[tt] Fwd: [orions_arm] Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures

[Bryan Bishop]

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Subject: [orions_arm] Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures
Date: Wednesday 16 January 2008
From: Cronyx Ravage <cronyx at gmail.com>
To: orions_arm at yahoogroups.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhPbXD6QmPg
Theo Jansen - "Kinetic Sculptor" - Ad for BMW
First time I ever heard of the guy, then I kind of forgot for a bit. So 
you can imagine my pleasant surprise at seeing him at TED.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b694exl_oZo
Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic 
sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His 
"Strandbeests" (Beach Creatures) are built to move and even survive on 
their own.

They seem (well no, he outright says they are) somewhat aware of their 
environment. I've thought of this concept before, such as with the 
"clockwork creatures" in AD&D (then I found out things like that -- 
though extremely privative -- had /actually/ been done during the 
Renaissance). I'm really interested in the philosophical exploration of 
weather or not so called clockwork or mechanical life, if complex 
enough, could ever be self aware. Some sort of critical mass point of 
complexity that manifests consciousness as an emergent property.

-------------------------------------------------------
________________________________________
Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/