A Massive Wooden Robot Suit For Stephen Hawking

Mike Rea’s a genius

He makes astounding things for Stephen Hawking out of wood etc.

And he’s definitely the sort of guy I’d want on my side in a fight etc

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I’ve been feeling a bit let down of late by the… err… imaginativity of people. I won’t go into immediate detail as to why – I think possibly because of the stuff being produced by the new online hardware memosystems – I mean there are one or two bits of excellence but on the whole… really, is that the best we can do? I think we need a big win.

It seems to me that for quite some time, the killer app of open-technology will be “open-technology” even though the stuff being openly-technologised is at about the same level as spice-racks and wooden spatulas being made by 13 year old woodworking students. Weirdly, the most profound advances are being made at the low-tech end of things rather than the high-tech.

I’m totally in love with the idea of repraps – they’re at at least 50% of the reason why I started this blog, and I hang on the reprappers every word… but I still haven’t seen them produce anything useful, apart from other repraps.

Maybe this is how it starts… but as far as I can see, it’s not crowd-sourcing – it’s being driven by a small handful of really clever and determined people.

Still… art will save us. Seeing stuff like Mike’s wooden miracles and sense of humour kindof restores if not my faith, then my back-handed fondness for human potential.

From tiny, mad acorns etc.