Monkey Paw Robot Arm is a blog about the intersection between human society and future technology.

I’m a business reporter by trade. The past few years, reading up on some of the interesting tech that’s been emerging and its potential to impact the economy, I’ve felt a bit like a surfer on the beach just before dawn. Driverless cars, thought-controlled artificial limbs, Jeopardy-champion robots — these seem to me to be the first glimmers of the sun on the crest of a rising wave, perhaps even a tsunami that could wash away the world we have known.

And being a reporter, I kind of want to get out there and ride it.

Speculation on the potential impact of advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, and networking abounds, in both optimistic and pessimistic varieties. But it seems to me that if these technologies and others do change our society as profoundly as the advances of the industrial revolution changed the world in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, then what would really be valuable to have would be a record of the thoughts of the revolutionaries.

So that’s what this blog aims to be: A repository of news, videos, essays and links that help track the emergence of new tech, new robots, new techniques and the companies that make them, but also a place for interviews and features on the people on the ground making that tech, their ideas, hopes, and ambitions.

You have any tips/ideas/comments you want to send me about any of that stuff, you can email me at monkeypawrobotarm [at] gmail.com, or follow me on twitter @MkeyPawRobotArm. Editors looking for my portfolio/clips can find them at colleenmsullivan.com.