Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #00404



To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Chiu-Yuan Fang chiumanfu@home.com
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 19:40:56 -0800
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: question


Hey Zoz...here's another one for ya! ;-)

I wish I could sit back and ignore this "OLD" argument but...

JVernonM@aol.com wrote:
> > If MIT funded BEAM research I'd bet serious money
> > that they would churn out some serious quality items.
> >
> I'd have sworn LANL was funding BEAM tech. Hmmmmm...

LANL is a research institute with ties to (possibly run by) the US government
and US military. They usually don't like selling their military secrets to the
public in kit form.

> > What do you mean by REAL WORLD?
> I mean real robots. Autonomous, seemingly sentiant, and possessing the ability
> to interact with humans on a level that produces meaningful relationships.
> This can be construction, hazardous employment, servitude, entertainment,
> pets, household maintenance, this is limited only by your imagination. Perhaps
> this is my own interpratation. I basicly believe we (builders) are attracted
> to the idea of human created artificial life. Being alive entails much more
> than being able to walk over sand dunes.

BEAM is a bottom up approach. We are still lingering near the bottom.

Robots like Cog and Hondas Human are coming close to what you describe but were
built with unlimited technical resources and funding. In fact, if you take a
gander at the CPU based "hobby robots" on the web, the majority are $200+ robots
that search out light and avoid obstacles...sound familiar?


--
Chiu-Yuan Fang
chiumanfu@home.com
ICQ=5614919
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/6897/beam2.html

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