Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #09541



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Dennison Bertram dibst11+@pitt.edu
Date: Wednesday, 26 January 2000 8:28
Subject: New symbol for BEAM lexicon. Let's try 'Mind Control'



>
>Hey guys. Recently I was lamenting the loss of my old experimenter's
>notebook which cataloges all my more crazy ideas. Anyway, I was thinking
>back to one of my more interesting experiments, "mind control". Think about
>crude pollygraph machiens, the type that measures the skins resistance
which
>changes depending upon your mood and other factors. I'm sure some of you
>have noticed what happens if you touch the resitors on your bicores. Ahh!
>Some of you see where I'm going? Crude polygraph techniques rely upon the
>fact that if your nervous etc... the resistance of you skin surface
changes.
>Bicores, and nv nets are very, very sensistive to resitance bias. So,
>theoretically, (although it's not really theoretical, it's is possible.
>Experiments like this have been done.) If you built say, a bicore head and
>then you connected instead of CDS cells or other photodependent resistors
>elements your body instead (specifically, the wrist area) then you would
>become the variable resitor in your circuit. Then with immense amounts of
>practice, it's highly conciveable that some of you out there would be
>capable of conditioning yourselves to controll the resitsnace of your skin
>in small amounts. (experimenst like this have been done. It is possible.)
>And then you really have an impressive toy no? It would be intersting to
>consider the implications of 'mind control', which here is mearly used to
>denote that in controlling the robot you don't actually 'do' anything
>physical. You don't 'move' or make other obvious motions. You simply need
to
>learn how to play with your body. Try getting excited, getting scared.
>Etc... For thouse out there who are intreped and want to try this, keep in
>mind the orientation of how you connect yourself to the robot. There is
>little worry about you shocking yourselves, (although, general disclaimer,
>I'll say out loud DO NOT DO THIS. NO ONE TRY THIS AT ALL. Honestly, no one
>should get shocked or anything, especially if you run this off a battery,
>but 100ma is enough to stop your heart, and batteries have more than enough
>to do the job. It's highly unlikely, but in the event that one of you tries
>the unlikely, This is your disclaimer. This is all at your own risk. I'm
not
>expert, and I can't guarentee anyone anything. Only try this if you really,
>really, really, know what your doing. I don't mean to scare people, but
I've
>got to cover my own arse.)
>
>Anyway, my symbol (which I guess I'm introducing right now) into the
lexicon
>was a circle with squigly lightning bolt going through it. Much like one
for
>a varible resistor. Anyway, have fun, use common sense, and if any of you
>built some incredible machine with mind controll, you know, I wouldn't mind
>a little credit in my direction. :-). Hey, Wilf, you might enjoy this.
>
>later
>dennison
>
>

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