I would like to tell you about a project
which I started about 16 years ago. It's about making new forms of life. And these are made of this kind of tube -- electricity tube, we call it in Holland. And we can start a film about that, and we can see a little bit
backwards in time. (Video) Narrator: Eventually, these beasts
are going to live in herds on the beaches. Theo Jansen is working hard
on this evolution. Theo Jansen: I want to put
these forms of life on the beaches. And they should survive over there, on their own, in the future. Learning to live on their own -- and it'll take couple of more years to let them walk on their own. Narrator: The mechanical beasts
will not get their energy from food, but from the wind. The wind will move feathers on their back,
which will drive their feet. The beast walks sideways
on the wet sand of the beach, with its nose pointed into the wind. As soon as it walks into
either the rolling surf or the dry sand, it stops, and walks
in the opposite direction. Evolution has generated many species. (Music) This is the Animaris Currens Ventosa. (Music) (Laughter) (Applause) TJ: This is a herd, and it is built
according to genetic codes. And it is a sort of race,
and each and every animal is different, and the winning codes will multiply. This is the wave,
going from left to right. You can see this one. Yes, and now it goes from left to right. This is a new generation, a new family, which is able to store the wind. So, the wings pump up air
in lemonade bottles, which are on top of that. And they can use that energy
in case the wind falls away, and the tide is coming up, and there is still a little bit of energy
to reach the dunes and save their lives, because they are drowned very easily. (Laughter) I could show you this animal. (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) So, the proportion of the tubes in this
animal is very important for the walking. There are 11 numbers,
which I call The 11 Holy Numbers. These are the distances of the tubes
which make it walk that way. In fact, it's a new
invention of the wheel. It works the same as a wheel. The axis of a wheel
stays on the same level, and this hip is staying
on the same level as well. In fact, this is better than a wheel, because when you try to drive
your bicycle on the beach, you will notice it's very hard to do. And the feet just step over the sand, and the wheel has to touch every piece
of the ground in-between. So 5,000 years after
the invention of the wheel, we have a new wheel. I will show you, in the next video -- can you start it, please? -- that very heavy loads can be moved. There's a guy pushing there, behind, but it can also walk
on the wind very well. It's 3.2 tons. This is working on the stored
wind in the bottles. It has a feeler, where it can
feel obstacles and turn around. You see, it's going the other way. Can I have the feeler here? OK. Good. So, they have to survive
all the dangers of the beach, and one of the big dangers is the sea. This is the sea. And it must feel the water of the sea. And this is the water feeler, and what's very important is this tube. It sucks in air normally, but when it swallows water,
it feels the resistance of it. So, imagine that the animal
is walking towards the sea. As soon as it touches the water -- you should hear a sound of running air. (Sound of running air) Yes! So if it doesn't feel,
it will be drowned, OK? Here we have the brain of the animal. In fact, it is a step counter,
and it counts the steps. It's a binary step counter. So as soon it has been to the sea, it changes the pattern
of zeroes and ones here. And it always knows
where it is on the beach. So it's very simple brain. It says, well, there's the sea,
there are dunes, and I'm here. So it's a sort of imagination
of the simple world of the beach animal. Thank you. One of the biggest enemies are the storms. This is a part of the nose
of the Animaris Percipiere. When the nose of the animal
is fixed, the whole animal is fixed. So when the storm is coming up, it drives a pin into the ground. (Laughter) Audience member: Wow! The nose is fixed,
the whole animal is fixed. The wind may turn, but the animal
will always turn its nose into the wind. Now, another couple of years, and these
animals will survive on their own. I still have to help them a lot. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. (Applause)
Simulate your own here.
no no he is just demonstrating a passion for his creations. in a simple sense we feel the same way about programs, they are in some sense alive and 'running' left alone and survive. here it is in analog form, simple materials and a will to survive can be programmed into air pressure and simple toggle switches.
in effect he has taken the very core of our computers today (binary) and created a very simple amazing analog version. He keeps finding new ways to "program" them and build new ways for them to power themselves so in essence they 'designs' are evolving. Amazing stuff.. he really did invent a better wheel
I would love to see one as a pedal bicycle
I had seen these before, but I had no idea that they were supposed to be self-sustaining and that they even had mechanical brains! This is amazing!
Pretty impressive stuff. I see a lot of potential applications here. Obviously construction and transportation. Possibly environmental cleanup. I wonder if NASA has anything like this? Probably not well suited to military operations though... Although definitely helpful for scaring those damn hippies off the beach.
Crazy, sexy, cool.
How did he evolve them? Stick them out on the beach for a bit, the ones that get back get to breed? What?