Cartooning Philosophy And Practice
cartooning philosophy and practice The Science of Robosapien presented by Lord Abnev product reviews by experts At a glance, Robosapien looks great versus the old school box on wheels with clear d...
cartooning philosophy and practice
The Science of Robosapien presented by Lord Abnev product reviews by expertsAt a glance, Robosapien looks great versus the old school box on wheels with clear dome head. ‘Ooh,’ you say, looks kinda like a muscled storm trooper and the fart button now that’s a hoot. We nod in polite agreement, but behind your back, we snicker at your total lack of appreciation of the advanced robotic theory involved. Each arm has full 360 motion ability allowed by the, ahem, biomorphic shoulder joints and flexible elbows. Ending in three articulated fingers, Robosapien is capable of picking up, gripping, and throwing objects. The genuine full walking motion (most robots don’t genuinely walk outside a lab) is made possible design of the large feet and well placed sensors. And do you know how much power it usually takes to run a robot Fuggedabowdit. Regular robots are dishonorable little battery-eaters always hungry for more, more, more! And who’s going to pay for these batteries, hmmm’ Well Robosapien brings no shame to itself when consuming power, essentially due to the astounding mechanical physics. It runs a full 6 to 10 hours on just one set of batteries. In fact, if you move Robosapien’s arm you’ll actually generate power for it! Hey man, that’s shrewd. For those of you who want a robot that will fetch you a frosty one from the kitchen, you lazy bums will just have to wait until later versions. But you can program your Robosapien to do some pretty cools things in the meantime, like wander around taking swings at things, guarding your bedroom while you sleep, and a hilarious game of ‘pull my finger’. Try teaching your dog that trick smart guy. Robosapien is a modern day turning point in the evolution of robotics and is the first-ever robot based on the science of applied biomorphic robotics. (That’s what you should have been telling friends and family all this time rather than pointing out amusing cat-chasing ability.) Biomorphic robotics stems from Mark Tilden’s innovative new concepts in BEAM technology. A New Philosophy for Robot Kind BEAM is an acronym for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics and Mechanics. Dr. Mark W. Tilden founded this relatively new branch of robotic sciences in 1989, based on the premise that behavioral-rich robots need not be the wickedly complex projects reserved only for well-funded labs and cartoon villains. Put another way, traditional approaches to creating robots have started with creating a sophisticated brain to maneuver the mechanics of the body. Though not discounting the incredible engineering feats of robots built this way, most notably the Sony Qrio and Honda Asimo, Mark Tilden strongly contends that this is the wrong approach to take. It’s like trying to emulate a human when modern technology and research can’t realistically copy a bug from your garden. “[It’s] an evolutionary dead end,” says Tilden. BEAM robotics is about taking the bottom-up approach, to start from mastering the simple bug and moving up from there. Rather than attempt to create a centralized robo-brain to process every variable input and spit out a decision (much, much harder than you may think), why not use a system known as "subsumption architecture.’’ Subsumption architecture is a clever technique where the actions of a robot are managed in layers, each layer controlling one facet of the robot’s operation. For example, a low-level layer could be ‘Walk Forward,’ which the robot will happily do until it bumps into something. At this point, the slightly higher level ‘Lift Leg Higher’ kicks in, overriding the ‘Walk Forward’ layer until the robot successfully climbs over the obstacle, at which point ‘Lift Leg Higher’ stops, and the low-level ‘Walk Forward’ takes over again. * Egocentric Bugs So Tilden began building robot bugs on this principle, and more selfish creatures they could not have been. Why’s that? Well Tilden decided that Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics: 1. No hurt human. 2. Listen to human unless told ‘Do hurt human’. 3. Try to live with that. were antiquated notions that left no room for a good practical joke at parties. So one dark and stormy night he penned Tilden’s Three Laws of Robotics: 1. A robot must protect its existence at all costs. 2. A robot must obtain and maintain access to a power source. 3. A robot must continually search for better power sources. informally known as*: 1. Protect thy butt. 2. Feed thy butt. 3. Move thy butt to better real estate. 