Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #11404



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Mike Kulesza" mikekulesza@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 22:22:41 GMT
Subject: [alt-beam] Self-Awareness/Conciousness


You know i read in that Smithsonian Article about BEAM something just blew
my mind off. Brossl Hasslacher (Tilden's collegue in BEAM) proposed the idea
that you can take nervous nets to a new level. In theory, by implementing a
nervous net WITHIN another nervous net, you actually have a robot that is
aware of its own existance. See, the outer net is directly interacting with
the physical world, while the one within is only in contact with the outer.
This means that the inner net is AWARE of the outer one, which is in turn in
the PHYSICAL world. Thus the robot is AWARE OF ITS PHYSICAL EXISTANCE!!

Kind of sends shivers down my spine.....


www.geocities.com/beambotix

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11405 Mon, 6 Mar 2000 17:23:56 EST [alt-beam] Re: escaps = escapes??? beam@sgiblab.sgi.com BUDSCOTT@aol.com Where have some of you guys found escaps surplused for cheap, any web sites?
hopefully nothing over 10$ a piece, don't have a lot of money to throw around
on my robots! Also, what other good motors are there that you can buy, how
about gearboxes? Thanks, i know its a little of topic!

-Spencer



11406 Mon, 6 Mar 2000 18:06:34 EST [alt-beam] Re: gumby legs beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Toby503@aol.com Never thought about that!



11407 Monday, 6 March 2000 12:52
Yahoo chat
beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
Max Inggal


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11408 Mon, 06 Mar 2000 17:22:02 -0600 [alt-beam] Adaptobotics beam@sgiblab.sgi.com "Bryan Hengels" Adaptobotics hasn't been working for a few days, at least for me, does anyone know what's wrong?


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11409 Mon, 06 Mar 2000 16:18:06 -0800 [alt-beam] Re: Forgive me for being such an arrogant fool, but... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Bruce Robinson Jean auBois wrote:
>
> Look folks, we don't really have to argue about the definition of
> "emergent behavior".

Were we arguing? :)

>> The idea that complex systems, such as life, are actually the
>> emergent behaviors of systems with many elements that operate
>> according to simple, local rules (Artificial Life).
>
> In other words, looking at systems from the bitty little pieces,
> from the bottom up; seeing what happens when a bunch of stuff gets
> to interact -- do patterns appear? More importantly (at least with
> regard to BEAM robotics) is: do USEFUL patterns appear? ...

I don't have a problem with that.

> In any case, I strongly disagree with Bruce's definition.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was offering an example, not a
definition. I should have made that clear.

Complex systems of all types display emergent behaviour. I doubt we will
seriously disagree on that. Where we might get into a debate is what
constitutes a "complex system". My example was definitely at the low end
of the range, but I still think it's valid.

Move up a level or three in complexity, and you have Walkman. Did it
exhibit emergent behaviour? I certainly think so -- I can hardly argue
against it, considering the example I gave.

What about Richard Caudle's HPV project? One of the goals is to have a
bunch of small photovores communicating by sound. Each one listens for
"chirps" from the others. After it has counted a certain number of
chirps, it emits one of its own (and if it hasn't heard any for a while,
it emits one anyway.) The robots all react to the sounds ... possibly
turning toward them, possibly turjning away. What's going to happen? I
dunno, but I bet we'll see some interesting behaviour emerge.

Bruce



11410 Tue, 7 Mar 2000 13:19:23 +1300 [alt-beam] Parts and Supplies "Andrew Hooper" Hi All,

Please excuse my plug for this guy, but I feel that the exceptional service
and prompt response to supply me with my order warranted a little something.

After much searching for some components I gave up looking in NZ and looked
in Australia, then stumbled across Robot-Oz and spoke with Peter Hammer.

He supplied me with the international parts price list and I proceeded to
order
the components I required, after receiving confirmation that the order I
placed
was being processed I received another email informing me that they had
been able to reduce the shipping fee :)

To my surprise I received the package this morning, so it only took 4 days
from shipping to actually get here, pretty good I thought.

So anyone in NZ, or Oz for that matter I do recommend Robot-Oz.

www.robotoz.com.au

Regards
Andrew

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