I noticed that "a basic sofa" involves some placing some floating bricks if built in the order of the animation. It hints at the way this model generates the designs. The automated assembly of generated LEGO structures using robots would have serious trouble creating these designs I reckon.
I came here to say that. I immediately thought: Wow, this works in the assembled version, but not the way the assembly is being animated. You would need to first build the base sofa layer from two levels so that the upper layer keeps the lower layer bricks in place. Only afterwards could it be put onto the legs.
Indeed, I would be very curious to see how their robots would actually build that sofa. Although the robots aren't really part of the model of course, they're just a little extra.
I think in the book those people were convinced to give up air travel by the eco-terrorists known as the Children of Kali shooting commercial airliners out of the sky, and not shooting down cleaner alternatives like airships. A persuasive argument, to be sure.
It does kind of look like a sticker now that you mention it. I went over to look at the video of the device itself and it seems like it was just the angle of the photo.
The UK's National Health Service advises to eat no more than 70g a day (on average, I assume) to reduce the risks of bowel cancer. So 500g daily seems quite high.
If you like this sort of stuff, I recommend The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, a 2021 book by anthropologist and activist David Graeber, and archaeologist David Wengrow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything
[Findings like this fort] can contribute to the critical re-appraisal of narratives of linear pathways to social change increasingly explored in both scientific and popular debates (e.g. Dan-Cohen Reference Dan-Cohen2020; Graeber & Wengrow Reference Graeber and Wengrow2021).
edit: on second read this comment came across to me as not supportive of the parent comment, which was not intended. I second the recommendation of reading Graeber and Wengrow, and was happy to see them directly cited.
“The Dawn of Everything” does include some lengthy polemical content. Even if the authors point of view isn’t to one’s own aesthetic or political sensibility: skip ahead, it is still worth reading the whole thing.
I love everything David Graeber wrote, including this book. But this is a book that reliably puts me to sleep. I had trouble finishing it when I first read it, it took me almost two months to read it as I kept falling asleep. I suffer from the occasional insomnia, so I bought this book and whenever I feel like my hypothalamus is not cooperating, I try to read a chapter. Works like a charm.
Besides a fun read, the book is more a critique of the philosophical notion of Optimism, i.e. the idea that we are living in the optimal "timeline". Even if this reality is shit, Optimism states it's still better than all others that could possibly be.
