Monthly Archives: March 2022

Why the Imago Dei (Image of God) Shuts the Door on Transhumanism – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Posted: March 21, 2022 at 8:52 am

Transhumanist ideology is advancing among scholars who profess Christianity so the question must be asked, is the dream of a post-human (Human+) existence compatible with the Christian faith? More specifically, is transhumanism (H+) compatible with the doctrine of Adam and Eve as the first humans created in the image of God (imago Dei)?

The answer is no. The biblical doctrine that Gods image exists in every human person and also in humanity as a whole shuts the door to transhumanism. We can see this if we look at what the Bible teaches about anthropology, ethics, and salvation in Christ alone.

First, the transhumanist history of human origins and Human+ destiny denies that God made human persons with a fixed and final nature that glorifies our Creator. In practical terms, H+ is a gnostic endeavor that celebrates the immaterial and disparages the material embodiment of our souls. In contrast, the Bible teaches that, while the image of God was deformed by the fall (Genesis 3), the impact of sin did not destroy the sacred nature of human personhood. Nor did it undermine the intrinsic value of our soulish bodies.

The paradox of human sacredness and sinfulness is resolved in the Apostle Pauls affirmation of our identity in Christ (Galatians 2:1920). For Paul, the incarnation of Christ, and his subsequent death and resurrection, affirms the dignity of our bodies, and yet promises to transform every believer into a glorified state. In 1 Corinthians 15:49, he assures believers that, just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. The transformation offered through the cross of Jesus Christ does not imply that humans evolve into something beyond the human. Even in the final eschaton, when our salvation is made complete, Scripture does not teach that we somehow transcend humanity. The image of the heavenlies of which Paul speaks is a glorification of our humanity, both body and soul, and not the elimination of it. Therefore, the beauty of our humanness as it exists today seen through the lens of Christs redemption shuts the door on transhumanism which treats the human species as only one short stage along an infinite spectrum of evolved forms.

Second, H+ is the programmatic de-humanization of humanity. Just as Darwinists search for the missing link to our past, transhumanists seek to make each human a new link toward our unknown future. For transhumanists, the value of an individual person is tied to their perceived utility as an agent of technological evolution. Rights and dignity are tied primarily to the survival of the collective and only secondarily to the individual. Humans are no longer a uniform kind but a hierarchy of inferior vs. ever-evolving superior beings.

Consequently, the Christian duty to care for the sick and poor is altered into a duty to advance the species by giving economic privilege to the strong. Ultimately, this Nietzschean vision of the evolving bermensch does not eliminate suffering but justifies the use of techniques that cause individuals to suffer for the greater good of the species. And while the pursuit of technology to eradicate suffering, biological defects, and infirmities is compatible with biblical Christianity, the sacrifice of the imago Dei on the altar to the collective good shuts the door on transhumanism.

Finally, Christian transhumanists use ambiguous terminology to improperly connect technological transformation to the Bible. To achieve technological salvation, the human body is diminished and demeaned as a hindrance to Human+. Given transhumanist anthropology, it is no surprise that their theology emphasizes technology as the path toward post-human salvation. To make their case, transhumanists equivocate on the term change in the Darwinian sense of random mutation and equate it to change in the biblical sense of salvation through the cross of Christ. Despite this claim, there is no etymological, scientific, or hermeneutical connection between biological/technological change and biblical change except in the imagination of transhumanist theologians.

Finally, it is a category error to equate the universal salvation of the human species through technological advance to the particular salvation of the individual person through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even more, what H+ soteriology offers is not the salvation of humanity per se but the elimination of humanity in favor of a transcendent Human+ race. The mission to self-evolve beyond humanity begs the question, how is humanity saved through technological advancement designed to eliminate humanity? In light of Scripture, transhumanist soteriology seems nothing more than a replay of Isaac Asimovs I, Robot, where the AI determines that the only way to save humanity is to exterminate humanity. In the final analysis, it seems self-evident that the biblical doctrine of imago Dei shuts the door on transhumanism.

