Around 15,000–20,000 years ago, as the last ice age began to recede, human populations transitioned from a way of life that depended on hunting and gathering to one that favored agriculture. This time period, known as the Neolithic period, would be marked by a sharp increase in population, increased complexity of social and political interactions, and the emergence of technology as we know it today. The era dragged along and technology slowly evolved in response to the most basic social needs of food and shelter, until about 5000 years ago when the Urban Revolution began. Before the Urban revolution, technology had existed outside the concept of "science", as it simply referred to manipulating our world (the elements, our environment, and so forth) to aid our continued survival. However, as the first astronomers in Mesopotamia--the birthplace of civilization--used data from the movements of celestial bodies to establish calendars and create irrigation systems, a creative partnership between science and technology came to the fore.

Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they're underwater explorers, too. OceanOneK resembles a human diver from the front, with arms and hands and eyes that have 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full color. The back of the robot has computers and eight multidirectional thrusters that help it carefully maneuver the sites of fragile sunken ships. OceanOneK, here doing an experiment in a swimming pool at Stanford University, resembles a human diver. When an operator at the ocean's surface uses controls to direct OceanOneK, the robot's haptic (touch-based) feedback system causes the person to feel the water's resistance as well as the contours of artifacts.