Redoing computing not from the ground up, but from below sea level.
FOAM is an emergent-systems research and robotics company exploring new substrates and architectures for computation — so that computers become more like humans, and humans can be less like computers.
We work at today’s edge — applied AI and robotics — while quietly rebuilding the assumptions beneath computing itself.
What FOAM does
FOAM explores architectures for cognition inspired by biology, fluids, and emergent systems. In practice, that means two tracks running in parallel: building useful tools now, and designing what comes after conventional computing.
Applied AI & Robotics
We create AI and robotics solutions using current industry-standard technologies — but with a twist. Our work is guided by principles from embodied cognition, control systems, and neuromorphic thinking.
New computing from below sea level
Instead of just stacking more compute on top, FOAM looks beneath the surface: novel substrates, fluidic and magnetic behaviours, and reflex-like layers that operate before the CPU ever sees a signal.
Our approach
FOAM is deliberately phased: we solve immediate problems while quietly building the foundations for a different kind of machine.
Applied AI and robotics projects that use current tools to solve real problems — experimentation grounds our theory in practice.
Research into new substrates and architectures: reflex-like pre-CPU layers, emergent control systems, and more human-like models of machine cognition.
R&D / Deep techFOAM is pro-neurodiversity and pro-women in tech — not as a slogan, but as a pragmatic hiring and collaboration strategy. Different minds see different possibilities.
Example initiative: pre-CPU reflex layers
One concrete project direction: giving today’s robots a nervous system that doesn’t need to wait for the CPU.
FOAM is exploring the design of new computational substrates that enable reflex-like abilities in robots. The goal is an organic-feeling process that happens entirely before the CPU:
- Faster balance and response under dynamic conditions.
- Local, sub-symbolic reactions closer to biological reflexes.
- Lower latency pipelines for control and safety-critical actions.
Think of it as a “reflex layer” for machines: a physical and logical foundation that lets higher-level intelligence focus on thinking, not just staying upright.
About the founder
FOAM was founded by Dylan Hartcher, a systems thinker with a background in people, operations, and emergent behaviour — and a long-standing obsession with how intelligence actually arises in the wild. FOAM is the outlet for that obsession: a place to explore new computing while staying grounded in what’s useful now.
Contact
FOAM is in an early R&D phase and open to conversations with roboticists, AI practitioners, physicists, materials people, and anyone who feels strangely at home in emergent systems.
For collaborations, questions, or “this is insane but I’m in” messages:
Email: dylan@foamagi.tech
You can also find Dylan on LinkedIn — search for Dylan Hartcher.