[dba-Tech] Robotic cats, etc.

[Arthur Fuller]

As almost always, you are totally correct in your correction of my slips of
the tongue. I can only plead guilty to being 71 years old; it slows you
down both physically and mentally. I have to struggle to board a bus, let
alone suffer the the indignities of a stairwell, or the increasing distance
from my couch to the bathroom. These humiliating events have become part of
my life, let alone that once I knew how to write code. As T.S. Eliot wrote,
"I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled." I
read that poem long before I realised that what he meant was that as people
age, the distance between their spinal bones shrinks, and that we therefore
become shorter -- an obvious physical fact that I had missed, or ignored.
Now I am acquainted with the unfortunate facts. Every single body system is
failing. I can barely manage a meal a day; a bite here and there is the
best I can do.
If you don't here from me in the next month, it means that I'm dead.

On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 3:46 PM Stuart McLachlan <stuart at lexacorp.com.pg>
wrote:

> Your initial premise is false. The vast majority of robots are not
> mammalian or arachnoid in
> appearance. However form follows function and nature worked out  long ago
> that arms and
> legs are very useful appendages for land dwelling entities regardless of
> what Class of the
> Kngdom Animalia that they occupy, not just mammalia and arachnids...
>
> (Arachnopods are a science fiction creation. I presume you meant
> arachnids?)
>
> On 22 May 2019 at 11:00, Arthur Fuller wrote:
>
> > One aspect of robotics that completely escapes me is the need to make
> > them similar to mammals and arachnopods (not insects, since they have
> > 8 legs not 6); i.e. the presumption that such bots will need legs
> > capable of climbing a staircase, and arms capable of opening a can of
> > pork&beans using either their very sharp nails or perhaps a convention
> > can-opener. I want to question the central premise...
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-- 
Arthur