1. He justified this robotic declaration of self-interest as the only way robots can start evolving the way humans may have came from guppies looking for a good time by leaving the ocean. From Bugs to Sapiens Needing to find a lighter-minded group of people from his government and NASA days, Tilden decided to go and join a toy company. Who better than one audacious enough to self proclaim themselves, Wow Wee! It was a great match, and they gleefully began working on toy dinosaurs and bugs based on Tilden’s now renowned expertise. Then came the master project that one could fairly say would change the landscape of robotics altogether. FartDude, later named Robosapien after initial market testing, was to be the culmination of Tilden’s work, finally bringing to bear a humanoid (sapien-like, if you will) robot capable of an impressive list of moves and rude sounds. In Robosapien, you see the basics of BEAM philosophy and technological research. It follows the B as a biomorphic rendition of humans, E for the fact you can’t throw it in a bathtub, A because it’s stylin the latest magazine covers, and one heck of a lot of M going into the robo dancing capability. That’s Mr. Sapien Like no robot ever before, the Robosapien is affordable to the unwashed masses. The Robosapien is a crowning accomplishment when it comes to mobility, power consumption, programmability, and maybe most importantly: hackability. So what’s so hot about the hackability, and is that even a word you ask? You’ve got some nerve. Tilden went through some serious, serious effort to be sure that robot enthusiasts could take apart the robot, as he would have done as a child, and tinker with modifications. Everything’s color-coded in there to make things easy for those of us without PhDs, and by all accounts, there’s plenty of additional room and power to accommodate whatever Frankenstein thing you can think up. There are entire books written on the subject should you wish to learn, so go forth and hack away. If it’s a good one, send it in and we’ll publish for all too either mock or applaud. And Another Thing So the next time you look at your Robosapien give a respectful nod to the world’s first-ever robot based on the science of applied biomorphic robotics. Then go chase a cat with it. * Graciously lifted from Dr. Tilden’s excellent ‘Junkbots, Bugbots & Bots on Wheels’ book. Great Deals at TheNerds.net and go to lesson education |
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In Search Of The Present [Part 2]
Until recently, I believed that the ME whom I tidy up every morning in front of the mirror was ME from the inside out - my choice of me, as I crafted myself minute by minute over the past fifty years - matured to perfection.
Now, I accept that all of what makes Me, this *individual* who needs to be seen, not necessarily heard, is not the end product of any creative free choice, as my Leo star sign would like to suggest.
v
Me, my, myself and I – all four of us are one thinking, loving, eating, spending, working, drinking, ego-driven […] entity – I almost said *zombie-like*, because mostly asleep, but I pulled back thinking it might sound a little too hardcore at such an early stage of my ramblings.
v
I accept that I am a divided entity: I have an intellectual self, an instinctive self, a moving self and, not least of all, an emotional self.
v
Though I consider myself a rather mature, introverted and quiet sort of person, I accept that my four selves, as ego-centric as juveniles, are running *my* show as, as for now, they have a will of their own.
v
I accept that I am the main source of my own misery. Well, not me, C.C. but, me, as my ego-persona, which is really me, C.C.. Arrghh!
v
I accept that my moods, my anxiety, have a twin corollary imprinted in my energy field.
v
Reality check #1: I am made up of approximately 70% to 80% liquids and though my brain is the single heaviest part of me and the most documented, sliced, diced and quartered on innumerable science programs, I can only access a fraction of its power and, basically I don’t really understand what makes it tick.
v
Reality check #2: My personality has been molded by an imprecise series of events; two or three massive ones, but mostly what has shaped ME is the repetitive imprint left on my psyche by a series of relentless, but seemingly innocuous happenings – life, as interpreted by me.
v
Reality check #3
All I have described above is, after all, not the real me. I have simply described my ego-persona – my soul’s vehicle in this lifetime.
The real ME is my soul.
My ego-persona, me, as C.C., is not having much fun at the moment because I am not whom I thought I was - yet I am not in need of a straightjacket.
I am not delusional.
In fact, I have probably never been more aware of my constructed self as I am at the moment.
v
I used to think I was my own person and that, since I had always lived in *free countries*, all that I did was act out free will.
In reality, all that I do and feel and say has been pre-determined by the miasma of previous actions and reactions that go so far back my human mind cannot deconstruct it.
Put bluntly, I react freely to an endless range of stimuli, yes. But I do not act out of free will. I do not believe anyone does.
v
There is a story about a man who came to visit a spiritual teacher and the teacher inquired: "Why did you come in with all this crowd of people?" The man whirled around in astonishment to see who had snuck up behind him.
