The Nature of Adaptive Robots

4:33 PM
j0shbongard: Much of my inspiration comes from the animals and humans. By observing ourselves, or other species, we can see how they act, and what they learn from those actions. Much of our current work is inspired by young children.

imtracynotstacy: Why children?
4:34 PM

j0shbongard: Children begin at a very early age by imitating others around them. However, after a short period of time, they move on from imitation to inferring intent: observing how someone else does something, and then, when given the chance, they do not simply repeat the action, but perform a slightly different action that improves on the action they observed.
4:35 PM
For example if a toddler observes a parent trying to pull the lid off of a pen, when offered the pen, the child might grasp the pen lid differently, and successfully pull off the lid. We are currently trying to instill this capability in our robots.
4:36 PM

imtracynotstacy: Wow. Very cool stuff.

j0shbongard: Thanks.

imtracynotstacy: Ok. Now some questions about you. Not too personal. Promise.

j0shbongard: OK, fire away.
4:37 PM

imtracynotstacy: If you could scrutinize your work from three different views (the view of the dreamer, the realist, and the cynic), what would the dreamer say about your research's potential?

j0shbongard: Oh boy, what a question.

imtracynotstacy: give it shot

j0shbongard: From a dreamer's point of view, I hope that not just my own work in robotics, but the many, many other fascinating robots that others are building tell us something about the general nature of intelligence. I think that if we were no longer the only intelligent species on Earth,that altered viewpoint might change the way we behave as a species.
4:39 PM

imtracynotstacy: Profound.

j0shbongard: But that's just the dreamer talking. :-)
4:41 PM

imtracynotstacy: Ok. What about reality? (And forget the cynic. I don't care. I prefer the dreamers)

j0shbongard: In reality, I believe that the first truly useful robots that we will see working alongside us in the real world will be relatively simple creatures. We might see robots at construction sites moving material from point A to point B, or helping with large-scale farming.
4:43 PM
They might also be useful for automating and therefore accelerating construction of large-scale infrastructure, such as wind or solar farms. Much further out, we might start to see more intelligent machines that seem more human: robots that can converse with us, help out in the home, walk the dog, etc. Both kinds of robots: simple and complex, could be very useful, but in different ways.
4:45 PM

imtracynotstacy: Great answer(s). We're almost done here.

j0shbongard: OK

imtracynotstacy: Here's an easier question: What did you eat for lunch?

j0shbongard: Wow, that's a curve ball.   A chicken salad and cream of broccoli soup: not very interesting, I'm afraid.

imtracynotstacy: No worries. What is the most unusual object on your desk?   I know. Totally random.

j0shbongard: Hmm... [looking]  
4:47 PM
A stack of [counting...] 27 pen lights. We use them to test our swarm of light-sensitive robots.

imtracynotstacy: Got it. And lastly, does your boss or colleagues have a nickname for you?
4:48 PM

j0shbongard: Not that I know of; here's hoping it's affectionate, if there is one.

imtracynotstacy: Me too. Ok, Josh, that's it. Thanks so much for your time and interesting answers.

j0shbongard: bye now.
5:01 PM