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Tag Archive for robots

Food as Art with Robots

May 22, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Food as Art with Robots

 

http://www.industrytap.com/robot-master-chef-cooks-2000-recipes-cleans-dishes/28765

 

God, I want to love this.  I really do.  Robots in my kitchen would just be too d*amn cool.  I’d actually host parties, like TONS of parties just so I could watch this thing work.  I’d be fat as a house because I would just ask it to cook dish after meal after snack so I could watch those beautifully animated arms chop carrots and make fresh pasta.  Really, tech this sexxy could be my undoing.

But it’s not quite right.

I get the idea that freshly made food almost always tastes better, presents better.  I get that idea that the precision and handling of the food, directly mapped from the hands of a professional, can give you an extra bump in quality, can give you extra style and flair.

But this is all mechanical.  This is all engineering.

Food is is the fine split between science and art.  It’s being able to adjust on the fly because the last batch of tomatoes was a little underripe, or you ended up with baby carrots instead of full-size, slightly imperfect horse-carrots, or you have plain old sea-salt in the larder instead of rose-colored Himalayan salt.

This robot can handle the mechanics of preparation, which is definitely an important part, but that will not change the *taste* of the ingredients that go into the dish.  So while you might have something that looks super-sexxy on a plate, it still might come out tasting like something out of a one star diner if your ingredients aren’t quite up to snuff.

And the robot won’t be able to tell the difference.

Space Exploration has Two Camps

April 23, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Space Exploration has Two Camps

 

http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-s-messenger-spacecraft-will-soon-crash-into-the-surface-of-mercury?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1

 Are a rule, humanity is pretty d*mn stubborn.  If we want to do a thing, we do a thing.  If we don’t want to do a thing, we don’t do a thing.  There are a ton of “reasons” we might do or not do, ranging from corporate greed to altruistic intentions and higher-order awareness down to plain “I donwanna”.

So in hand, right now, in everyday life, we have what seem to be two primary camps for space exploration.

Number One is the Meat Plan.  The Big Sexxy, right?  Strap a rocket to the back of a test pilot and fire them off into the great unknown.  WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!  Take THAT Universe!  It’s a fabulous vision, and there is some logic to it.  People are useful.  We can do many many things given enough time and materials, so sending humans + materials (or at least instructions) does make some sense (outside of the potential death/madness thing).  BUT it is infinitely harder to do because people die and rockets explode.

BUT, Plan Two is Robots all the way down.  Remotely Operated Vehicles, Rovers, Probes, essentially they are all extensions of humanity, just without the meat part.  Human designed, human built, while they are not as adaptable, they don’t die quite the same way as we do, they are easier to power, easier to support emotionally (just don’t look at their Twitter feeds), and they are the current functional plan.  Since they are designed by humans they are, as our ambassadors, going to reflect human preconceptions and frailties.

My humble opinion is that both plans are going to work.  The “Meat” plan is going to take longer and be harder to execute.  The “Robot” plan is already underway.  But once we get the technologies and developments from BOTH plans working together?  Watch out Universe.  Here we come….

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