Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #03509
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: Jean auBois aubois@trail.com
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 00:33:40 -0600
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Evolution Comparison
At 5:23 AM -0000 5/22/99, Hendrickson wrote:
:...Robotic dogs and vacuums are cool to some of us, but mainstream
:society won't be flocking to by them when they come out.
Speaking of robotic vacuums, if I remember correctly, Mr. Tilden's two
major complaints about the computer-based one he built Once Upon A Time
were (a) his cat could make it think that the entire world was about 2
square feet (sounds like a programming problem to me) and -- more
importantly -- (b) it picked up things it shouldn't have.
BEAM technology, as such, has been in existence for quite a few years now.
Precisely how has it improved the automagic vacuum cleaner problem?
It hasn't? Didn't think so. When is BEAM going to solve some of the
-real- problems then?
:I doubt many people will spend $375 for a vacuum when a $150 one will do.
$375??? Give me a break!!! Today, you can get a:
:The ScoutWalker walking robot is a simple basic implementation of
:Mark Tilden's Microcore technology : $300.00
which is a KIT & basically doesn't do anything useful (um, vacuum floors
for example?) and certainly won't last 5..10 years without being very
carefully tended. Yeah, I know, it is great for educational purposes, but
that isn't the point, is it? I find this to be particularly bothersome
when one of Mark's papers claimed that -built- walkers ought to cost only
$100 (which I suppose they would if you do a lot of dumpster diving, but do
you think that Eureka or one of the other established manufacturers build
their stuff out of discards?)
What I want to see is BEAM technology doing some REAL evolution.
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