Discussing the characteristics that distinguish embodied cognitive science from classical cognitive science, the book places a renewed emphasis on sensing and acting, the importance of embodiment, the exploration of distributed notions of control, and the development of theories by synthesizing simple systems and exploring their behavior. Numerous examples are used to illustrate a key theme: the importance of an agent's environment. Even simple agents, such as LEGO robots, are capable of exhibiting complex behavior when they can sense and affect the world around them.
Michael Dawson is professor of psychology at the University of Alberta. Brian Dupuis as a research assistant in psychology and Michael Wilson is a biology undergraduate, both at the University of Alberta.
From Bricks to Brains
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from Bricks to Brains The Embodied Cognitive Science of LEGO Robots
Michael R.W. Dawson Brian Dupuis Michael Wilson
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© 2010 michael dawson, brian dupuis, and michael wilson Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street Edmonton, ab t5j 3s8 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication From bricks to brains : the embodied cognitive science of LEGO robots / editors, Michael Dawson, Brian Dupuis, Michael Wilson. Includes bibliographical references and index. Also available in electronic format (978-1-897425-79-4). isbn 978-1-897425-78-7 1. Robots–Programming. 2. Robots–Dynamics. 3. Cognitive science. 4. Robots–Design and construction. 5. Artificial intelligence. 6. LEGO toys. I. Dawson, Michael Robert William, 1959- II. Dupuis, Brian, 1984- III. Wilson, Michael, 1987TJ211.F76 2010
629.8’92
C2010-901786-2
Cover and book design by Natalie Olsen, kisscutdesign.com. Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printing.
This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, AttributionNoncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada, see www.creativecommons.org. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. Please contact AU Press, Athabasca University at
[email protected] for permission beyond the usage outlined in the Creative Commons license.
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Acknowledgements
1
chapter 1 Mind Control — Internal or External? 1 1.0 Chapter Overview 2 1.1 Our Special Intelligence 3 1.2 Rodents that Engineer Wetlands 1.2.1 Castor canadensis 1.2.2 The Cognitive Beaver? 5 1.3 The Instincts of Insects 1.3.1 The Instinctive Wasp 1.3.2 Umwelt and Control 7 1.4 Paper Wasp Colonies and Their Nests 1.4.1 Colonies and Their Nests 1.4.2 Scaling Up
Contents
8 1.5 The Towers of Termites 1.5.1 Termite Mounds 1.5.2 The Thinking Termite? 10 1.6 The Rational Insect? 1.6.1 Computational Theory of Mind 1.6.2 Are Insects Representational? 11 1.7 Insect as Superorganism? 1.7.1 The Intelligent Whole 1.7.2 Colonial Intelligence 13 1.8 The Ultimate Democracy 1.8.1 Emerging Problems 1.8.2 From Whence Organization? 14 1.9 Programs for Nest Construction 1.9.1 An Inherited Program 1.9.2 Testing the Theory 16 1.10 The Environment as Program 1.10.1 A Complex Environment 1.10.2 Stigmergy 17 1.11 Stigmergy and the Synthetic Approach 1.11.1 The Synthetic Approach 1.11.2 Wasp Nest Examples 19 1.12 Stigmer