Conferencing News

January 5, 2012

Conferencing News

Working-There Without Being-There!

PR Newswire

NEEDHAM, Mass., Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In the summer of 2010 the nation watched in disbelief as 50,000 barrels of oil gushed every day into the Gulf from the broken Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer. A major environmental disaster was unfolding right before our eyes, but nobody from the President on down could do anything about it! The blowout preventer was one mile beneath the ocean surface, where humans cannot be. 

This out-of-control environmental disaster has diminished the acceptability of offshore drilling, causing loss of jobs and increased dependence on foreign oil. It might have been quickly contained, had telepresence been developed -- as called for by artificial intelligence pioneer Prof. Marvin Minsky of MIT in his comprehensive article "Telepresence: A Manifesto," published in Omni magazine in 1980, and republished in 2010 by IEEE Spectrum. 

Telepresence is a highly innovative robotic technology that could enable humans to work at a location without being there, almost as effectively as if actually there -- just as the telephone enables humans to talk at a location without being there, almost as effectively as if actually there.

In his 1980 article Minsky cited the 1979 Ixtoc Gulf oil spill as a disaster that could have been mitigated by telepresence. John Merchant believes that telepresence could have enabled human workers to quickly repair the 2010 blowout preventer while their human bodies were safely located many miles away on dry land. 

In 2011 humans were very limited in their ability to work at the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan because of lethal nuclear radiation. This out-of-control environmental disaster has diminished the acceptability of nuclear power - an important energy source that could help supply the world's need for energy with no emission of climate-changing greenhouse gas. In his 1980 article Minsky also said that the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster "really needed telepresence."

Merchant believes that the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster might have been quickly contained by telepresence had it been developed.  Looking ahead, John Merchant sees four immediate needs for telepresence:

• To contain any future offshore drilling or nuclear power accidents.
• To enable first responders to deal with any dirty bomb attacks that might be made against our cities, while theirhuman bodies were safely located many miles away from the toxic agents.
• To enable humans to work effectively in Earth orbit and to construct and operate facilities (civilian and military) on themoon while their human bodies were safely and economically located on Earth.

Contact:

John Merchant

RPU Technology, Inc.

781 444 9426

781 444 9855

FAX781 956 1688

Cellmerchant.j@comcast.net

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