Here are the first four short essays in this series by J. R. Miller:

With transhumanism, what happens to human rights? The transhumanist accepts suffering for the individual if suffering can advance the evolution of the species toward immortality and singularity. If humans can redefine what it means to be human, what prevents us from eliminating anyone opposed to this grand vision? (January 1, 2022)

Eugenics, transhumanism, and artificial intelligence If we were to succeed at creating an ethical decision-making AI, whose ethics would it abide by? The utilitarian goal of a sustainable future must be guided by a higher ethic in order to avoid grave mistakes of the past. (January 13, 2022)

The deadly dream of Human+ Look at the price tag Some are prepared to sacrifice actual humans now for the hope of future immortality. Without a fixed and final definition of human personhood, there is no foundation for a fixed and final ethic of human rights. (January 20, 2022)

and

Can Christian ethics save transhumanism? J. R. Miller looks at the idea that the mission to self-evolve through technology is the definitive Christian commitment. In Millers view, Christian transhumanists do not provide a stable and persistent definition of human personhood, thus cannot ground human rights. (February 27, 2022)

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Why the Imago Dei (Image of God) Shuts the Door on Transhumanism - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

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Woke: The Final Frontier – California Globe

Posted: at 8:52 am

On September 8th, 1966, the world was introduced to the greatest science fiction franchise in history. Star Trek: The Original Series hit the TV screens 56 years ago and has since amassed 13 movies, 8 television series, 3 animated shows, 2 magazines, a plethora of books and video games, plus innumerable fan fiction. Even fictitious languages such as Klingon have been offered as courses in several universities. Star Treks impact on the culture is beyond compare as it has pushed its audience to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Throughout its tenure, the franchise has always been largely progressive in its viewpoint. It never avoided taboo topics but instead encouraged the viewer to consider such issues through the looking glass of fiction, creating an intellectually open space for internal debate and discourse. However, the wokeification of its current series Discovery has altered Treks trajectory of thoughtful cultural commentary into a non-stop homily of political jockeying and woke promotion.

A sampling of Treks finest moments helps to shed light. These issues include race, gender roles, sexuality, xenophobia, transhumanism, globalism, war, and countless others.

Often credited as the first on-screen interracial kiss between a white man and a black woman, Star Treks William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols helped shatter a taboo when they locked lips in the 1968 episode Platos Stepchildren. As Smithsonian notes, The episode aired just one year after the U.S. Supreme Courts Loving v. Virginia decision struck down state laws against interracial marriage. At the time, Gallup polls showed thatfewer than 20 percent of Americans approved of such relationships. Back then, Star Trek pushed political boundaries without preaching. There was no diatribe or moralizing, just a nuanced normalizing of things now rightly considered trivial.

Later in the Star Trek universe, a subtle but bold change came to the introductory speech. Captain Kirk opened the 60s episodes with Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has before. In the subsequent 1987 series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean Luc Picard changed the phrase to where no one has gone before introducing gender neutrality in its framing and progressing the Trek franchise even further.

Throughout the series, not only were there more prominent female characters (four regulars in TNG as opposed to one in the original), but women were rarely portrayed as sexually as they were in the original series. Instead of the scantily dressed alien babes Captain Kirk often encountered, the women in TNG always dressed the same as men, rarely revealing their bodies and were given rich character development. This was done naturally, not as an editorial from the writers rooms.

Later still, in 1993, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduced the first Black captain, Avery Brooks as Captain Benjamin Sisko, and the show often dealt with issues of race relations, prejudice and slavery. In the episode Far Beyond the Stars, Captain Sisko travels in a dream back to 1950s America where he is the science fiction writer Benny Russell experiencing racism and segregation, even being beaten by two police officers in a racially incited scene. The episode often finds itself in Top 10 lists of Star Trek episodes and the Movie Blogs summation is apt Far Beyond the Starsis a love letter to the transformative potential of science-fiction, an ode to the capacity to imagine a world that is better than this one.

Star Trek Voyager introduced the first female captain with Kate Mulgrews phenomenal portrayal of Captain Kathryn Janeway. Notably, the Trek timeline awarded her the ranking of Admiral before any other on-screen Captain who came before her.

Star Trek: TNG addressed issues of sexual orientation, transgenderism and reparative therapy in the 1992 episode The Outcast. At the time, the media still depicted gay lifestyles largely through the lens of the AIDS epidemic, but Star Trek took a much more nuanced approach. It dealt with an androgynous alien race that prohibited gender identification. It then portrayed how these aliens underwent reparative therapy in the event they deviated into identifying with a specific gender.

So Star Trek has always been progressive as it imagines and reimagines humanity moving toward a more perfect union. Unfortunately, the brilliance of a nuanced past has given way to a vapid and often insufferable present.

Star Trek Discovery, the newest series following a different crew seeks to increase its woke credentials in every episode, ad nauseum. Instead of creative episodic stories that challenge the mind and elevate the soul, every single episode turns into a lecture on all things race and LGBTQIA+.

