Monthly 1st Sunday Meeting Group
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Relevant Backgrounder
Member Cliff Thompson
PAST
My Father was born on a farm in
We traveled to, and lived in
My Mother was born in
Back to
As my schooling progressed, I developed an interest
in amateur Astronomy, going through a series of ever more powerful telescopes,
ending up with a professional instrument, a Criterion
RV-6 Dynascope, which included a spectroscope
attachment for analyzing stellar composition.
My interests expanded to physics and mathematics and I setup a basement
physics lab that included homemade versions of x-ray photographic equipment, a
"magnetic resonance spectrometer" for determining material
composition, a "cloud chamber" for observing sub-atomic particles and
a form of "atom smasher" called a
"linear accelerator" that was powered by a Van de Graff static
electricity generator to accelerate subatomic particles along a glass tube
through a vacuum produced by a series of refrigerator motors hooked in tandem
and coupled to a Mercury Diffusion pump
- all of these items were built from plans from a Scientific American
magazine book called "The Scientific American
Book of Projects for the Amateur Scientist" (project index). I got
very interested in trying to understand the Nature of Reality, and in trying to
do so I found Relativity and Quantum Theory as profoundly mysterious as any
teaching of Mysticism or Esoteric Philosophy I'd ever encountered from the
We also traveled to, and lived in Ghana, West
Africa, in the town of Tema, for several years, to
work on the Tema Alumina Reduction Plant project - as I was of
High School age and there were no fully functioning high schools in Ghana
then (as Horgan reports "no
pencils, no books"), I was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland but
spent the summers in Ghana. I learned to speak a little of some tribal
languages, "Ga" and "Fanti", a
favorite insult being (phonetic spelling) "Toe Ahbow
Numu Seshey Waha". I had a Honda 50 motor scooter, which I used to
explore the coastline, back country, jungle, and villages. I made many friends
in the villages, whose people were exceptionally warm and loving - with them I
explored giant anthills, attended Boa Constrictor hunts and JuJu
ceremonies, and ate FuFu, Kenkey,
Efo, Giant Snail, Palm Nut Soup, and drank Star Beer
and danced the Highlife.
I completed High School, and graduated from a Jesuit
boarding school called the Villa St. Jean
École Internationale,
in the Swiss town of Fribourg,
staying there from 1964-1967. The school had been attended by a number of
unique people in history, including the current King of Spain Juan
Carlos, as well as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
author of "The Little
Prince", an enchanting and endearing tale imbued with a deeper message
of unconditional love for all beings, a philosophy that saturated the school's
offerings. At the Villa I encountered
the additional teachings of Philosophy and Religion, and got very interested in
expanding my search for understanding the "Nature of Nature" to include "An
Amateur Scientific Search for Deity". I got an early lead when I
discovered that all culture's in the world universal definition of Deity,
(which was stated as "With respect to Space, Deity is Infinite; with
respect to Time, Deity is Eternal; with respect to Creation, Deity is the
Creator of All Things") was essentially identical to the scientific
definition of the Electromagnetic Field, i.e. Energy, or simply, Light, (With
respect to Space, Energy is Infinite (it exists everywhere in Space, between
the Galaxies and between the sub-atomic particles; in fact the
"photon" of light is the carrier of force in atomic interactions);
with respect to Time, Deity is Eternal (the famous saying from physics class
"Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed");
with respect to Creation, Deity is the Creator of All Things (the famous
equation of Einstein's, "E=MC2" states that "matter
is created from energy"). Aside from studies, after school, as a way to
relax and have fun, since it was the heyday of the psychedelic '60's, several
schoolmates and I formed a Rock Band. While we played for our classmates, they
in turn searched for and recommended great music, which often became part of
our repertoire - as a result we also formed a "
Once I'd gotten through school and launched a career
in computer programming, one of the regular yearly 2-week vacations I took was
in
Several years after the Jamaican trip, one computer
company employer sent my wife and I on a business trip
to
PRESENT
Computers to Robots
For
most of the last decade I'd been making my living in
Robots
My primary after-hours
activity is Robotics. What started as a
hobby became a need (I had to include a robot arm as a peripheral in a
"paper-less office" automation project), then a serious-fun endeavor. I joined the San Francisco Robotics Society
of America (SFRSA), that met at the San Francisco Exploratorium Science Museum,
became a Principle member, launched a Newsletter and wrote 2 running columns
("Meeting" and
"Netbots"), built the SFRSA
Website which I now maintain and develop, (later, did another for a
member's web-based Robot Store), did
competition event videography, started exhibiting/demo'ing as an "evangelist" at various
institutions/expos, all the while getting into robotics in earnest, initially
with the LEGO Mindstorms systems, then on to the Sony
AIBO system, for which I setup an SFRSA AIBO SIG.
An end result of all this activity is that the Exploratorium started webcasting
the Annual Robot Games
competition, the IEEE wrote us up, TV stations starting recording and inviting
us for regular TV guest appearances,
CNN wrote feature stories and on Oct. 16, 2000 we were awarded NASA
"Cool Robot of the Week". Consequently I've been working to
extend our reach into University Robot Labs, NASA and Entertainment
Animatronics (George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is moving to the
Presidio (Letterman Digital
Arts), right across the street from the Museum). Now we're hosting guest speakers from major
robotics centers like UC Berkeley's Poly-pedal Lab
and Los Alamos National Labs; I also liaison with the NASA Robotics Education
Project (REP) based
at NASA Ames, Mountain View/Moffett Field, networking with them to set-up
regular field trips to their robot groups, and to whom I've just submitted a
proposal for a public robotics center at NASA Ames (in historic "Hanger
1", a former dirigible facility that's being converted into a new
California Air and Space Center (CASC),
projected to rival the Smithsonian). Recently, REP established a permanent link
to my on-line web page article "Getting
Started in Robotics, SFRSA recommendations" from their Educators webpage.
