EHARNDEN@AUVM.BITNET (Eric Harnden) (03/17/89)
this, like other input on the subject, has no direct bearing on human embryo development, but is interesting: i understand that frog eggs, or some order like that, will develop on their own into (haploid?.. one set of genes) animals, if pricked with a pin, and that their orientation is determined by the position of the rupture. yes, the name 'waldo' will have to stick... after all, they're already in use. devices controlled by remote communications have the hobbyist's name of RC, and that might well become the functional term for what's being described. it really all depends on what the people who are building the things do with their spare time.. that often is the source for new nomenclature (i mean.. 'quarks' for crying out loud!). the name 'waldo' comes from robert a. heinlein, and was the name of the central character in the story of the same name, about a paralyzed man who invents the device for his own use. more to the point... i think that it's inevitable that such things will come into use, and i'm not really sure why there is a 'debate' for mr. minsky to reply to... but i think that, while his data is of course correct, there is a point missing. the delay time is real, and has one of two possible results. the delay will either require that the operator think D time ahead (where D is the *cumulative* roundtrip delay), which may be possible for simply driving a motorized device across a land/station-scape, or, when the imprecision inherent in such a mode is unacceptable, will have to wait D time between initiation of each step in a movement task. this waiting will be of such an order as to allow the operator to relax his concentration between each command, without actually having time to think about anything else. this sort of stop-go in his head will have the same effect that it does driving in city traffic: fatigue will set in quickly. how might we reduce its' effects? Eric Harnden (Ronin) <EHARNDEN@AUVM> The American University Physics Dept. (202) 885-2758