New Videos: Kacie Kinzer and Jonah Lehrer from PopTech 2009

Kristen Taylor ( Bio  /   Posts )  |  Wednesday, February 17, 2010 UTC

Two more talks from PopTech 2009, both on the unexpected—Kacie Kinzer tells us how robots can make humans act more like humans, Jonah Lehrer gives evidence that in some instances, outsider intelligence may be the most valuable.

Watch Kacie Kinzer on robots and acting human (Vimeo).

Designer Kacie Kinzer recently released a cardboard robot in New York City bearing a flag that read, “Help me!” Its mission? To safely cross an area park by relying on strangers. With the help of 29 passersby, the robot made the journey in 42 minutes, reminding us of the importance of small acts of kindness.

For more on the tweenbots, visit the tweenbots site, Kacie’s portfolio, and read what the NYT Freakonomics column thinks about the the interactions the bots enable.

Watch Jonah Lehrer on outsider intelligence (Vimeo).

Author (How We Decide, Proust Was a Neuroscientist) Jonah Lehrer has made his career writing about the subtle science of the mind. We tend to hand out tough problems to experts, yet Lehrer suggests that, paradoxically, lacking expertise on a subject can reveal solutions to otherwise intractable problems.

For more, visit Jonah’s personal site, his The Frontal Cortex blog, and read his recent Wired article.

What do you think about the tweenbots and outsider intelligence?

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