What’s Will up to? Robots Now that Will Wright has finished up Spore, he has time to focus on other projects.* He’s a busy man, after all.* Probably thinking about ideas for his next game.* While we may not know what he is up to regarding games, we now know he’s currently working on his robotics hobby.* Scientific American has an interview with Will regarding his “Stupid Fun Club”. A few years ago your group, the Stupid Fun Club, a Berkeley, Calif.–based robotics workshop, seemed most interested in analyzing reactions to robots by taking your creations out on the street for people to see. What are you focusing on now? What’s most relevant at this time? There are a couple projects we’re working on, but I can’t really talk about them now. Hopefully, that won’t be the case in a few months. We’re still very interested in basically the way people choose to interact with intelligent machines. What have you learned from your observations about people and technology? We’ve found that it’s hard to separate humans from their technology, which is developing so rapidly. Intelligence is embedded in the tools we surround ourselves with. Whether it’s GPS (global positioning systems), cars or even automatic light dimmers in our homes, we’re building a technological exoskeleton around us as a species and starting to off-load more and more autonomy into it. We’re basically delegating more and more decisions to the technology around us. Thanks to SnootySim’s Twitter page for the tip!
