determined to disguise any object placed in the center hole from microwave beams, making it appear as though the object isn’t there. At present, the invention is limited in terms of practical use, but the design team believes this object has great potential.

According to Yaroslav Urzhumov, an assistant research professor in electrical and computer engineering at Duke, the technology could be used to create a polymer-based cloaking layer just 1 inch thick, wrapped around a much larger object. From this, they hope to eventually be able to create a material that will operate in higher wavelengths, including the visible light spectrum.

INVISIBILITY-CLOAKMeanwhile, the team’s creation of the disc using a 3-D printer means the technology is now much more accessible. Urzhumov went as far to say the he believes that anyone with access to a 3D printer will have the ability to create something similar at home. In time, this could mean anyone would have the ability to create a full-spectrum invisibility cloak at home too. Good news for anyone looking to hide from surveillance drones or cameras!

The second bit of news is even more impressive, and potentially frightening. It comes to us from Santiago Makerspace, a technology and design studio located in the heart of the Chilean capital where a designer created a 3D printed object using only their thoughts. The designer in question was George Laskowsky, Chief Technical Officer of Thinker Thing, a Chilean start-up that is developing a mind-controlled 3D printing system.

3dprinted_thought1The purpose behind Laskowsky’s work is simplification: while 3D printing has been growing and making design and fabrication easier and more accessible. However, mastering the design software is still a difficult challenge, especially for young children. That’s where Tinker Thing comes in, which seeks to develop the means to help children unleash their inner creativity.

Bryan Salt, CEO of Thinker Thing, expands on this, stating that there has not been enough work done on adapting the software for popular use. His company is looking to make it open and accessible so that it can be used to create items for one the largest markets for consumer products – children’s toys:

What is the point of these printers if my son cannot design his own toy? I realised that while there were a lot of people talking about the hardware of the printer no-one really seemed to be talking about how to actually use it.

3dprinted_toys1The software that makes this possible – Emotional Evolutionary Design (EED) – works by interpreting its users’ thoughts to make fantastical designs for toys and other objects. As part of the Monster Dreamer Project, Chilean children will get the first opportunity to try it out during tour of schools in the country at the end of this month.

Combined with Emotiv EPOCH (an EEG headset), a computer and a 3D printer, the children running Monster Dreamer will be presented with a series of different body shapes in bubbles. These will mutate randomly, with built-in rules preventing them from becoming too abstract. As different brain states such as excitement or boredom generate specific patterns of brain activity, the computer can identify the shapes associated with positive emotional responses.

3dprinted_toysThe favored shapes will grow bigger on the screen, while the others shrink. The biggest shapes are combined to generate a body part, and the process is repeated for different body parts until the monster is complete. The final result should be a unique 3D model that is ready for printing as a solid object. In essence, a child will create a tailor-made toy based solely on their emotional reactions to what they see.

Amazing the direction things are taking, isn’t it? One of the greatest appeals of 3D printing is the way which it is making technology and industry far more accessible and open to people.What began with items that would only interest engineers and design firms is now expanding to include just about any type of consumer product we can imagine, and comes with the ability to tailor make them at home, giving the average consumer immense control over the process.

future-city3Though an individual printer may still cost more than the average person is willing to spend, in time, they will likely come down in price and become like any other computer accessory – i.e. printers, faxes, modems, wireless routers. What’s more, we are likely to see a situation where communal labs, such as those found in a university or internet cafe, come equipped with one in the next few years.

In a way, it would not be a fevered dream to imagine that this could very well be the curtain raiser for a new age, an age when the means of production is literally in the hands of every person. If we are capable of printing food and buildings as well as toys and components, we would also be looking at an age when scarcity is a thing of the past and society is truly democratic and open. And all without the need for violence and forcible redistribution…

I can’t tell you how preferable it is to think about this stuff and not the current pace and effects of Climate Change. Sometimes, the only way to have hope for the future is to keep things positive and contemplate the happier possibilities. Here’s hoping smarter heads and brighter prospects prevail!

