Fwd: Speculative Hacking (was Re: [Robotgroup] Confusion Research Center)
Bryan Bishop
From: David Nunez <da...@davidnunez.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Subject: Speculative Hacking (was Re: [Robotgroup] Confusion Research Center)
To: The Robot Group Mailing List <robot...@puremagic.com>
Cc: kan...@gmail.com
> division directly. But anyway, Charmed Labs seems to just sell
> products, what is it that they are doing?
Rich LeGrand, proprietor of Charmed Labs, was one of the people who
got dorkbot started in Austin... so there's that.
Also, his company is run from his home and is a really great role
model for those of us who have in the back of our mind, "Man, I'd like
to do this off-the-wall hacking thing for a living in my pajamas."
This guy was doing indie garage-manufacturing before Make magazine
made it seem like you couldn't afford NOT to be cranking out kits by
the dozens.
I think these guys are heroes, fwiw: http://oomlout.com/start.html
====
MY frustration is that there are tons of people being "activated" by
thinking 5 minutes soldering an LED throwie from a dummy-proof recipe
is the same thing as innovating and get very lazy in their learning
and exploring.
Or worse, those that DO go beyond paint-by-numbers and pick up an AVR
programmer or start hacking away in OpenFrameworks spend lots of time
on self-indulgence and hobbyist-level work and never make the mental
leap that, "oh! I know very little right now, but what I do know can
solve enormous problems in the world. Maybe I can apply these lovely
hacks to fixing my neighborhood."
That is: given unlimited time and resources, how would the robot group
address starvation in India or fix potholes on Lamar?
I'm starting to key in on a manifesto that we, as builders and hackers
and artists, have a moral obligation to apply our rapidly increasing
skill-sets to help and delight others. That might be artwork or small
open source tweaks or products that make peoples' lives easier.
Hacking electronics is more accessible than ever; rapid prototyping of
physical objects is getting there, too. Shouldn't our ambition match
pace with the availability of these tools?
The main thing that stops people isn't lack of resources (time and
money are actually far more plentiful than we've deluded ourselves
into thinking), but lack of focused energy and engaging problems to
address.
So here's my dangerous idea: Everyone in the group pick a small
problem that makes their lives just a little bit more frustrating.
Ideal problems are those that seem just out of reach for you to solve
on your own, but if they were solved would likely make you and people
around you happier. Drop those ideas in a bucket. Pick a weekend and
gather at somebody's house. At random select a problem out of the
bucket. Now, as a group imagine a world where this problem is
resolved. In 48 hours, you are to generate media and tinkerprojects
that speculate on this positive near-future.
Somebody might produce a website. Another person might do an
npr-style podcast, interviewing their actor friends as "scientists" in
the near-future world. However, I suspect that given the population
of the RG, most of us would pull out our arduinos and solderless
breadboards or _3d printers_ and _laser cutters_ and start hacking
together some working prototype or even just a mocked-up, physical
object that might exist in this world where the problem is fixed.
The point is at the end of the weekend, everyone has finished
something, no matter how imperfect / impractical / incomplete.
Suddenly you have a collection of artifacts that act as goalposts and
milestones for solving a real-world problem. You have a bridge to a
solution and what seemed just out of reach before is brought just a
little bit closer... hopefully a stretched-out armslength. Maybe some
problems get fixed when the solution is made tangible and success
seems visualized and achievable.
I'm calling this concept "speculative hacking" and the intense work
sessions "speculative hack-a-thons" and I promise I'll let you know
more about what real steps I'm taking with this in the next few
weeks... It's been a while since I've been fired up about something
so potentially game-changing.
I believe that places like Discovery Hall and fablabs could be ideal
hubs for these hack-a-thons - filled with rapid prototyping tools.
More importantly, when the community is regularly convening to solve
its own problems this way, there is actually a mandate for a fablab to
exist besides just being a clubhouse for geeks.
THAT's how you get community buy-in and THAT's how you demonstrate
value. Money comes from that.