Final Project Proposal

Prophecy Generator | Concept

The original is born as a research blog called rich-and-famous-you : Can we self-manipulate by predicting our own future ?

Paul the prophet

Paul is a domestic robot, a predictive one. Paul "listens" to the internet, collects meaningful data and analyse them for the owner. Paul believes in the wisdom of crowds so he listens to the crowd for you, virtually. Everyday he will give you a hint to your life.

Paul gives you signs. He does not give you exact words. You are the one who interpret. He gives you facts, in form of numbers. He listens to everybody, including you, especially you. The more you give him feedback, the more precise he is.

One day, in the future, robots will do everything for us. It's a dream that refuses to go away. Over the coming years, robots are destined to play a significant part in our daily lives -- not as super smart, functional machines, nor as pseudo life forms, but as technological cohabitants.

Dunne & Raby

This project is about future-telling and self-manipulation.

So far as technology goes, human is still depend on fate, hope and predictions. Future telling is one obsession of humankind.

Here is some interesting questions:
- Once the prediction is told, do we tend to follow it or to prevent it ?
- What if we can take our fate in our own hand and auto manipulate ourselves ?
- Is prediction our interpretation ?
- How can technology help with future prediction ?
- Is crowd smarter than individuals ?
- Can robot have empathy ? How can we humanize a robot ?

Thai horoscope board : it is all about counting, combining numbers. A robot is absolutely good at this

Bibliomancy is the use of books in divination. Tasseography or tea leaf reading. bibliomancy, reading tea leaves

So the idea is to make a machine that :: (1) input : receives your data (a) fixed information e.s. birth date, blood type, body sensing data (b)intentions e.s. choices you make, a question what if you can ask a question.. via an interface on computer or an app ?; (2) process : collects information needed for prediction (TBD); (3) output : TBD, I'm thinking of giving an abstract output such as numbers, colours, not an exact prediction(phrases like in fortune cookies)
one interesting option is to create an ink blot/ colour stain from processed numbers

Below are some recap of references.

TECHNOLOGICAL DREAMS SERIES: NO.1, ROBOTS, 2007 by Dunne&Raby Each robot has their character and by adapting, getting know them user can make use of them. Robot 1: Ring
..It has one quirk; it needs to avoid strong electromagnetic fields as these might cause it to malfunction. Every time a TV or radio is switched on, or a mobile phone is activated it moves itself to the electromagnetically quietest part of the room. As it is ring shaped, the owner could, if they liked, place their chair in its centre, or stand there and enjoy the fact that this is a good space to be in...

Bee's Project by Susana Soares studied bees and in particular the way they can be trained to use their smell and detect pretty anything including bombs and landmines.

Genetic Heirloom , Revital Cohen

Digitarians, Dunne&Raby

Everyday Growing, Juliette Warmenhoven

A way to translate phrases into numbers is using ASCII

Concept Draft | 42 : A Roboracolo
42 : A Roboracolo (name credit : Marina Cinciripini) : A predictive domestic robot. You ask him a question, he will give you an answer. Roboracolo works only with facts, gathering information from the internet. The predictions come in form of color stain. It's you who interpret it.
Q : What kind of name is "42" ?
Well, if you wonder this, seems like you are not geek anough : ).
The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years. Unfortunately, no one knows what the question is.
more about the number 42

color stain & interpretation