Monday, July 19, 2021

To Synchronize is Human

aka Sync or Swarm
aka Sync and Share

To synchronize is only human. No need to resist. The meatnet is our future.

Robot swarms follow instructions to create art
Oct 2020, phys.org

One of those things that I should be really excited about but I'm not because I thought we were doing this like ten years ago: "This system could allow artists to control the robot swarm as it creates the artwork in real time". Now if we got swarms of artists to control swarms of robots in real time?

Image credit: I had to take this picture of synchronized fireflies from the New York Times, because this article just came out. 

How you and your friends can play a video game together using only your minds
July 2019, University of Washington News

A University of Washington team is doing telepathic collective problem-solving. It's called BrainNet. Three people play a Tetris by talking to each other with their brain waves and wireless signal. I don't know why this doesn't freak me out as much as the networked monkey brains

Playing Tetris by committee
May 2019, BBC

Similar to the above article, this one from UC Davis -- The Octopad it's called. It's a single button controller where each player can only do one movement in the game, forcing consensus between players.

Shared control allows a robot to use two hands working together to complete tasks
May 2019, phys.org

Bimanual robot manipulation by sharing control with a human being. "A more fully capable augmented assistant".

Spontaneous robot dances highlight a new kind of order in active matter
Jan 2021, phys.org

This article has it all: microrobotic swarms, active matter, metamaterials and smarticles. The scientists propose a new principle where active matter systems spontaneously order. Something about "low rattling" states.

Fish-inspired robots coordinate movements without any outside control
Jan 2021, phys.org

From the lab that brought you the 1,000-robot Kilobot swarm and the termite-inspired robotic construction crew.

Researchers develop a mathematical model to explain the complex architecture of termite mounds
Jan 2021, phys.org

"Here is an example where we see that the usual division between the study of nonliving matter and living matter breaks down," said Mahadevan. "The insects create a micro-environment, a niche, in response to pheromone concentrations. This change in the physical environment changes the flow of pheromones, which then changes the termite behaviors, linking physics and biology through a dynamic architecture that modulates and is modulated by behavior."

Valve’s Gabe Newell imagines “editing” personalities with future headsets
Jan 2021, Ars Technica

"Russian forest". Video game makers are thinking about virtual reality. But they're also thinking about controlling your brain with a computer, or vice versa. 

Scientists create new class of “Turing patterns” in colonies of E. coli
Feb 2021, Ars Technica

Some sci fi shit right here. It might not seem like a synchronization thing at first, but it will be. Keep an eye out for the activator-inhibitor morphogens that make leopard spots and tiger stripes, because they will also me making decisions for you in the future. 

Scientists prove Turing patterns manifest at nanoscale
Jul 2021, phys.org

It's algorithms all the way down -- these patterns are found in the positions of individual atoms. But what's more: "The finding of the mysterious Bi stripes was serendipitous".

Implanted wireless device triggers mice to form instant bond
May 2021, phys.org

GTFO. First of all, "remote-control social interactions among pairs or groups of mice". Actually, that's all. 
For the first time ever, Northwestern engineers and neurobiologists have wirelessly programmed—and then deprogrammed—mice to socially interact with one another in real time. The advancement is thanks to a first-of-its-kind ultraminiature, wireless, battery-free and fully implantable device that uses light to activate neurons.

via Northwestern University: Wireless multilateral devices for optogenetic studies of individual and social behaviors, Nature Neuroscience (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00849-x
Post Script:
Women's menstrual cycles temporarily synchronize with moon cycles
Jan 2021, phys.org

Also:

No comments:

Post a Comment