Re: <eyebeam><blast> Telerobotics and Telepistemology

[Ken Goldberg <goldberg@ieor.berkeley.edu>]

Thanks Jordan:  First let me clarify that I do believe in the 1969 moon
landing, although our perspective on that event was of course highly
filtered.  Other examples are the Gulf War and the Mars Sojourner
Project.  In all of these cases the epistemological questions are
closely related to unwieldy political and economic structures.  Most
believe because it's on national television and the rest (the cynics)
don't believe for the same reason.  

But on the net the situation can be more subtle.  Several of my
telerobotic art experiments are listed at:

http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/art/

in particular the Telegarden and the ShadowServer, a camera obscura. 

These networked projects are telerobotic in the sense that they claim to
be based in a distant physical (``real'') environment, but none of them
are immersive in the sense of VR such as Osmose.

How is the viewer/activator seen?  This is a subtle question.  In the
Telegarden, each member of the cooperative who is currently online is
listed in the village square chat area.  Also, members plant seeds which
will eventually appear in the garden to be seen by other members.

Speaking of the plants, my colleagues and I found that members become
highly attached to them after spending the time to plant and water their
seedlings over the net.  Does it matter to them if the site is real or
not?  Not in all cases, but in most: yes.

Ken



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