Comments on: With evolved brains, robots creep closer to animal-like learning

By: Cybernettr

Cybernettr — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:35:55 +0000

I downloaded a screensaver like this once that was supposed to evolve more and more sophisticated behavior. The problem is that as time went on, the screensaver took longer and longer to invoke until finally it took 20 minutes, which kinda defeated the purpose of a screensaver. Never did get very evolved behavior from it.

By: WLGJR

WLGJR — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 14:39:17 +0000

At least they have not lost it (the level of technology).
BTW I expected better, quality discussions on KurzweilAI.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:50:50 +0000

Didn’t I see something similar 20 years ago.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:03:28 +0000

Mules also require servicing, they need feeding and and care during periods of inactivity where a robot can be turned off and put into storage. Also, robots don’t poop.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:34:04 +0000

Spiders are terrifying, why are we using technology to create even more of them?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:17:27 +0000

…And so begins the prelude to the Cylon War. That’s how it happened in the show, I believe; they made the robots smarter to increase efficiency while ignoring the fact that eventually they would ascend to a certain level of intelligence whereby they would stop being tools and at some point become sentient, self-aware beings.

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:55:51 +0000

“Tails to teeth,” for mules in Missouri, that means, “one end kicks, the other end bites.”

By: ChrisF

ChrisF — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:10:19 +0000

Rob not Bob – sorry !

By: ChrisF

ChrisF — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:09:39 +0000

Correct me if i’m wrong Bob, but I think it contrasts the cost of deploying and supporting a certain capability (the “tail”), to the benefit it actually delivers (or the damage it does – the “teeth”). Bigdog and it’s ilk are very cool, but imagine all the supporting tech that has to travel with it – plus all the servicing and tuning to keep it ready for battle.

By: BJ

BJ — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:27:21 +0000

Didn’t Rodney Brooks already develop neural net equipped mechanical bugs that learned to walk/skuttle better than this at MIT 20 years ago?

By: Roland

Roland — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:58:30 +0000

“Tails to teeth”ratio. What does that mean?

By: Bob Vasquez

Bob Vasquez — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:42:35 +0000

So there I am protecting my home with my 100-round military-style assault weapon and a SWAT team surrounds my home (to get me, of course). The SWAT captain says, “okay, send in about 1000 robotic spiders, then, go get us some coffee. “He’ll come out.”

By: Rob Fleming

Rob Fleming — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:08:14 +0000

As I said to the the ARPA program manager 30 years ago, “Mules, Clinton, Mules”. In 30 years they could have bred much smarter mules that do not have the terrible “tails to teeth” ratio that most military technology has.

By: Jabbah

Jabbah — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:25:31 +0000

Here’s a link to the project home page with some videos:

http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/evolved-quadruped-gaits

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:20:19 +0000

These guys could use some tree spider brains. I like how the robots look like they are dancing.