Star Trek Discovery offers its first Black female Captain, Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham. While Star Trek had already dealt with the gender and race of its captains in past series of DS9 and Voyager, the outright slobbering from media pundits about how brave the show is for introducing a Black female captain is ridiculous. There is nothing profound about this from a Trekkie perspective. It is in fact a normal progression of all things Trek. What is most unfortunate is that phenomenal acting capabilities of Martin-Green are traded for pedantic character development and shallow, predictable storylines. Its as if she serves more as a checkbox to Diversity and Equity than simply as a talented actress (which she more than proved in her Walking Dead days). Her trials and tribulations are subverted by always coming out on top and never having to endure true loss. The accolade Live long and prosper need not ever be said to Captain Burnham because the viewer already knows she will.

Now having recently wrapped its fourth season, the main crew is predominantly occupied by globalist gays, liberal lesbians, tyrannical transgenders, needless non-binaries and twisted transhumans. Instead of writing one or two poignant episodes regarding their identities and orientations, each episode serves to instruct viewers how they must think about these things, not simply challenge them to think more critically.

This season follows the character of Adira, a transhuman becoming a transgender human with the pronouns he/him. Its exhausting. Instead of watching a delightful sci-fi, the viewer is subjected to the woke tropes of a show seeking to break down barriers when all it accomplishes is the viewer needing to read a gay dictionary to understand its warped terminology. If that werent enough, this character develops a romantic relationship with his non-binary crewmate Gray, (the pronouns they/them serves as a heavy-handed lesson in every other episode). They also then become the surrogate children of the gay couple on board, which checks every box the people at the Human Rights Campaign demand.

Discovery deserves praise for only one of its LGBT characters, the lesbian engineer (obviously) Jett Reno portrayed by Tig Notaro. Her orientation just is what it is and no one really needs to think about it. She also provides humorous breaks from the endless sacrifices this show offers up to the rainbow gods. Slow clap.

To end the season, politics bluntly interrupts the storyline. Failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams enters stage-center as the President of United Earth. Never has Star Trek dared be so brazen with its political orientation. The heavy handed move robs the viewer of the experience, causing one to wonder if Stacey even won that election far off in the 29th century.

In the past Star Trek has served as a brilliant cultural commentary that encouraged the viewer to imagine mankinds progress, it now demands culture think a particular way in order to obtain progress. It no longer presents the audience with a debate to consider but rather insists on a politically correct way to think. It is as partisan as it is obvious.

In a time of American cultural upheaval, Star Trek should serve the functions it always has: a release valve for cultural disagreements and a platform that seeks to build ideological bridges. While The Next Generation signed off its series with the episode All Good Things Must Come to an End, Discovery is fast becoming the show that makes the Trekkie look forward to All Woke Things Must Come to an End.

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Woke: The Final Frontier - California Globe

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Ghost in the Machine: Ada and the Engine – Washington City Paper

Posted: at 8:52 am

The afternoon of Friday, March 13, 2020: A handful of cultural institutions had already announced they were temporarily going dark in order to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourshows I was scheduled to review had already been canceled until further notice and I was in the Smithsonian American Art Museums Renwick Gallery, planning to leave by 5 p.m. for Arlingtons Gunston Arts Center to review Avant Bard Theatres staging of Lauren Gundersons Ada and the Engine. At 4:35 my phone vibrated: the show and the remainder of Avant Bards season had been canceled.

Two years have passed. Avant Bards artistic director Tom Prewitt died in November 2020 and there was a brief period of uncertainty over whether the company would continue. Luckily it has, under a new leadership model of producing partners (including Sara Barker, Alyssa Sanders, and DeMone Seraphin) and theyve revived a couple productions, including Ada and the Engine with its cast and production team.

Ada Byron, the future Countess of Lovelace (Dina Soltan), pores over volume by her late father, the romantic poet Lord Byron (Jon Reynolds) who abandoned her and her mother Lady Byron (Jessica Lefkow) soon after her birth in 1815. In an era in which moral scandal was believed to be inheritable, Lady Byron has spent the subsequent years keeping her daughter from the temptation of poetry, educating her only in mathematics and music, attempting to rehabilitate their reputation so that Ada might marry someone respectable: the Earl of Lovelace (also Reynolds).

This much goes according to plan, but if this were all, Ada Lovelace would be barely a chapter in biographies of her father. Instead, at 18 years of age, she befriended the brilliant mathematician and inventor, Charles Babbage (Matthew Pauli) at a presentation of his Difference Engine. By design the machine was capable of calculating polynomials, storing past calculations in the alignment of its wheels, and, if it had been built, printing out tables that wouldve benefitted British navigation and industry. However, Babbage refocused his attention to his Analytic Engine, a machine that could be programmed by punchcard to run any algorithmin short, a computer.