“Of course,” Moriya explained, “there was no one. The ‘crowd of people’ that he came with is his clutter of old ideas; the conventional, but arbitrary, concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, and about love, life and death. He lugged all this around with him wherever he went, as people do.
“In order to be free of ourselves,” she added, “to flow spontaneously like water, and have faith in the course of things - knowing that our soul, our true mother, will never fail us - we need to discard all this baggage of conventional values.”
v
Clearly, objective thinking seriously kills the fun factor. It’s a real dampener.
In fact, the only way I can begin to understand *who* I am is by keeping my ego-persona very still.
By not saying anything.
By not wanting anything.
By not making anything happen.
By not *touching* anything energetically – by not reacting to the programmed knee-jerk reactions that make our personality.
v
We all agree that we cannot drag any of our possessions to wherever souls migrate to, once six feet under ground.
*Possessions*, in this text, refers to any baggage – emotional or physical - that weighs us down; any clutter that turns us, inside and out, into the familiar cartoon image of a turtle with its house stacked so high it totters on its back.
I am sure you have seen it - the expression on that turtle’s face is always one of incomprehension and weariness.
This cartoon turtle never smiles because this turtle does not understand how her possessions have become so heavy.
She does not know how her clutter has become so unmanageable.
Does this mean spontaneity has to go and I have to develop the personality of a cucumber? Not if I find a way to be in the moment, as I do *spontaneity*.
v
On the train to Brindavan, a Swami sits beside a common man who asks
him if, indeed, he has attained the self-mastery that the title "Swami" implies.
"I have," says the Swami.
"And have you mastered anger?"
"I have."
"Do you mean to say that you have mastered anger?"
"I have."
"You mean you can control your anger?"
"I can."
"And you do not feel anger?"
"I do not."
"Is this the truth, Swami?"
"It is."
After a silence the man asks again: "Do you really feel that you have controlled your anger?"
"I have, as I told you," the Swami answers.
"Then, do you mean to say, you never feel anger, even --"
"You are going on and on -- what do you want?" the Swami shouts. "Are you a fool of a man? I have already given you an answ--"
"Oh, Swami, this is anger. So, I was right. You have not master--"
"Ah, but I have," the Swami interrupts. "Have you not heard about the tormented snake that lived near a temple? Let me tell you the story.
On a path that went by a village in Bengal, there lived a cobra that used to bite people on their way to worship at the local temple. As such incidents increased, everyone became fearful, and many refused to go to the temple. The Swami who was the master at the temple was aware of the problem and took it upon himself to put an end to the problem. Taking himself to where the snake dwelt, he used a mantra to call the snake to him and bring it into submission.
The Swami then said to the snake how wrong it was to bite the people who walked along the path to worship. He made the snake promise sincerely that it would never do that again.
Soon afterwards, the snake was spotted upon the path by a passer-by but it made no move to bite. Once it became known that the snake had somehow been made passive, people grew unafraid.
It was not long before the village boys were dragging the poor snake along by the tail, as they ran laughing here and there.
When the temple Swami passed that way again, he called the snake to see if he had kept his promise.
The snake humbly and miserably approached the Swami, who exclaimed, "You are bleeding! Tell me how this has come to be".
The snake was near tears and blurted out that he had been tormented ever since he had begun keeping the promise made to the Swami.
The Swami shook his head. "I told you not to bite", he said, "but I never told you not to hiss!"[2]
v
The best way I can connect with the real me is by being in the moment.
Not by interpreting and analyzing the moment to keep the sweet bits and spit out the rest.
And being in the moment is what I can not yet do with any measurable success.
But then again, I know I should not even be measuring and comparing anything.
So, it is back to Square One and the practice of just being - and observing.
v
I have accepted the challenge of interacting with the REAL me.
It is what my quest, the search for the present- moment, under Moriya’s guidance, is all about.
v
In his preface to Understanding the New Religions, Jacob Needleman recalls the first class he attended as a student of philosophy. When the instructor asked the class what they expected from the course, Needleman responded enthusiastically, 'I want to know the meaning of life'.
"I will never forget the silence that followed. At first, I simply did not understand it; I assumed the teacher was waiting for me to say more, and so I went on talking while vaguely beginning to suspect that something was not quite right.
