reflections on the technium

For this installment of Brown Bag at the Movies we will be viewing (abstract below):

• Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization
• Google’s driverless car
• Phil McKinney: Hacking the Future
• DIY Drones with Chris Anderson

04-26-2011  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

CEP COMMENT: All it takes is an idea…

Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization
<http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski.html>
04:11
ABSTRACT

Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that’s only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000).

About Marcin Jakubowski
Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing a set of blueprints for 50 farming tools that can be built cheaply from scratch. Call it a “civilization starter kit.
<http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Main_Page>

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CEP COMMENT: I’m ready for this.

Google’s driverless car
<http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html>
04:14
ABSTRACT

Sebastian Thrun helped build Google’s amazing driverless car, powered by a very personal quest to save lives and reduce traffic accidents. Jawdropping video shows the DARPA Challenge-winning car motoring through busy city traffic with no one behind the wheel, and dramatic test drive footage from TED2011 demonstrates how fast the thing can really go.
<http://blog.ted.com/2011/03/05/a-spin-in-the-google-self-driving-car-at-ted2011/>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car>

About Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun is the director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and is working, through robotics, to change the way we understand the world.
<http://robots.stanford.edu/>

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CEP COMMENT: Talks about HP’s innovation process starting about 7:00. They allow teams time every 18 months or so to go out and learn new things…

Phil McKinney: Hacking the Future
<http://fora.tv/2010/05/22/Phil_McKinney_Hacking_the_Future>
34:17
ABSTRACT

What would you do if you could see the future? Not just one or two years out but 5, 10 or even 20 years out. Hacking the future requires the ability to dream, to visualize and to create, using a full range of creative tools, models and concepts.

Come see Phil McKinney, CTO of HP’s Personal Systems Group and contributing columnist at Forbes, reveal concepts and prototypes never before shown outside the walls of HP. This family friendly session is a futurist’s view of what the world will look like. Be inspired to create and do amazing!
<http://philmckinney.com/> <http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2007/id20071114_289027.htm>

Nice summary of innovation models:
<http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Big-Thing/Innovation-Models-part-one/ba-p/62415>
<http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Big-Thing/Innovation-Models-part-two/ba-p/62417>
<http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Big-Thing/Innovation-Models-part-three/ba-p/62422>
<http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Big-Thing/Innovation-Models-part-four/ba-p/62424>

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CEP COMMENT:

DIY Drones with Chris Anderson
<http://fora.tv/2009/05/30/DIY_Drones_with_Chris_Anderson>
27:17
ABSTRACT

The 4th annual Maker Faire Bay Area hosts Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired. Anderson discusses making low-cost, unmanned aerial vehicles like planes and blimps.

Following on President Obama’s call to “begin again the work of remaking America,” Maker Faire 2009 was organized around the theme of Re-Make America. Held in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maker Faire celebrates what President Obama called “the risk takers, the doers, and the makers of things.”
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Anderson_(writer)>