Babbage was prone to feuding with politicians who did not see the value in his work (he never delivered anything beyond partial prototypes). Ultimately his funding was cut-off. Lovelace, however, was more than a friend who was brilliant enough to understand him. When she translated a transcript of Babbages 1840 Turin lecture on the Engine, she published it with her own copious annotations, including an algorithm (regarded as the first published computer program), and a statement on the potential of Babbages invention. It established Lovelace as one of computer sciences founding figures over a century before the transistor was invented. (Without Lovelaces insight, my aforementioned smartphone, and even the methods my editors and I use to publish this review, would be unimaginable.)

Director Megan Behm balances the exploration of ideas with the emotional intimacy of the small playing space. Designer Alison Johnson dresses the characters with distinctive color palettes that persist through their costume changes, and Neil McFaddens score strikes a similar balance between computer generated and humanistic.

Soltan ably portrays Adas growth over 18 yearsfrom the young woman, almost as giddy at being courted as she being at recognized for her intellect, to an adult whos increasingly demanding to be seen as an equal partner by her mentor, and eventually her painful death at 36 due to uterine cancer. Pauli plays Charles with the highs and lows of genius, the exhilaration of his ideas being understood and the frustration of how rare understanding is. Lefkow and Reynolds play fine supporting roles. (Reynolds shows off his physical theater skills in his one scene as Lord Byron, playing the affected dissolute grace with which the poet would conceal his limp.)

While fictionalized portrayals of both Lovelace and Babbage are a mainstay of the steampunk genre, Gundersons script is grounded in the historical record. Her artistry is in how well she melds the emotional lives of her characters with their ideas in often exquisite language: in one scene Ada and Charles manage to describe the functions of the Engine while simultaneously evoking the image of the giant steam-powered brass and steel brain. Gunderson saves her most imaginative leap for the final scene in which all information is recoverable and poetry, scientific exposition, and music are a single contrapuntal invention. Is it Adas deathbed hallucination fueled by religion and laudanum or a future transhumanist utopia?

Avant Bard Theatres Ada and the Engine, by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Megan Behm, runs through March 26 at Gunston Arts Center. avantbard.org. Pay what you can$40.

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Ghost in the Machine: Ada and the Engine - Washington City Paper

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The 10 best video game characters of all time – For The Win

Posted: at 8:52 am

Outside of all the boi memes, theres a lot of depth to the character of Arthur Morgan, played by video games newcomer Roger Clark. In a sandbox game, theres nothing stopping you from riding around the Wild West, rampaging through towns, and tying civilians to train tracks. But when youre Arthur Morgan, it just feels plain wrong. Hes an outlaw with a heart, and his only major fault is his unflinching loyalty to the wrong people.

One of the things that makes Arthur stand out is his battle with tuberculosis. Open-world games are often about taking over territory, gobbling up collectibles, and consuming every bit of content the world has to offer. In Red Dead Redemption II, you literally die of consumption. It also flips the traditional power fantasy of games on its head, starting you off with a healthy character and ending with you pale, gaunt, and prone to coughing fits. Ill never forget Arthurs private confession that hes afraid of death, not just because of the delivery of the line, but because its so rare to see a protagonist so vulnerable.

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The 10 best video game characters of all time - For The Win

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GMR Robotics excited about recent success, look forward to future – Page 1 Publications

Posted: March 18, 2022 at 8:51 pm

photo used with permissionGMR Robotics student team members (L-R) Sawyer Strand, Berlyn Burkel, Holly Wiskow, Lauren Stenberg, and Ray Tarala stand with their robot at the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth, an event the team won to qualify for the FIRST Championship in Houston, April 20-23. Outside Stenberg and Tarala, this regional was the first robotics competition any of the teams student members had participated in, thanks to FIRSTs two-year pandemic shutdown.

photo used with permissionTeam 5172s operator Berlyn Burkel (left), team drive coach John Langaas (center), and team driver Sawyer Strand (right) stand together behind the teams robot at the regional in Duluth. Langaas continues to help the team as a mentor, one of several former student members continuing to give back to the program.

Several of Team 5172, GMR Robotics, team members mentioned to team mentor Mary Anderson how she forgot to bring the teams blue banners to its first 2022 regional. These banners are awards given to teams for various FIRST Robotics competition achievements. She didnt forget; her action was intentional.