I don't remember anything of what I said, only that it all centered around the question, 'Why are we here?'
Suddenly, I noticed that the teacher was smiling. I almost said 'sneering' but that would probably be an exaggeration. At the same time, I noticed my classmates shaking their heads and I heard some sniggering as well.
I stopped cold. 'Go on, go on', I was told.
Bewildered and frightened, I did try to go on and speak about all the questions that had been troubling me, but my voice was hollow and I soon had to stop.
After another terrible pause, the teacher said (and this I remember precisely):
‘Yes -- well, that is exactly what philosophy is not about. You are not going to get psychiatric help here (great laughter), or religious guidance (more laughter). No, you are going to be taught what it means to think clearly and well, to examine your presuppositions, to criticize and argue. That is philosophy'.” [3]
Personally, it is the exploration of this type of thinking, which is also Moriya’s, that is keeping me interested in the fathomless and all encompassing topic we are discussing here.
v
Over the past thirteen months, I have come to trust Moriya as implicitly as I do my life-partner – certainly much more than any doctor, specialist, healer, therapist, I have ever had to consult. Even more than the highly respected, and genial psychiatrist-healer who, some five years ago, decided that all I needed to get over my childhood issues was to take up chakra meditation. It is under her guidance that, on a weekly basis, I began the healing of my energy field and a couple of years later, met my first spiritual healer, the woman I was talking about earlier.
If it had not been for these two women’s approach to matters of the soul, I would never had been able to recognize Moriya as a true spiritual guide - my spiritual guide.
Neither would I have been open to accept trustingly the regular sessions of distant healing she directs at my energy field. Meeting these three women, in the sequence just described, amounts to synchronicity at its best.
v
So “what’s a good woman to do” when, like myself, she gets so frustrated by her struggles with the practical application of basic spiritual tenets?
If this woman is ME, she sorts out what her head and heart have come to accept from what she understands but has not yet integrated - the stuff that tests her mettle as she is finally awake and on The Path.
v
Once I had begun sorting through the notes derived from my correspondence with Moriya, with a view to embarking on this project, I came to the page in Andrew Harvey’s, Journey to Ladahk, where Thuksey Rinpoche tells him, a writer and a poet in search of self, “You do not need to stop working, but you need to strive for a new relationship with your work. You do not need to stop writing, you need to explore another way to write, to build another awareness to write from. You will probably not find this quickly. You will need patience.
Many people will tell you that you are misguided, ridiculous. You must listen to what they have to say, learn from their criticisms, but not be swayed by them.”[4]
That brought a great grin to my lips.
v
As I expose the sky-high citadel of my struggles with the lessons that are forcing me well beyond my comfort zones to expand my mind and my heart to finally grapple with concepts never previously considered, I will at the same time share Moriya’s interpretation of all that I find relevant to the topics discussed in any one section.
v
And so today, though I still only stand a little further up The Path, both my feet are firmly planted on it, as I experiment with the elusive but corner-stone concept of the absence of the *moment* in our wakeful hours, as discussed by Alan Watts in The Way of Liberation:
“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time in which the
so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not
realize that there never was, is, or will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is.” [5]
v
One word of warning, even about the greatest philosophers and theosophists: all we can accept from them is their ideas.
Like most sport coaches who train high-profile athletes without themselves living the daily rigor they impose, most great thinkers have not, themselves, excelled in the spiritual actualization of their own beliefs. Alan Watts, considered by many as one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, was no exception.
In fact, the old do as I say and not as I do motto is best kept in mind when reading what the world’s greatest philosophers say on matters most of us have neither time nor inclination to think about. That way, we do not risk being either hypnotized by the brilliance of such great minds or tempted to disregard them for being as flawed and damaged as the rest of us.
Having said that, I am totally convinced that Moriya walks the talk of her teachings.
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2. D. Boyd, (1974), Rolling Thunder, Dell Publishing, New York, p.104.
3. A. Keightley (1986), Into Every Life a Little Zen Must Fall, Wisdom publications, London p.19.
4. A. Harvey (1983), A Journey In Ladakh, Houghton Mifflin Company, Massachusetts, p.174.
5. A. Watts (1995), The Way of Liberation, Weatherhill, NY, p. 91.
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