[dba-Tech] Robotic cats, etc.

[John Bartow]

Arthur,
Would you please keep this stuff on the OT list.

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-Tech <dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com> On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2019 11:26 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Robotic cats, etc.

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
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