Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #02474
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: afarley@sas.upenn.edu (Alexander H Farley)
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 16:27:13 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [alt-beam] Re:Structured approach / genome
The argument that CPUs do not adhere to BEAM orthodoxy should
cease. The argument contradicts the first letter in the acronym:
biology. The primary level of biology is digital not ANALOGUE. An
organism's genome dictates and influences its behaviour pattern end of
story. The idea in BEAM is to at least attempt to emulate biological
behaviour. The robots that exist now for the most part do not fulfill
this ideal. The nervous net while excellent at what it does is only one
level of what a biologically emulating autonomous robot would need. The
qualities that it dictate are simply automatic sensory reflexes. Which
makes complete sense as the nervous network is intended to be the spinal
cord and peripheral nervous system to the neural network's brain.
This relates to the argument/discussion on the BEAM "genome."
There is no genome here. The robots can not evolve (at least not in a
biological manner), which is what a genome seeks to measure or elucidate.
The closest thing that could exist now is a robotic pedigree or a tree of
BEAM speciation. A genome would require polymorphisms between individuals.
This does not exist either since all BEAM robots are controlled by the same
processes. A genome would exist if the outputs were regulated in a proscribed
manner, such that most robots would have a similar architecture but display
a broad spectrum of behaviours. Behaviours that emerge from within the robot
as well as from environmental stimuli. I see this as an unstated
philosophical goal of BEAM, however the current use of "genome" is
unecessarily misleading and should be reworked. There is a great deal
of promise within the general parameters of BEAM to build on, rather than
repeatedly arguing about semantics and orthodoxy.
Alex Farley
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