All the banners out there (in our shop) are Team 5172s, but the people on this team are new and they need to experience what that feels like to gain their own and be their own people, Anderson said. And now they get to hang their blue banner They might not have even recognized at the competition that there were blue banners in peoples pits, because it didnt mean something to them. Now, it means something to them.

The 2022 members of Team 5172 know exactly what it means, getting to experience their very own blue banner moment. Filled with new members, Team 5172 and its two alliance partners won the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth, ensuring a trip to the FIRST Championship in Houston, April 20-23.

Several team members talked about their feelings and reactions surrounding the Northern Lights Regional and getting to just compete, and what theyre looking forward to most as the season progresses.

After not seeing her team compete in just over two years due to the COVID pandemic, team mentor Mary Anderson talked about her feelings watching her team compete again, feelings surrounding that two-year shutdown, her reaction to the teams regional win, the teams upcoming regional in Grand Forks, and what she looks forward to most as the season continues.

At this years Duluth regional, the team brought with just two students who had competed before: Ray Tarala and Lauren Stenberg. An alliance captain on this years team, senior Lauren Stenberg had some nervous energy at this competition. Even though she was in her fourth year on the team, Stenberg competed on the game field for the first time at this Duluth regional.

It was a long time coming, Stenberg said. Were basically starting from scratch since all of our seniors and juniors and all theyre gone. So (were) starting from scratch, but we came out good.

Besides Stenberg and Tarala, the rest of the students had never competed at a FIRST competition, including the teams driver Sawyer Strand and operator Berlyn Burkel, both sophomores.

I thought it was a little nerve wracking, Strand said, because theres a lot of rookies, including me, so I learned a lot there.

Burkel said it was scary competing at first, but things got better throughout the regional. The regional took place March 2- 5 from the DECC Arena/Edmund Fitzgerald Exhibit Hall in Duluth, Minn.

I think we were all really nervous, Burkel said. Weve never really experienced a regional of any sort.

We didnt really know what to expect, Strand added.

In her first year on the team, freshman Holly Wiskow worked as a human player on Team 5172 and described having some nervous energy.

Once youre out there, its a lot less nerve-wracking, Wiskow said. Everybody there is nice and helpful.

Team mentor Anderson was also nervous to start with at the regional, feeling she was throwing her team members to the wolves an experience they had not yet had. She wanted these new students to have the best experience, but felt unsure if they as mentors had prepared the students enough. The improvement she saw from the first to the last day proved evident easing that nervousness.

If we look at Wednesday to Saturday night, the growth individually was, you could see it, Anderson said. You could measure that by the smiles on their faces, by the score on the board, of course, but just their comfort level of being together and working with others and other teams.

The students also came to appreciate the other teams around them, that gracious professionalism that FIRST promotes. For example, Team 5172 team members needed gears for their robot and a team from Becker, Minn., gave some to them. Also, Team 5172 had a joystick for another team one that was on its alliance that needed it and Team 5172 gave it to them to allow this fellow team to compete.

Speaking of help, Anderson thanked and recognized all the mentors, especially the younger mentors who lost their final years on the robotics team, such as Ryan Hlucny and Thor Anderson. Talking about that two-year period without competing, Anderson was devastated to see the students who were hurt by this shutdown, individuals who had a passion for robotics.

They got everything ripped away from them and for them to turn around and give back That takes pretty big people, Anderson said, because were all hurt and they lost the opportunity. And yet they want to support giving new kids (the opportunity.)

Before the FIRST Championship in Houston, the GMR team will compete at the Great Northern Regional at the Alerus Center, March 24-26 the last place the team competed at before the shutdown. According to the most recent counts, the event will feature 50 teams, covering Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The GMR team and the team out of Northwood, N.D., will host the event. The Greenbush American Legion Post #88 and Northwood Legion will present the colors for the National Anthem on Friday, March 25 at 8:30 am.

Sponsored by Boeing, this years FIRST game, Rapid React, centers on an airport theme. The Air Force, John Deere, Digi-Key, Marvin Windows and Doors, the UND Drone Cage, and the City of Grand Forks will be at this regional event, all having donated to it. The event is an open one in terms of masks, but they are welcomed.

Team 5172 itself has experienced success, having reached the FIRST Robotics Championship before, but for many on the team, they had never experienced their very own blue banner moments before their recent Duluth trip. Theyre continuing the teams tradition, but at the same time aided by some of those from the past making their own marks.