Sources: cnet.news.com, bbc.com

The Future of the Classroom

virtual_learning2As an educator, technological innovation is a subject that comes up quite often. Not only are teachers expected to keep up with trends so they can adapt them into their teaching strategies, classrooms,and prepare children in how to use them, they are also forced to contend with how these trends are changing the very nature of education itself. If there was one thing we were told repeatedly in Teacher’s College, it was that times are changing, and we must change along with them.

And as history has repeatedly taught us, technological integration not only changes the way we do things, but the way we perceive things. As we come to be more and more dependent on digital devices, electronics and wireless communications to give us instant access to a staggering amount of technology, we have to be concerned with how this will effect and even erode traditional means of information transmission. After all, how can reading and lecture series’ be expected to keep kid’s attention when they are accustomed to lighting fast videos, flash media, and games?

envisioning-the-future-of-education

And let’s not forget this seminal infographic, “Envisioning the future of educational technology” by Envisioning Technology. As one of many think tanks dedicated to predicting tech-trends, they are just one of many voices that is predicting that in time, education will no longer require the classroom and perhaps even teachers, because modern communications have made the locale and the leader virtually obsolete.

Pointing to such trends as Massive Open Online Courses, several forecasters foresee a grand transformation in the not too distant future where all learning happens online and in virtual environments. These would be based around “microlearning”, moments where people access the desired information through any number of means (i.e. a google search) and educate themselves without the need for instruction or direction.

virtual_learning3The technical term for this future trend is Socialstructured Learning = an aggregation of microlearning experiences drawn from a rich ecology of content and driven not by grades but by social and intrinsic rewards. This trend may very well be the future, but the foundations of this kind of education lie far in the past. Leading philosophers of education–from Socrates to Plutarch, Rousseau to Dewey–talked about many of these ideals centuries ago. The only difference is that today, we have a host of tools to make their vision reality.

One such tool comes in the form of augmented reality displays, which are becoming more and more common thanks to devices like Google Glass, the EyeTap or the Yelp Monocle. Simply point at a location, and you are able to obtain information you want about various “points of interest”. Imagine then if you could do the same thing, but instead receive historic, artistic, demographic, environmental, architectural, and other kinds of information embedded in the real world?

virtual_learningThis is the reasoning behind projects like HyperCities, a project from USC and UCLA that layers historical information on actual city terrain. As you walk around with your cell phone, you can point to a site and see what it looked like a century ago, who lived there, what the environment was like. The Smithsonian also has a free app called Leafsnap, which allows people to identify specific strains of trees and botany by simply snapping photos of its leaves.

In many respects, it reminds me of the impact these sorts of developments are having on politics and industry as well. Consider how quickly blogging and open source information has been supplanting traditional media – like print news, tv and news radio. Not only are these traditional sources unable to supply up-to-the-minute information compared to Twitter, Facebook, and live video streams, they are subject to censorship and regulations the others are not.

Attractive blonde navigating futuristic interfaceIn terms of industry, programs like Kickstarter and Indiegogo – crowdsources, crowdfunding, and internet-based marketing – are making it possible to sponsor and fund research and development initiatives that would not have been possible a few years ago. Because of this, the traditional gatekeepers, aka. corporate sponsors, are no longer required to dictate the pace and advancement of commercial development.

In short, we are entering into a world that is becoming far more open, democratic, and chaotic. Many people fear that into this environment, someone new will step in to act as “Big Brother”, or the pace of change and the nature of the developments will somehow give certain monolithic entities complete control over our lives. Personally, I think this is an outmoded fear, and that the real threat comes from the chaos that such open control and sourcing could lead to.

Is humanity ready for democratic anarchy – aka. Demarchy (a subject I am semi-obsessed with)? Do we even have the means to behave ourselves in such a free social arrangement? Opinion varies, and history is not the best indication. Not only is it loaded with examples of bad behavior, previous generations didn’t exactly have the same means we currently do. So basically, we’re flying blind… Spooky!

Sources: fastcoexist.com, envisioningtech.com