During the winter break of 2006-2007, Chris Hennelly and I spent a bunch of free time working on the Spy in the Lab project. The Spy was supposed to go to our friends at Tsinghua University and peek in on all the stuff they were doing. It didn't quite make it for that semester, but we got it working pretty close to 100% by the time we were done with break.

It was sitting in the 10 Years Running Show at the Chelsea Art Museum.

What's in the box?!: Inside this unassuming cardboard box sits an Internet-controlled robot with a camera and a range of sensors that keep it from destroying itself and those around it.

The Command Center

For our physical computing final, each pair of students had to complete a link in a chain reaction, receiving an input from the previous team and producing an output for the next team.

Here's our AC/DC-playing, silver-painted-goat-skull, black-polycarbonate dragon. Our only design consideration: Make It Metal!

We've had a lot of fun talking about technology and we're it's going this semester. And, I think, most students' view of the future is somewhere between the dystopian horror stories and the utopian dream worlds. And that's all well and good. Everyone's entitled to their opinions. For now. But no one seems to actually be preparing for the future they see coming. Oh sure, we're learning all sorts of great skills that will help us out in the next few years. But I'm talking long term here. I'm talking ROBOT ARMY.

The U.S government has made several well publicized forays into military robot technology, most recently with their armed UAV programs. Other nations are starting to follow suit, such as South Korea and India. The prospect of an all-mechanized army, coming out of some nation in the world, during my lifetime is not terribly unlikely. And, given recent events, it's entirely likely that the army will be extraordinarily advanced and really, really miserably managed.