Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Robotic Ecologies Shape Themselves To Serve You
Robotic Ecologies is a new architectural term that refers to the growing importance of computational systems in buildings and other architectural structures. If you are a science fiction reader, this is not a new idea for you.
(Super Galaxy II)
Real-life architects have been slowly catching up, though. The Super Galaxy II is a concept piece, a structure that is constantly in tune with the needs of its occupants.
(Super Galaxy II)
Super Galaxy is an architectural system saturated in atmospheric and electronic phenomena. It is a nomadic enclave in an endless state of spatial and material flux. As it fluctuates between states of varying coherence (solidity, liquidity, and gaseousness) its inner structure maintains an invisible, yet definable pattern. It is an active and responsive organism capable of dynamically interacting with its surroundings on many levels.
Architecture professor Jason Johnson, whose recent Robotic Ecologies seminar participants have explored questions like "What if you could talk to a building - and it could talk back?", remarked:
"Robotic Ecologies refers to an emerging condition that is rapidly influencing our relationship with the physical environment," says Johnson. "The gradual intermeshing of technological and computational systems into the physical realm has both positive and negative implications, many of which are currently under-explored or misunderstood by architects or planners."
I think I've seen this future before. In his excellent 1962 story The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista, author J.G. Ballard wrote about houses that constantly changed shape depending on the mood of the occupants (and, as it turns out, depending on the mood of the house):
It's always interesting to watch a psychotropic house try to adjust itself to strangers, particularly those at all guarded or suspicious. The responses vary, a blend of past reactions to negative emotions, the hostility of the previous tennants......Stamers was fiddling desperately with the control console recessed into the wall behind the door, damping the volume down as low as possible... (Read more about psychotropic houses)
Update 15-Mar-2021: Even earlier, Fritz Leiber described adjustable houses in his 1943 classic Gather, Darkness! End update:
Take a look at these examples of structures that were presaged in sf novels:
- Space Robot Knows Your Mood
"But we believe that we definitely need different types of robot in terms of their shapes and their roles in our life..." - Nanotech Self-Healing Houses
A "self-healing" house is under construction on a Greek mountainside. - Cabrini-Green Windy City Musical Building
As the wind moves through them, they play. - Rotating Skyscraper Dynamic Architecture Has Wind Turbine Power
Rotating skyscrapers get their power from wind turbines that are placed between floors and which rotate freely with the wind.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/29/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Living Space ")
Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...' - Robert Heinlein, 1940.
Elegant Bivouac Shelter Produces Water And Electricity
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...' - Arthur C. Clarke.
AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home
'Its slack walls tightened, bulged, were crossed by ripples and waves of movement.' - Fritz Leiber, 1943.
With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need
'The only real cost was in the plastic balloon that guided the growth of the coral and enclosed the coral's special air-borne food.' - Larry Niven, 1968.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Golf Ball Test Robot Wears Them Out
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
Rigid Metallic Clothing From Science Fiction To You
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
Is The Seattle Ultrasonics C-200 A Heinlein Vibroblade?
'It ain't a vibroblade. It's steel. Messy.'
Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
A Beautiful Visualization Of Compact Food
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
Secret Kill Switch Found In Yutong Buses
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
Grok Scores Best In Psychological Tests
'Try to find out how he ticks...'
PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers
'My fingers are not that sensitive...'
Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
The Desert Ship Sailed In Imagination
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.'
The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story
'Betty's slapdash style.'
Thermostabilized Wet Meat Product (NASA Prototype)
There are no orbiting Michelin stars. Yet.
Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
