Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #02476
To: "'afarley@sas.upenn.edu'" afarley@sas.upenn.edu
From: Wilf Rigter Wilf.Rigter@powertech.bc.ca
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 16:13:17 -0700
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Structured approach / genome
Hi Alex,
I would be happy to use a more descriptive or less contentious term like "
a database of the design, construction and operation of all classes of
BEAM like robots" or "Beam Encyclopedia" if it had the same meaning and was
as easy to use.
The Beam genome actually refers to a database that would result from the
"Beam genome project".
The "Beam genome project" has a similar meaning as the "Human genome
project" (but on a slightly different scale of 8^)
The Human genome project is said to be one of the largest and most expensive
projects in human history to map the function and structure of all genes
contained in all human chromosomes.
The Beam genome project is a more modest attempt to record, to the best of
our ability, the sum total of all information on all BEAM robots past,
present and future.
This includes a description of all classes of Beam and Beam like robots,
names and dates of the designers , derivative sub-class designs and all the
information required to design, build and operate these robots.
The information would include a description of the design, when it was
first introduced, it's salient features, the specific hardware components -
chips, passives, sensors, solar cells, motors, structural components and
assembly instructions - mechanical drawings, circuit schematics, circuit
layout drawings, model/photo, freeform layout, assembly tool instructions
and the operating instruction - balancing, tuning, trimming, optimization,
maintenance, safety, survival.
Still a formidable task but I'm not worried about borrowing such a specific
term from biology to describe it because it's in line with other Beam
terminology..
I was attracted to Beam because of the way it has adapted/borrowed terms and
ideas from the widely different paradigms of Biology, Electronics,
Aesthetics and Mechanics. Terms like neuron, process, feedback, head, have
acquired new meaning relating to the BEAM application. Other terms like
phototropic are applied in the original sense and new words like microcore
although used in the days of magnetic core memory were synthesized to
describe a specific ring structured pulse delay network.
Anyway I agree with you on the other points you made but I assume you meant
"linear" when you said "analogue". If you look closely at Beam electronics
you find that most circuits operate in the digital mode not in the linear
mode.
enjoy
Wilf Rigter mailto:wilf.rigter@powertech.bc.ca
tel: (604)590-7493
fax: (604)590-3411
> -----Original Message-----
> From: afarley@sas.upenn.edu [SMTP:afarley@sas.upenn.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, April 18, 1999 1:27 PM
> To: beam@corp.sgi.com
> Subject: 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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