To see the complete story, read the March 16 issue of The Tribune in print or online.

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One team, six bots: Mount Vernon robotics to compete on world stage – Knox Pages

Posted: at 8:51 pm

MOUNT VERNON Mount Vernon robotics students will compete against students from across the world in May.

Two of its four middle school teams, composed of eight students total, qualified to compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship due to their performance in a statewide competition the weekend of March 11. All of Mount Vernons robotics students have the opportunity to attend the World competition, which will occur May 3-5 in Dallas, Texas, regardless of whether they are competing.

The district had competed at the state level prior to this year, but 2022 marks the first year the three-year-old program has advanced to Worlds.

The tasks the students will have to compete at Worlds will be similar to their past competitions. The level of competition and size of the event will be key differences, robotics coach Emily Miller explained.

But the competition itself is only one aspect of the value of Worlds, Miller said.

It is quite legitimately Worlds, meaning that you might be playing with teams from China or from Indonesia or from all over the world, and there's often language barriers, Miller said, explaining students will have to find alternative ways to communicate at times through diagrams and online translators.

So far, teams are registered from countries such as Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Canada, as well as various other parts of the United States.

Students will also meet their competitors and learn about their respective cultures off the competition field, as each team will have a pit table where they showcase items and food from their home countries, Miller said.

We're going there to play, but the ultimate goal that I have is just the learning experience the whole team can have from it, Miller said.

A look at past performance and future goals

Mount Vernon robotics is broken up into smaller teams for competitions, with four teams at the middle school level and two at the high school level, which are all named after Mount Vernons zip code.

The teams that qualified for Worlds during the state competition include team #43050B with eighth graders Mason Chesnut (captain, head builder and driver), Isabella Sherman (coder) and Natasha Jost (engineering notebook recorder and scout); as well as team #43050C with eighth graders Aspen McMahon (captain and head builder), Lily Grace (engineering notebook recorder), as well as seventh graders Shaun Barlow (builder), Carsten Hahn (driver) and Scout Nathan Hofferberth (coder).

Ohio sends eight teams to Worlds, and there are several ways for teams to qualify. Mount Vernons teams qualified because they made it to the semifinal round of States.

When a team wins a tournament, it does so along with another team that it forms an alliance with. In States, the Mount Vernons B and C teams aligned in the semifinal round. While they ultimately lost, they still qualified for Worlds because they had made it to semifinals.

Teams can also qualify for Worlds through skills rankings.

Team captain for team B, Mason Chesnut, joined robotics last year as a seventh grader, when he also competed in States. Chesnut said he, personally, and the teams at large are working on improving various skills before Worlds, one example being rings.

The object of competitionsis to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance, which is done by scoring rings as well as moving mobile goals to alliance zones and elevating on platforms.

Mount Vernons alliance lost the semi-finals because a ring got stuck under its robot and made them unable to drive, Chesnut said.

In middle school robotics in these tournaments just around Ohio and in Mount Vernon, we don't really incorporate the rings very much, but the high school teams very much do, Chesnut said. I'm thinking at Worlds, with all these better bots, rings are definitely going to get incorporated and we need to be able to score those rings on the post, which is something we're definitely going to work on.

Chesnuts goal for Worlds is twofold: make it to the end elimination bracket and have fun.

Worlds is just going to be a really fun experience, Chesnut said, and I think it's going to be really fun for the whole team just to be there.

Eighth grader Aspen McMahon is captain for the other team advancing to worlds, #43050C. McMahon, who is also head builder, said she and her team learned lessons during States they will be improving upon for Worlds.

I learned that we need to make our clamp stronger, which is what I'm doing right now, McMahon said during an interview as she worked on a robot after school.

Matches include both an autonomous period and a driver-controlled period. McMahons team is also working on coding more autonomousrobotsto improve the former.

Right now we only have one or two consistent autons and we're trying to get multiple so that it can fit whatever alliance we have for Worlds, McMahon said.

While McMahon had some previous competition experience going into States, for seventh grader Carsten Hahn on her team, it had been all new.

I was surprised by how many people were actually there, Hahn said of States. And I was surprised at the amount of support you can get from the Mount Vernon community.

Hahns entire family and several other families of robotics students attended States to cheer the teams on. Hahn served as a driver but also helped scout during States, meaning Hahn worked to form alliances with other teams, ready with a line of questions to ensure a good match.

Quick adaptation is a skill Hahn has honed.

When a clamp broke or the ring mechanism was not working, Hahn had to figure out how to drive without them. As Hahn prepares for Worlds, a main goal will be to ensure familiarity with some new mechanics being added to the robots.

