Self-Introspecting Robot Learns to Walk

StCredZero writes "There's something about these things that seems eerily alive! The Starfish Robot reminds me of the Grid Bugs from Tron. But it's very real, and apparently capable of self introspection. In fact, instead of being explicitly coded, it teaches itself how to walk, and it can even learn how to compensate for damage."

"Self-introspection"

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the difference between introspection and self-introspection?

Don't like the look of this one bit.

[ettlz]

Hope it comes with a remote-control kill switch.
Hope it doesn't figure out how to circumvent the remote-control kill switch.
Hope it doesn't build a bigger version of itself...

Re:Self-reflection, literally!

[Original Replica]

"You could conceive of natural selection never producing consciousness "

Oddly enough, you could not conceive of anything without consciousness. Understanding is a mental, not physical process. You could however conceive of consciousness without the physical world. Indeed every culture has been doing so for all of recorded history in the form of spirit worlds, afterlife, etc.

Occam's razor can be much abused depending on how you frame your observation. "I think therefore I am." is much more straight forward than "I am incredibly complex and elaborate, therefore I think." Let's set Occam's Razor aside for this discussion, it doesn't seem to be the right tool for the job here.

If you allow yourself to view the conscious world as more fundamental than the physical world, then the observed consistency/connectedness of all physical phenomena would require some sort of governing over-consciousness that is responsible for the physical world. That of course would be a form of creationism, much reviled here on /.