I vaguely remember this as a kid. For those who are better readers than I, does this site describe what all the computer hardware actually does? I was expecting something like primitive turn-by-turn navigation, but there doesn't seem to be focus to this, just a whole lot of desktop hardware grafted on a bike. It doesn't make any sense even in an era before common mobile hardware.
Edit: While mobile hardware really didn't get good until 20 years later, the TRS-80 Model 100 existed in 1983 which had a real keyboard, could run third-party programs weighed under 4 pounds, had battery-backed memory and ran 20 hours on a set of 4 AA batteries. So a non-absurd solution for some portion of his design requirements existed.
"BEHEMOTH, whether moving or parked, must provide maximum possible autonomy in power generation, computation capability, file storage, communication, navigation, and maintainability -- anywhere in the world, all controlled via a flexible graphic user interface..."
also:
"My original motive was simple enough. Horrified by a view of the American Dream from the curtained windows of a three-bedroom ranch in suburbia, doing things I didn't enjoy anymore to pay for things I really didn't want, I hit System Reset. Six months later, in the fall of 1983, I put my house on the market and moved to a recumbent bicycle -- I was a 30-year-old technomad heading across America with a primitive laptop, solar panel, and xnet connection..."
and later:
"I've had the dream over the years of putting together a nomadic community, a tribe of network-linked freelancers who move freely in physical space as whim, weather, and clients dictate. If this seems risky in these economically troubled times, remember that your real security is not what's in your bank account, but what's in your head. Skills are highly portable, and many of them can be wielded entirely via networks, phones, fax, pagers, satellites, and so on. If you are a wizard in some field, you will be welcome anywhere -- yet you can maintain the illusion of stability via methods that are now very familiar...
Technology has developed enough in the last few years that this idea, once rather fanciful, is now quite realistic. Virtually any information-based business can be operated from the road...
...it all points to one thing: getting away from your desk without simultaneously disappearing from Dataspace."
BEHEMOTH was featured on the Discovery show NextStep back in the early 90s[0]. Roberts describes and shows off all the components. As I recall the most of the big hardware in the trailer was a printer/fax, a satellite phone, and ham radios. He had a PowerBook he used when not on the bike. You could definitely slim down a lot of stuff today or just eliminate it, you don't really need a printer or fax machine today and a smartphone has tons of connectivity.
He's biking so the reaction tolerances are much looser more so if he's following back roads with very few cars which is sounds like he was from the another post where he talks about atlases.
Edit: While mobile hardware really didn't get good until 20 years later, the TRS-80 Model 100 existed in 1983 which had a real keyboard, could run third-party programs weighed under 4 pounds, had battery-backed memory and ran 20 hours on a set of 4 AA batteries. So a non-absurd solution for some portion of his design requirements existed.