Robots

I remember getting my first robot when I was a child. It basically was this really crude remote control robot that tried to walk but really just sort of wobbled back and forth. It is amazing how far robotic technology has advanced since the days of that first robotic toy (though the toy was definitely not on the cutting edge of technology even then).

Today I watched an excerpt on TED.com about robots and the seven 'species' that have recently been developed. (http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_hong_my_seven_species_of_robot.html) It is absolutely astonishing to see the technological advances that have been made recently. The new robots can navigate over almost any terrain, they can stand up and sit down, and one particular robot can actually play the game of soccer independent of anyone controlling it remotely. One of the species utilizes a spider or crab like structure using multiple legs. Another species uses mechanics wrapped in a rubber skin and through a series of pinching and expanding movement, is able to move itself. The robotic movements of these different varieties are triggered by everything from electronic impulse to air compression to chemical reaction.

What's ironic about the future of these robots is that the inspiration for their engineering comes from very ancient design. I think the term 'species' is very accurate because all of the robots borrow the physics, motion, and mechanics of creatures already found in the natural world. Think about it, of all of the possible "out of the box" thinking and engineering that man is capable of, he is being forced to realize that the most practical and efficient engineering comes from nature or creation (which implies a creator) that has been there from the beginning.

In watching the brilliance of how the engineers had gotten each robot to move, I think about my own body and all of the amazing things that happen in just taking a step or breathing. There are movements being triggered by electronic impulse, chemical reaction, and air compression all at once... and all of that is through biological and organic means.

All of this just reminds me of how incomprehensibly brilliant God is and when comparing today's robots to the subtleties and complexity of the human body, I begin to see today's technology in a light that is not unlike the way I see that first primitive toy robot that I had as a child...

Romans 1:20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.