Mount Vernons B, C and E teams were also invited to Nationals based on their award wins throughout the season, Miller said. The district decided to forgo Nationals due to the travel and costs associated as well as the timeline for registration. The team would have had to register for nationals before they found out about its Worlds eligibility.

Most of the time, teams will choose one or the other, Miller said of Nationals and Worlds.

The districts other four teams that did not advance to Worlds missed qualifying by small margins, Miller said, adding that there had still been a possibility for the others to advance as skills scores were being tallied this past week.

Overall, the program views any team's win as a win for all, which was exemplified during the state competition, Miller said.

The E team had just gotten knocked out and they came back to the stands and sat there and they were cheering and screaming for the B and C team, she explained.

And, they help each other all the time. You know, if there's a problem, our builders all go and try to figure out what the issue is, or another coder will hop over with the coder that's having a problem and fix it. So we're all one team, we just function with multiple bots.

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Emma Davis is a 2021 graduate of the University of Richmond, from which she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and leadership studies. Emma reports for Knox Pages and Ashland Source through Report for America.

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One team, six bots: Mount Vernon robotics to compete on world stage - Knox Pages

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Heights library event teaches kids about solar robotics – The Killeen Daily Herald

Posted: at 8:51 pm

About a dozen area children and their parents got a chance to learn a little about solar power and robotics during an event held at the Stewart C. Meyer Harker Heights Public Library on Tuesday afternoon.

The library supplied kits for participants that held everything they would need to put together a basic solar-powered robot and more, as the kits would make 12 different robots when all was said and done. It also contained the all-important solar panel that would have their robots up and moving once completed.

Library clerk Heather Heilman, who also holds the weekly virtual Science Time program, led the children in putting together first the robot bases and bodies, walking them through the instructions as she demonstrated each step. The parts and instructions were a bit involved, but with the help of Heilman, and their parents and guardians, the children seemed to have little difficulty.

The good thing is, Heilman told participants, if you mess up, its easy to pull back apart.

Noah Wilson, 8, appeared to have almost no difficulty following the directions on his own. Ive done this before, he said as he worked ahead.

He likes to build stuff, his father, Earl, confirmed. Noah would later turn his basic robot into a dog-bot because, he said, he has two dogs at home.

Bases and bodies completed, robot heads were put together and added next, then wheels were attached to the body to enable movement, and finally the wires were connected. Heilman led everyone outside to test the robots.

Why do we take it outside? she asked the children. What makes the solar panel work? The children all shouted out, The sun!

Someof the robots, like Noahs, worked the first time, though a few had to do some troubleshooting.

The robot didnt work, so Im redoing it right now, said Aaliyah Roman, 9. It worked on her second try.

Barry Holt and his granddaughter, Kennedy, 8, built the robot together. It worked a little bit, Holt said about their first attempt. After troubleshooting the gears, they had better luck on their second attempt.

It got better the second time, Holt said, adding, It finally worked pretty well. We really enjoyed it.

Noah sad he had a great time, too. His favorite part? Building it with my dad, he said.

Heilman said of the event, I think it went well, despite the fact that it wasnt easy to put together, adding that she was really impressed with the children. They followed directions really well. I was pleased with how well they grasped (the concepts) and their persistence.

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Robots and ag come together at RodeoHouston – KHOU.com

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Kids between the ages of 8 and 18 went head-to-head designing, building and programing robots to tackle six ag-related challenges.

HOUSTON When you think of Texas agriculture, what comes to mind? Livestock. Farmers. Probably tractors. What about robots?

"These kids are doing some awesome work in the area of STEM related to agriculture," said Dr. Toby Lepley, superintendent of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's Ag Robotics Contest.

"The cool thing about it is these arent the kids we would traditionally look at showing at the livestock show," Lepley said. "These are young people from urban areas here in Houston all the way to our rural areas who have that interest in STEM."

On Wednesday, kids between the ages of 8 and 18 went head-to-head in NRG Arena, designing, building, and programming robots to tackle six challenges.

"Its difficult," said Caleb Kocmoud, part of Brazos County 4H's Team Sabotage.

This years challenges focused on pollination and bees, so each team's robot had three minutes to harvest honey, plant seeds, spread pollen, build a hive and identify bees (colored pegs), and help them find their favorite plants,

"That was very hard to program because you have to get it just right, tweaking it every single time," Noah Vieira, who is part of Team Null, said.

Issues identified in one round have to get fixed before the team goes again.

