Table of Free Voices

Located in Berlin, The Table of Free Voices is the fastest, most high-tech table in human history. The table jas a camera and a microphone built into each of its 112 places, allowing the responses of each individual to be recorded and saved as an individually searchable audiovisual portrait. The Table of Free Voices is 124 feet in diameter and is basically a big supercomputer. The lead programmer of Dropping Knowledge describes the table’s specs:

In terms of computing power, the Table delivers a peak performance of around 230 GFLOPS, which means that it can calculate 230,000,000,000 floating point operations per second. Packed with technology, the table features 112 Mini-DV Cameras, 112 Mac Minis with 224 Intel Core CPU cores running at 1.66 GHz, more than 36 terabytes of storage space spread over 224 individual hard drives and miles of cabling. While in recording mode, the table records 112 DV audio-video streams with a total bandwidth of over 3.8 Gigabits per second and performs a real-time h.264 compression on all 112 video streams.By the evening of September 9th, the Table will have recorded, compressed and stored almost 700 hours of video footage, as both high-quality material and in compressed, ready for streaming formats.

On top of all that, Free Voices will be transcribed and translated into numerous languages and made freely accessible to all in a variety of digital formats.

On September 9, 2006, 112 scientists, social entrepreneurs, philosophers, writers, artists and activists from around the world will come together in Berlin, Germany, as guests of dropping knowledge. They will engage with 100 questions from the global public. The questions will reflect the topics of greatest concern to the global public, emphasize under-reported issues and engage key themes endorsed by dropping knowledge in 2006.

So mark your calendars, you know, if you’re into that sort of thing.

<a href=" [Dropping Knowldge]