Currently I'm working with Adobe Atmosphere
Virtual Worlds Developer, DigitalSpace
Founder Bruce Damer, collaborating with him on a
number of virtual reality robot simulator projects, including, currently, for
the NASA Mars 2004
As a result of being born
"½ Easterner and ½ Westerner" and experiencing a fair amount of
travel and exposure to many cultures, since childhood making friends and
playing with village children, I did not develop the often found set of
polarized racial prejudices commonly found between cultures. For example, many countries that have existed
long before the Western World are referred to a "3rd
World" and considered "primitive". Yet my personal experience of, for example,
an aboriginal Borneo tribesman, is that he not only survives in the rain
forest, living in harmony with nature, all with virtually no technology or
so-called "advanced western knowledge", but flourishes, further
creating extraordinary crafts, art and music.
I would like to see how long and how well the typical Westerner could
survive in this natural world, especially when their technology breaks down and
supplies run out. Because of these real
abilities, I see all cultures as roughly equivalent, despite the sometimes vast
differences in appearances. Everyone has
something to bring to the Human Table, to share at the Humanity Pot Luck. Every culture has Dignity and is worthy of
the highest Respect, being a Creation of Great Nature. Every culture has areas were it excels here
but struggles there, where it's successes in one area are balanced by problems
in another. Since I was inspired by the Humanitarianism of my Grandfather
early-on, and have since been shown many kindnesses by people around the world,
when I am confronted with human problems in the extreme, where there is
poverty, suffering, repression and the like or simply difficulties emerging
into the modern world, then I am moved to wanting to return the kindness shown
me, by trying to help in whatever way I can, to make the world a better place,
by performing "Better World Work".
Over time, as I was coming of age, I began to see the same basic set of
problems appearing in cultures everywhere.
During the 60's, participating in various "back-to-the-land"
movements, I began to get a glimpse of the sets of technologies that may aid
people in their struggles. This
experience shifted into "high-gear" when, as I mentioned above, I met
and made friends with Borneo Tribal Chief Lutang,
whose tribe was struggling with "emergence" and who's interest in
what his tribal needs were, and what the west had to offer, led to my discovery "…that the set of '60's Hippy Commune off-grid, alternative
energy, sustainable living technologies that were gathered under the umbrella
of "The Whole Earth Catalog" and evolved into what is today "The Real Goods Company",
is just that set of Solar, Wind and Micro Hydroelectric Power technologies, on
display at the Real Goods "Institute
for Solar Living", that the indigenous peoples of the river-laced
island of Borneo can really
use".
With
this 1st round on Construction/Engineering offering well under way,
I'm exploring a 2nd round of technology
outfitting involving computer and communication technology in the form of
solar-powered laptops wirelessly internet-connected via a global global geo-synchronous satellite system like Teledesic, so
that a tribe or village can do things like create a website to sell their
remarkable handicrafts (dealing direct at much better prices than going through
the "gouge-&-markup middle-man" at the marketplace), run live
videoconference skills training and tribal meeting sessions, learn contracting
skills they can offer remotely, even setup businesses offering "appropriate
technology, alternative energy, sustainable living technologies" services.
Some unique tourism opportunities are also in the offing, for example on the
island of Borneo, ranging from Ultralight river aerial water taxi services,
inter-island hopping by Power Paraglider (PPG), and hooking up with
indigenous tribal folk for unique vacation accommodations and excursions, with
tourists staying with families who, in turn, offer tourism adventures by
working with "local operators" in the countries visited. I'm looking at doing these projects in
collaboration with a number of cultural organizations such as Berkeley-based
"The Borneo Project",
with possible corporate grant funding from such organization programs as
Hewlett-Packard's "World
e-Inclusion" program (article)
and Silicon Valley's Center for Venture Philanthropy. Then in early 2003 in San Francisco I visited
an African imports store named "African Outlet" and met
cofounder/co-owner Nigerian trader Horgan Edet who as a child was raised in a village (whose Chief
was Horgan's father) and educated by the Peace Corps.
Horgan had just received a package from the village elders
requesting help with various appropriate technology projects, so we started
meeting regularly at the store with other folks interested in helping out, some
of whom brought similar letters from other African country villages, the
membership soon swelling to over 50 people, with projects ranging from
providing school supplies to fixing broken pumps in villages in a number of African
countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Mali & Ethiopia. For the group I became an Appropriate
Technology Evangelist and built a website/newsgroup called Friends of African
Outlet (FOAO). The group has evolved considerably, recently taking to
filling shipping containers with needed supplies which are shipped off to
villages.
Over
the long term, I'm looking at NASA's actual current plans for the "Human Colonization of Mars",
with settlers slated to start arriving possibly as early as 2020, and wondering
if a subset of such a high-tech wagon train, whose technologies will keep
people sheltered, fed, alive and healthy in the harsh Martian environment,
could be simplified, cloned, copied and delivered as a Life Support and
Enhancement Module to places right here on Earth where human existence is
emerging into modem times and/or compromised by such demons as suffering,
exposure, starvation and illness. Many of the solutions for packing a lot of
technology in a compact space have been worked out by the inventor of the
geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller (article), while
an example of this kind of approach was recently demonstrated by Apple Computer
Co-Founder Steve (Woz) Wozniak's "US Festival", which provided a high tech
village ( day night photos) and supported
several hundred thousand people for the
duration of the event.
