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This talk starts out on a humorous note: "So, where are the robots?
We have been told for 40 years now, they are coming soon, very soon."
So, he and his team decided to call upon the 'mother of all designers'
and see if it was possible to evolve a complex robot, rather than just
building them outright.
A huge variety of machines were created within a virtual environment,
which learnt to move, and moved in completely different ways. The best
designs - those which showed the most promise, moved forwards and were
altered time and time again.
Eventually the best designs were physically created, scurrying like
insects. This design was not intentional, its just how the best movers
evolved from the process.
All the physical robots, same as the virtual, learn to move autonomously.
None of them start out knowing what they look like, or how they are
configured. They have to learn this for themselves, the same as a baby
does.
"In the absence of any reward, the intrinsic reward is self-replication".
An astute statement garnered from watching a couple of thousand simple
robotic blocks in a room, all using this no idea what they look like,
teach themselves to move AI, and allowing them to copulate and bond.
Over time, lifelike patterns start to emerge, then replicate.
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