Bristlebots

Someone’s discovered that if you attach a vibrator to a sawn-off toothbrush, it scurries about the place:

So they put it up on Youtube… and now there are about 150 other versions, all evolving and morphing etc.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. There are a bunch of remote controlled ones…

And for some reason, the better the bot, the worse the music.

They evolve legs, wheels, lights, become petrol driven, learn to paint

I think what’s important (or at least interesting) about this isn’t the fact that you can make toothbrushes scurry about the place, it’s that people are taking a daft little bit of technology and exploring hundreds of different angles that probably wouldn’t be considered if people were working in isolation. It’s like having a combination lock and being able to try out hundreds of combinations at the same time… it massively increases the possibility that something truly remarkable will be unlocked.

And maybe something has been at a higher level… people are doing this rather than watching television.