Alan Winfield's Web Log

In the run up to Science Week (7-16 March) the BA have been asking both the public and scientists for their big questions (see my previous ...

Amazing meeting yesterday afternoon at the Science Museum. Here's the story: the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA...

Here at @Bristol Walking with Robots is running a 3-day workshop for students and researchers in robotics, artificial intelligence and anim...

Or, Pope's Dangerous Idea . One of the most important principles of science is attributed to 13th century philosopher William of Ockham ...

Great evening at the Dana Centre Tuesday. A public debate/discussion called Techno Bodies - Hybrid Life? "What counts as a hybrid life...

Every New Year the Edge poses a question and publishes the responses from among the world's intelligentsia. It's fun to read the re...

Our subjective experience of the 'continuity' of consciousness is surely an illusion. But what makes that illusion and why is it so ...

Ok, I admit it. I have an Xbox 360. Of course I'm hopeless at playing video games, which is perhaps just as well because it means that I...

Had a remarkable couple of days last week. Walking with Robots (WWR), the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) and the London Engineering Proj...

A day off sick with a head cold and painful sinuses had one consolation. I had a little time this afternoon to install Leopard - the new ver...

The projected ubiquity of personal companion robots raises a range of interesting but also troubling questions. There can be little doubt th...

Fed up with airports and - perhaps rather pathetically trying to do my bit for climate change - I'm taking the train from Bristol to Lis...

Between 13th and 16th August thirteen teams descended on Monte Ceneri in Ticino, Switzerland, for C-ELROB - the Civilian European Land Robo...

One of the great pleasures of giving public lectures is the questions that come from the audience, and my talk last week to the Bath U3A gro...

Spent the last two days at a really interesting workshop: Practices of Anthropomorphism: from Automata to Robotics . The best thing about th...

In Daniel Dennett 's remarkable book "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" he describes the Tower of Generate-and-Test ; a brilliant c...

Heard some great lectures yesterday evening at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute . John Sloboda gave a wonderful talk about...

Last night's Horizon was promising: what might have happened if the asteroid that is generally agreed to have triggered the extinction ...

My friend, erstwhile mentor and visiting professor colleague Rod Goodman and I were reminiscing a few days ago about our first experiences ...

At a little over 5 cm tall the e-pucks are remarkable little robots. Here is a picture from the web pages of supplier and all round good peo...