Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #02316
To: , beam beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Ed Spike spike@engmail.uwaterloo.ca
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 16:59:52 -0500
Subject: Re: hmmm...i wonder which subject
Hi
In 1990 I asked Mark Tilden to show his creations at the UW IEEE
MicroMouse contest in Toronto.
Mark and I both recognized that the MicroMouse was at a level which
few could get to without some previous experience.
Mark then coined BEAM; Biology, Ethnology, Analogy, and Morphology.
There are variations. For the younger group I tell them it means;
Building, Excitement, Antagonism, and Making.
---8<---
Mark Tilden left the University of Waterloo for a position "down
south". Several students at the University of Waterloo gained a
significant advantage by showing their "BEAM or MicroMouse"
projects on their resumes. I know! I received reference requests
from employers.
I tell the grade six to grade 12 students to just have fun and
investigate. I tell the University and College students to have
fun and investigate.
I tell them all to start a the level they can understand and cop
with. Mark and I discussed in 1990 the fact that there had to be
challenges that could be understood and handled by persons at
various levels of understanding and development. Understanding and
development can certainly be enhanced by having a mentor. The WEB
is great for the mentoring idea.
On thank note; I would like to say thanks to all the mentors out
there. Some mentors just get others in their local space, excited
about the idea of building. Other mentors are providing WEB pages
and answers.
> No history. No mention of how he got from point A to point B. No
> names of those that set the ground work. It's like an art history
> class about Rafael without any mention of Michelangelo. And I
> guess that's the real problem.
Where Mark T's Nervous Nets etc. are concerned, "Living Machines"
mentions Brosl Hasslacher as second author, and there is a quite
considerable bibliography at the end. I don't mean any disrespect,
but your point eludes me.
> By the way Steve, are you one of "them"?
I very much like the BEAM initiative as a way to draw young and old
into an exciting and worthwhile hobby or even career. "Them" have
been very hospitable, providing me with information and even with
components. But I have no financial stake in their affairs, if that
is what you mean.
Best,
Steve
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# sbolt@xs4all.nl # Steven Bolt # popular science monthly KIJK #
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