Making Things and How They Work Together

I just watched this great TED talk by an interesting man named Saul Griffith. My interest here is in a few capacities.

First, Saul speaks about the level of assembly of a few objects, which I have previously discussed as technology density, and compares organic and artificial assembly systems and manufactured solutions. In doing so he considers the advantages of each and contexts in which each would be more suitable. This is of course quite interesting to me as I think there is a significant market for improving human decisions by relying on a wider frame of decision making systems, including naturally inspired ones, and ensuring appropriate use.

Second, Saul shows some example projects including crossover decision making systems. These, I think, are quite neat though obviously far from complete in this talk.

Lastly, in the beginning he mentions project, seemingly names, A Registry of Standard Biological Parts , which offers a good perspective into another notion I have been interested by, which is that of software for the design and development of biologically inclined systems. In my mind this can include things which utilise some or even just one of the key elements of biological systems. A software like this, from my perspective, would help organise the involved ideas and approaches in order to generate short cycle evolution at much higher rates than natural selection would offer. Such a software could also be used to deal with the issues of human perception when trying to solve for the physical parameters when creating objects.

All in all the talk has reinvigorated me to think about a few problems I haven't for some time. As is often the case I am also reminded that the release early release often approach is good in almost every way and I should adopt it more seriously.