This site is dedicated to exploring the scientific, technological, socio-historical, and educational dimensions behind the emergence of the various “horizon technologies” surrounding humanoid robotics, and the integrated and multidisciplinary arenas that will comprise this growing field in the coming century–including bionanoelectronics, quantum computing, and neuromorphic engineering, to name a few.
The term “Zygbotics” is a derivative of two words, “zygot” and “robotics.” The first half of this word, zyg is from the ancient Greek ζυγωτός (zugōtos), meaning “joined” or “yoked,” from ζυγοῦν (zugoun) “to join” or “to yoke.” The most common association in the English is “Zygot,” which refers to a human cell that results from fertilization between the ovum and the sperm. The second part of “Zygbotics” derives from the word robota which has etymological roots in Czech and other Slavic languages and means work, labor or serf labor. The word was popularized in the 1921 Czech play, RUV (Rossum’s Universal Robots), by Karel Čapek who placed the word ‘robot’ into the modern consciousness. Since then robotics has sprung into a field of study that has stimulated far-ranging interest not only in technological sectors, but in popular media, entertainment, and culture as well. The joining of the two roots, zygot and robot, into a new amalgam, Zygbot, reflects the underlying premise of this blog — that significant developments in humanoid technologies in the next several decades will depend upon fundamental breakthroughs in the merging together of biological and electro-mechanical systems to achieve new advances in the replication of human motion and cognition.
The field of robotics is immensely broad and complex and is the focus of numerous undertakings, from commercial applications like “Lego Mindstorm,” to amateur projects in garages, all the way to sophisticated,and generously funded private and government sponsored projects around the globe. At the general level, considerable evidence suggests that the area of robotics stands poised to become one of the most exciting and expansive growth markets for technology in the twenty-first century. Speaking to a trade conference in January 2007, Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, argued that the next big technological horizon will be in robotics and projected that the field is currently in the same position as the computer industry was in the mid-1970s on the verge of the Home PC explosion.
At the outset, Zygbotics is dedicated to advancing this new paradigm while suggesting that a focused concentration on humanoid technologies will depend on major breakthroughs in the area of neuromorphic engineering and the merging together of biological and mechanical systems. For starters, please see this news item and video about some exciting ways that robotics researchers in England are bringing these two worlds together.
Tags: future of robotics, humanoid robotics, neuromorphic engineering
