Hightech Mechatronica 2010

Nine years ago the Hightech Mechatronica event in Holland, Michigan, gave birth to one of the most interesting technology concepts of the past twenty years.

Bicyberetics. This amazing new idea in high technology was ignored at first. In fact it was made fun of by industry high rollers like Bill Gates and Elon Musk. But today bicyberetics has become a hiss and a byword throughout Silicon Valley, Sun Valley, and Valley Villas.

Two women are initially responsible for the conception and implementation of bycyberetics, which is a huge accomplishment given the gender inequalities faced in the tech industry. Lucy Greenwit and Sarah Bindlestiff were recent M.I.T. graduates who were looking for a better way to integrate algorithms within the larger context of AI (Artificial Ignorance.) Their early formulas proving to be impractical in the real world of vacuum cleaner sales, they turned to factoring in Hydrox pyramids, which turned out to be just the thing to make their concept shimmer with so much brilliance that they’ve run out of storage space for their Nobel Prizes.

In a nutshell, cybereretics is the use of random factoring to predict the exact amount of credit card debt the average consumer will spend online in any given moment. Or it might actually be a new diet plan — it’s hard to remember which after a long night of streaming reruns and eating poutine . . . . .