Category Archives: Psychology
Anthropomorphize Me
an·thro·po·mor·phize to ascribe human characteristics to things not human. [ref]
“Humans spontaneously imbue the world with social meaning: we see not only emotions and intentional behaviors in humans and other animals, but also anger in the movements of thunderstorms and willful sabotage in crashing computers.” [ref]
The amygdalae are ancient brain structures located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the human brain responsible for quickly processing memories of emotion. Side effects include: tendency to anthropomorphize anything lifelike. The robot, Keepon, developed by Hideki Kozima was built to tap into that part of our brains. Below: Keepon dancing to the Spoon song, “Don’t You Evah.”
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Simple Life
In 1986, the German neuroscientist, Valentino Braitenberg, made an important observation about human psychology. He said, “When we analyze a mechanism, we tend to overestimate its complexity.”
Try following an ant around while it searches for food. You might infer a complex mind that is processing a myriad of difficult decisions. However, the ant’s actions can be explained by a very simple set of rules.
Even so, it’s not always easy to determine what those rules might be, looking in from the outside. Braitenberg therefore concluded that, when studying complex behavior, you must invent your own rules, from the inside looking out. In short, you tinker from the simplest possible starting point and see what emerges.
This line of thought led to his famous book, “Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology,” which details a series of thought experiments in which simple mechanisms seemingly exhibit complex behavior.
Consider, for example, Braitenberg’s vehicle #2a. It’s a two-wheeled robot with light sensors. When light on the right side increases, so does the right wheel’s speed. Same with the left side. The result is a robot that avoids light. Cross the wires, and you have a robot that steers and accelerates towards a light source (vehicle #2b). While the simplest of parts comprise both robots, Braitenberg describes the former as “cowardly,” and the latter as “aggressive.”
How about robots that display “love?” Braitenberg’s vehicle #3 adds some inhibitory connections, which cause the robot to approach a light, and then gradually stop to stare at it indefinitely.
Other adjustments can create robots, which Braitenberg describes as “exploring, knowing, displaying instincts, making decisions, having foresight, ego and optimism.” Obviously, these are subjective, anthropomorphic terms, but Braitenberg purposely uses them to make his point: complex behavior can arise from simple mechanisms, IF they are configured just the right way.
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