Rice-Planting Robot (Hi Chully!)
Ok, first, the link: http://www.impactlab.com/2009/01/05/robotic-rice-planter/
Now, why I think that is totally bad ass.
There are several reasons this is bad ass: it's a robot, it plants rice, and it makes good economic sense.
First, because it's a robot. And it's big, and it has all kinds of gnarly slapdashery to its design. There's just something cool about prototypes which, combined with the inherent coolness of robots, makes my heart flutter. It's like getting to watch your favorite science fiction series, while it's still being written.
Second, it's bad ass because it plants rice. Planting rice is hard work, and the world's population is aging. Who will plant the rice in the future? It's not like Japanese (or Punjabi, or even Han) children sit around with their friends saying, "I want to spend my life doing backbreaking labor up to my knees in water. That sounds so cool." No. They're all saying, "I want to learn about computers and then become a rock star." The Japanese have a very vested interest in automating as much of the annoying, dirty work of maintaining their populations' lives as possible, but this is also an economic opportunity. If you look at demographics, environmental issues, or economics where goes Japan, goes the world (eventually). So them solving their food problems holds out hope that we'll be able to solve ours.
As money-making-money starts to look like a less and less appealing strategy for world domination, our old friend capitol capital investment starts to look better and better. In the 17th century, the smart money would be building mills and buying farmland. Today, it's energy infrastructure and automated production.
oops. capitol investment. yeah, graft's a good strategy too.
Now, why I think that is totally bad ass.
There are several reasons this is bad ass: it's a robot, it plants rice, and it makes good economic sense.
First, because it's a robot. And it's big, and it has all kinds of gnarly slapdashery to its design. There's just something cool about prototypes which, combined with the inherent coolness of robots, makes my heart flutter. It's like getting to watch your favorite science fiction series, while it's still being written.
Second, it's bad ass because it plants rice. Planting rice is hard work, and the world's population is aging. Who will plant the rice in the future? It's not like Japanese (or Punjabi, or even Han) children sit around with their friends saying, "I want to spend my life doing backbreaking labor up to my knees in water. That sounds so cool." No. They're all saying, "I want to learn about computers and then become a rock star." The Japanese have a very vested interest in automating as much of the annoying, dirty work of maintaining their populations' lives as possible, but this is also an economic opportunity. If you look at demographics, environmental issues, or economics where goes Japan, goes the world (eventually). So them solving their food problems holds out hope that we'll be able to solve ours.
As money-making-money starts to look like a less and less appealing strategy for world domination, our old friend capitol capital investment starts to look better and better. In the 17th century, the smart money would be building mills and buying farmland. Today, it's energy infrastructure and automated production.
oops. capitol investment. yeah, graft's a good strategy too.