CONvergence Panel Notes: Pt. 3
These are my notes about what I found useful and interesting and what thoughts and ideas I had that were sparked from these CONvergence panels:
The Collaborative Process
Robotics Panel
Good lord! I just realized I haven't been posting CONvergence photos with these posts! Whatever was I thinking?
The Collaborative Process
Establish up front whether you have editing rights over your partner's work.
Establish roles and ground rules early.
Don't be afraid to critique your partner.
Google docs is a pretty good way to maintain character notes and "mother" manuscript.
Beware the danger of 2 authors wanting to work on different stories.
Avoid wanting to only share completed cool bits with your partner.
Go back through the manuscript after you're done and make sure there's sufficient foreshadowing.
Having deadlines is vital.
The difficult part is realizing when you're the one holding things up, whether because of writer's block or lack of skill in an area.
Establish phases for what you're doing. For example, opening up the world, making decisions about the final plot structure, etc.
Robotics Panel
Local resource: Twin Cities robotics club.
General-purpose computers up the size of the robot and would increase power draw (car battery instead of watch battery), so custom-built computers to fit robots is generally the way of things for hobby robots.
Remember that most robots of the future will be made with off-the-shelf parts, not bleeding-edge technology. Things won't work right, and there will be redundancies. Increasing liability and lawsuits may also be part of that, even for equipment.
Currently, solar-powered robots generally start with somebody wanting to do something with solar power, not with somebody wanting to do something else choosing solar as the power source.
The future may be in small, light robots. And when practicing making robots, most start very small.
The argument over central vs. distributed processing is still ongoing. So is the one about proprietary work vs. open-source.
To get machines to do things ina less step-by-step mechanical process, one will need to figure out how to instill motivation and desire. Recommended: "Robots and the Nature of Desire."
Humans' ability to recognize objects in different forms is something robots lack. For example, a bag full, empty, or crushed.
Building a knowledge base in a robot is serious work. I wonder if in the future we will see knowledge base subscriptions, where knowledge is the product being sold?
Robots used to be considered autonomous, but now many non-autonomous items are called robots, as are internet-only entities. Will there be further blending or speciation?
Two story ideas from this panel.
This day was the 4th of July, so I was gone for all the afternoon attending our annual party.
The Collaborative Process
Robotics Panel
Good lord! I just realized I haven't been posting CONvergence photos with these posts! Whatever was I thinking?
The Collaborative Process
Establish up front whether you have editing rights over your partner's work.
Establish roles and ground rules early.
Don't be afraid to critique your partner.
Google docs is a pretty good way to maintain character notes and "mother" manuscript.
Beware the danger of 2 authors wanting to work on different stories.
Avoid wanting to only share completed cool bits with your partner.
Go back through the manuscript after you're done and make sure there's sufficient foreshadowing.
Having deadlines is vital.
The difficult part is realizing when you're the one holding things up, whether because of writer's block or lack of skill in an area.
Establish phases for what you're doing. For example, opening up the world, making decisions about the final plot structure, etc.
Robotics Panel
Local resource: Twin Cities robotics club.
General-purpose computers up the size of the robot and would increase power draw (car battery instead of watch battery), so custom-built computers to fit robots is generally the way of things for hobby robots.
Remember that most robots of the future will be made with off-the-shelf parts, not bleeding-edge technology. Things won't work right, and there will be redundancies. Increasing liability and lawsuits may also be part of that, even for equipment.
Currently, solar-powered robots generally start with somebody wanting to do something with solar power, not with somebody wanting to do something else choosing solar as the power source.
The future may be in small, light robots. And when practicing making robots, most start very small.
The argument over central vs. distributed processing is still ongoing. So is the one about proprietary work vs. open-source.
To get machines to do things ina less step-by-step mechanical process, one will need to figure out how to instill motivation and desire. Recommended: "Robots and the Nature of Desire."
Humans' ability to recognize objects in different forms is something robots lack. For example, a bag full, empty, or crushed.
Building a knowledge base in a robot is serious work. I wonder if in the future we will see knowledge base subscriptions, where knowledge is the product being sold?
Robots used to be considered autonomous, but now many non-autonomous items are called robots, as are internet-only entities. Will there be further blending or speciation?
Two story ideas from this panel.
This day was the 4th of July, so I was gone for all the afternoon attending our annual party.