Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #05136
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 18:19:03 -0400
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Someting funny with the subject line? was Something funnywith
George Rix wrote:
> > Technically, if it does not perform a tast, its not a robot. Make a
> > photovore
> > carry around a solar powered thingy, even a flag spinner, and now you have
> > a real robot.
> A 'REAL' robot? IMHO, the task of a photovore is to stay alive.
I suppose using the dictionary definition is totally pointless?
A photovore it not alive, so its not performing any task at all.
But this is easy to fix, there is no need to replace the real definition
of a robot with our personal opinions of what a robot should be.
> > But BEAM overlooks this a bit.
> How? It is performing a task, and that makes it a robot. If you want to be
> more general, a power drill is a robot, because it performs a task, and you
> don't have to do anything more than aim it and turn it on.
Nope, a power drill is a power tool, it needs a human operator just like a hand
powered drill does. Clearly not a robot by any reasonable definition, even
Tilden's.
Simply performing a task does not make anything a robot. Check your dictionary.
> But now I'm being slightly cynical.
> I think I'll take a nap.
> Signing off,
> Rob Rix
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