This week’s episode is chock full of robots, books, movies and non-fungible memories, slugs and tokens. Michael and Michael start things off with a robotic roundup, first with Amazon’s reported Vesta. Then, the team goes into more detail with the Anki robot, submarine robots and medical robots. The co-hosts are reminded of the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage that blends submarines and medical robots.
Next, the team gets into a constructive conversation around 3D home printing. And not printing at home, rather printing a home. 3D printing homes is becoming more feasible, and there are even communities of 3D printed homes being extruded in Texas and California. There is even a show on AppleTV+ called Mexico that deals with this topic.
In the world of old(er) technology, Jorge Cohen has written a PalmOS app for Twitter, and Bob Wulff has ported the recent movie Tenet to Game Boy Advance cartridges. Talk about interesting media consumption patterns! In other news, Apple’s HomePod is being discontinued in favor of the HomePod mini.
Turning then to NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, a funny tweet by Eric Brynjolfsson got Michael and Michael thinking about setting up an NFT opportunity of their own. Check out the show, and if you would be interested in the Games at Work team offer, give them a shout on Twitter @gamesatwork_biz !
And in a science fiction imitates nature kind of story, check out how the sea slug manages to regenerate their entire body. Amazing to think about what evolutionary advance caused this biological capability, and what it may mean for modern medicine. Michael M can’t resist making a Star Trek Enterprise saucer separation analogy to this story.
Michael and Michael conclude this week’s episode with an interesting set of stories about Steve Jobs shared by the Computer History Museum in honor of what would have been his 66th birthday. Have a look at the YouTube link below in the show notes.
Selected Links
Concert for Charlottesville — https://www.concertforcharlottesville.com/index.html
Tucows — https://tucows.com
The Verge article: Amazon’s secret home robot Vesta reportedly in ‘late-prototype stage’ of development — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/10/22322813/amazon-home-robot-vesta-alexa-project-rumors-specs-report
TechCrunch article: Eye, robot — https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/11/robotics-roundup-3/
Fantastic Voyage — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage
Digital Dream Labs — https://www.digitaldreamlabs.com
The Verge article: These new 3D-printed homes in Austin are going for $450k — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325004/new-3d-printed-homes-austin-price-icon-housing
CNBC article: 3D-printed housing developments suddenly take off – here’s what they look like — https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/12/3d-printed-housing-developments-suddenly-take-off-heres-what-they-look-like.html
Icon — https://www.iconbuild.com
Mighty Buildings — https://mightybuildings.com
AppleTV+’s Mexico — https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/mexico/umc.cmc.vw8qwc1j4ld8jr3itsc0b3wy?showId=umc.cmc.5xjrgoblr5l5i1ypamtayuhe9
The Verge article: Four years later, we are all BBC Dad — https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2021/3/11/22325564/bbc-dad-kids-interrupt-zoom-video-call-anniversary-covid-19-pandemic
Gizmodo article: Someone Totally Ruined the Memory of PalmOS by Putting Twitter on It — https://gizmodo.com/someone-totally-ruined-the-memory-of-palmos-by-putting-1846457707
News! Apple discontinues the OG HomePod. mini will continue. https://t.co/L29dIeB33i
— Matthew Panzarino (@panzer) March 13, 2021
Picasso’s first painting is now worth millions even if its not particularly amazing and anyone can easy buy an indistinguishable copy.
— Erik Brynjolfsson (@erikbryn) March 11, 2021
Could an NFT of this tweet — this one you’re reading right now — someday be worth millions, too?
Asking for an heir. pic.twitter.com/Mwnety4SGT
CNN Business article: We bought an NFT. Here’s what we learned — https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/14/tech/nft-art-buying/index.html
WUNC NPR story: Scientists Discover Sea Slug That Can Regenerate Body After Being Decapitated — https://www.wunc.org/2021-03-13/scientists-discover-sea-slug-that-can-regenerate-body-after-being-decapitated
The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson — https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Code-Breaker/Walter-Isaacson/9781982115852
The Verge article: A Game Boy Advance might be the best way to watch Tenet, actually — https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22321473/tenet-game-boy-advance-christopher-nolan-bob-wulff-youtube-mod-cartridge
Tenet film — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenet_(film)
mGBA open-source Game Boy Advance emulator — https://mgba.io/downloads.html
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson — https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Steve-Jobs-Special-Signed-Edition/Walter-Isaacson/9781476776408
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Such a fun episode, Michael & Andy! Loved your discussion on Life by You.