No, it’s not your old Yugo.

Fascinating video clip of Hertz’s Roachbot in action.

Very sci-fi, Giger-esque.

May 11th, 2006 | Alife | No comments

From a report on a puzzling celebration for Martin Gardner, comes a unexpectedly eloquent description of the attraction of models, mental and computational.

This is also a legacy that Mr. [Martin] Gardner leaves to generations of researchers, teachers and entertainers: don’t try to understand the whole world at once. Take only a small part of it. Or better yet: invent your own universe in which there are very few elements and very few rules — a game, a puzzle, a theory. These circumscribed and artificial worlds are like sheets of paper subject to the rules of folding, yet they can yield remarkable results having almost uncanny power.

May 2nd, 2006 | Alife, Computer, Science | No comments