"It really helps develop communication skills, conflict resolution, really decision-making as well because these kids are having to use their heads very quickly to change and revamp whats happening on the playfield," Dr. Lepley said.

In Team Sabotage's case, the robot missed some cubes for the "hive" in the first round.

"We made some tweaks to extend the program further to get the last cube because we didnt get all the cubes in," said Kocmoud.

Those tweaks did the trick. Caleb and the rest of the Brazos County 4H team took home top honors. But every kid who competed walked away with valuable skills.

"Were educating them on bigger things than just livestock, but how STEM plays into livestock and really helps us live a healthier life," Dr. Lepley said.

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More Than Robots Review: An International Battle – The New York Times

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The documentary More Than Robots (streaming on Disney+) centers on an international high school robotics competition. Despite the movies title, robots are, in fact, the subject and spectacle of this lighthearted film.

Working in groups over the course of several weeks, young inventors participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition to create industrial-size robots that are complex enough to move automatically, shoot projectiles and even climb. The organization that runs the competition was founded by the inventor Dean Kamen, who wanted to host an event that would develop the skills of young engineers. (The international reach of the competition drew powerful patrons: When the organizers of the tournament present the seasons challenge, they acknowledge that the competition is sponsored by Lucasfilm.)

The documentary follows four teams in early 2020 as they prepare for regional competitions in Japan, Mexico and California. The most memorable scenes come from the two teams in Los Angeles, each led by their teachers Fazlul and Fatima, who are also a married couple. Despite the apparent differences in funding between the two schools, both mentors encourage their students to build robots that stand up to the hard knocks of engineering battles.

The movie is the first documentary feature directed by the actress Gillian Jacobs. As a filmmaker, she made the wise choice to feature bright-eyed inventors who are able to make technical innovation sound approachable in talking head interviews.

Ultimately, though, the documentary lacks balance and growth in its storytelling. Jacobs has more footage to show from the tournament in Los Angeles than either Japan or Mexico, and this imbalance has the unfortunate effect of making the international story lines feel neglected. Like many of the young inventors she documents, Jacobs has created a project that doesnt fall apart at first touch. But her film doesnt meet the mark for excellence, either.

More Than RobotsNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Watch on Disney+.

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Top 10 Robotics Companies in the United States that Leads the Industry – Analytics Insight

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These top 10 robotics companies in the United States are emerging as disruptive robot-makers

Robots and AI machines are taking over the world. They are becoming widespread in several industries like healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, education, and defense. Without robotics, many of the worlds largest manufacturing and tech industries would not be able to operate. Big robotics companies are making it possible for other enterprises to become this efficient. This article lists the top 10 robotics companies in the United States.

NVIDIA Corporation is a US-based technology company that specializes in designing and selling interactive graphics on PCs, mobile devices, laptops, notebooks, workstations, and more.

Rockwell Automation is one of the largest providers of industrial automation power, control, and information solutions for manufacturing companies globally.

Universal Robots has its roots in Denmark and works primarily for the automation industry. The company aims to make collaborative robots known as cobots. Universal Robots has introduced a whole new concept to conjugate the working of humans and robots for industrial work.

Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company that is headquartered in Massachusetts. The company is best known for the development of a series of dynamic highly-mobile robots, including Stretch, Spot, Atlas, and Handle.

Canvas Technology is a robotics company with a mission to provide end-to-end autonomous delivery of goods. The robots are well-equipped with stereo cameras that allow viewing in full 3D, which covers the entire area in front of the robot.

Voliro is developing advanced flying robots to perform inspection and maintenance tasks more safely, cost-effectively, and faster than traditional methods.

Zebra Technologies is one of the worlds biggest robotics companies that offer retail robots called SmartSight. This automated system optimizes the customers retail experience and boosts overall store performance by solving the most common problems in retail stores, such as incorrect pricing and high labor costs.

iRobot Corporation specializes in designing and producing consumer robots. The companys portfolio of robotics solutions includes various innovations for smart homes and different concepts in visualizing, navigation, mobility, and artificial intelligence.

Ubtech Robotics is a popular Chinese robotics company that is well-known for creating intelligent humanoid robots. The companys innovative creations serve the public, accelerate STEM education for children and entertain homes.

The CloudMinds vision is that by 2025, helpful humanoid robots will be affordable for the average household. The vision also includes creating a new kind of venture with a unique international character that earns and keeps the trust of people and markets everywhere.

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Top 10 Robotics Companies in the United States that Leads the Industry - Analytics Insight

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