Nottingham Barcamp 2011

This weekend saw the inaugural Barcamp Nottingham, held at Nottingham’s most awesome Hackspace. The space is easily one of the most awesome geek-spaces in the UK, consisting of a sofa area, open discussion space and generous space for two screens. They’re also easily packing some of the most awesome geekery I’ve seen, from 3D printers to LED tweet boards and enough soldering irons to allow Alistair to set most of the UK on fire.

Talks were wide and varied, ranging from robotics through to lace making, Haskell through to balloon animals. Some barcamps can take themselves too seriously, and focus too hard on technical geekery. Geekery comes in many forms, and it’s great to see some of the more obtuse aspects being investigated. Where else are you going to find discussions on the mathematics of origami?

Over the course of the talks over the weekend, I have come to a startling conclusion. The human race is near the end of its existance and will soon be at a tipping point where we can no longer save ourselves. No, I’m not talking about recycling, global warming and self-sustenance (although these were all covered over the weekend). I’m talking about the fact that we are one step away from self-powering robots feasting on human flesh which can replicate themselves and hunt us down.

Dear people, the future is here, and we’re all doomed.