Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #00163
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: "Scott Martin" a1a96566@bc.sympatico.ca
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 11:07:10 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Schmitt trigger
>> is quoted from Bob Shannon.
> is quoted from Wilf Rigter.
>good story anyway. I think it was a pretty bold move for Tilden to
>patent his ideas although he probably hasn't made much money
>from it.
Not yet....but it has protected him from people like NASA,JPL,and
Electronics Now, to name a few.
>>but Tilden's attatudes towards patents and claiming BEAM as his
>>personal intellectual property seems to be unjustified. I dont think his
>>patents are enforcable.
Don't make that mistake...they are, and have been defended before.
People who criticize his patent usually are the ones who are trying to
make a buck from it...are you? It's ok to admit it...just keep it in
perspective.
>>In my personal opinion, I think that BEAM as a 'new technology' is
>>pure hype.
If not for the "hype" would you have heard about this "new technology"?
Would you be on this list?
>>BEAM is becomming almost religion, with 'gods' and fanatics. This
>>bothers me. I've read responses from people that actually beleive
>>that a photopopper is 'smarter' than a Pentium chip, or superior to
>>any CPU based (which is often an 'evil' thing) robot.
>>.....
>>BEAM or not? I actually think the question itself is flawed,because
>>BEAM is a false concept as its being presented to people today.
>>The false concept is based on the incorrect idea that stimuli-response
>>based systems are new when they clearly predated the microprocessor!
This confusion is usally caused by uninformed people trying to pass
themselves off as experts in BEAM. You don't see any of the old time
BEAMers claiming this.
>>BEAM is a tool that can teach us many things, but it should not
>>become a fanatical movement or thought of as a revolution in
>>robot design.
Unfortunately, there are "fanatics" among us. It is a revolution
tho...in that it has made people realize that a CPU is not nessary
to controll certian functions. I would like to state for the record that
I LIKE CPU's... Computers have played a big part in my life.
>>After all, what about Marvin Minski's Perceptrons? That was back
>>in the 1960's, they used vacuum tubes, but had learning machine robots
>>long before mobile CPU based robots.
>Minski, a shining light for all of us! (don't worry, I didn't say God)
>
Nor would I. Minski and his colleages went out of their way to
suppress AI research that didn't fit their "vision" setting AI back
by at least 20 years...and thats in the history books.
ScottyDogma
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