Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!decwrl!csus.edu!netcomsv!seer!tomk
From: tomk@seer.gentoo.com (Tom Kunich)
Subject: Re: MIT Insect Robots
Message-ID: <1992Jun8.001739.21290@seer.gentoo.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1992 00:17:39 GMT
References: <1992Jun3.213155.24343@seer.gentoo.com> <1992Jun4.172854.19251@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> <48844@dime.cs.umass.edu>
Organization: Brad Lanam,  Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 40

In article <48844@dime.cs.umass.edu> connolly@rabbit.cs.umass.edu (Christopher Ian Connolly) writes:

>I think one assertion is true.  That "robotic insects could
>conceivably" be made to evolve is really beside the point.  Robotic
>insects as we know them today do not evolve in the sense that
>biological insects do.

Bingo, Christopher, if people can't even tell the difference between
computer learning and computer programming then I have a hard time
understanding their viewpoint.
>
>I want to qualify this by saying that I think the "robotic insect"
>concept will probably be a fruitful venture, but it does have its
>obvious limits.  After all, we will eventually want to progress to
>robotic mammals, won't we?
>
Hah! Good view of the problem. And I think that sort of sums the
whole thing up in a nutshell. People were striving for 'robotic
mammals' (people if you will). This turned out to be virtually
impossible so someone comes up with the 'robotic insect' idea.

Now, granted, there are some attractive advantages in this method.
But basically it is a fall-back position from the real 'machine
intelligence'that was the original target.

I don't believe that any of this is impossible per se' but the 
practicality is certainly in question. And not just by me. If there
was a valid reason to replace a man with an intelligent machine and
it was economically attractive, there would be smart machines
everywhere by now.

And robotics has a high investment in the artificial intelligence
field if it is to even survive, let alone flourish.

I just find problems with the viewpoint that there will be a real
advantage in building machine intelligence to replace cheap human
intelligence.

And you can't get any cheaper than this advice. :-)

