Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!shelby!Portia!hanauma!joe
From: joe@hanauma.stanford.edu (Joe Dellinger)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: 1992 moon base - Teleoperation
Message-ID: <860@Portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 13 Mar 89 08:49:57 GMT
References: <553934.890311.MINSKY@AI.AI.MIT.EDU>
Sender: USENET News System <news@Portia.stanford.edu>
Reply-To: joe@hanauma.stanford.edu (Joe Dellinger)
Organization: Stanford University, Dept. of Geophysics
Lines: 29


	I remember reading an article describing how they train pilots
of Oil Tankers. They sit them in a very small very slow motor boat in
a small pond, and put HUGE delays on all the controls, like 30 seconds.
The article said that for a while the pilots would crash the boat against
the walls, etc, etc, but with a little practice they would learn to pilot
it exactly where they wanted to go without thinking.

	Your body gets by with the "huge" delays in our bizarre
electrical - chemical circuitry because the feedback loops can be
cut short in certain critical cases. If you start to burn your hand,
it jumps away from the heat literally before you have time to think
about it. You can, on the other hand, also override such reflexes by
conscious effort. Other more complicated things, like learning to shut
your eye when you hear a certain tone, can be "hardwired" into your lower
brain with a little practice. (Really!) Etc.

	Mammalian nerves carry signals faster than "more primitive"
life's did, and yet 100 foot long dinosaurs whose nervous system probably
took half a second to carry a signal from their hind feet to their
head and back evidently walked around on irregular terrain at respectable
speeds without tripping over their own feet.

	It seems to me that telepresence shouldn't be ruled out. We
just need to train people to get used to it, and learn enough robotics
to have some "reflexes" handled locally.
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 \  /  \  /  \  /Dept of Geophysics, Stanford University \/\/\.-.-....___
  \/    \/    \/Joe Dellinger joe@hanauma.stanford.edu  apple!hanauma!joe\/\.-._