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I don't understand the advantage of this over just having a digital NN and then pushing the output to some electric motor?

by iNic 4y ago

rongopo 4y ago
Indeed there is not such advantage.
bufferoverflow 4y ago
I think you're missing the point. I think it's to demonstrate that fully mechanical systems can learn and react like a real brain plus muscles and sensors. The possible implication is, if consciousness can arise in a digital neural net, it can also arise in a mechanical system, you just need enough of levers and gears connected in a certain way.
- djokkataja 4y ago
  > I think it's to demonstrate that fully mechanical systems can learn and react like a real brain plus muscles and sensors. That wasn't the point of the research as expressed in the article (note that the final image has a label for "Control electronics" underneath the mechanical system): > Thus, this work lays the foundation for artificial-intelligent (AI) materials that can learn behaviors and properties. With applications such as: > use in aircraft wings to morph the shape in response to wind patterns to boost efficiency, adding reactive rigidity to buildings to better withstand earthquakes and other disasters, shockwave-deflecting reactive armor, or even the creation of surfaces able to perform acoustic imaging.
  - betwixthewires 4y ago
    Well of course they have useful applications in mind. But it does demonstrate something interesting: computation occurs naturally, on the "bare metal" of the universe, and systems can be built that perform computation that do not require an abstraction or purpose built computing device.
mjburgess 4y ago
It depends on how much koolaid you've drunk. A NN implemented on a digital computer is a fixed way of varying the electrical field of the CPU (etc.) given (eg.,) an SSD state which produces a fixed way of varying (eg.,) a motor. This is very (very) far away from adaptive motion at the "tissue" level. The semi-mystical notion that a NN is a kind of "programming of reality" is false: just as a NN running on a CPU cannot perform nuclear fusion, it likewise, cannot produce material adaptation. It is an open question whether any non-organic material is adaptive, and I'd bet against it.

I don't understand the advantage of this over just having a digital NN and then pushing the output to some electric motor?

by iNic 4y ago

I don't understand the advantage of this over just having a digital NN and then pushing the output to some electric motor?

rongopo 4y ago

Indeed there is not such advantage.

bufferoverflow 4y ago

I think you're missing the point. I think it's to demonstrate that fully mechanical systems can learn and react like a real brain plus muscles and sensors. The possible implication is, if consciousness can arise in a digital neural net, it can also arise in a mechanical system, you just need enough of levers and gears connected in a certain way.

djokkataja 4y ago
> I think it's to demonstrate that fully mechanical systems can learn and react like a real brain plus muscles and sensors. That wasn't the point of the research as expressed in the article (note that the final image has a label for "Control electronics" underneath the mechanical system): > Thus, this work lays the foundation for artificial-intelligent (AI) materials that can learn behaviors and properties. With applications such as: > use in aircraft wings to morph the shape in response to wind patterns to boost efficiency, adding reactive rigidity to buildings to better withstand earthquakes and other disasters, shockwave-deflecting reactive armor, or even the creation of surfaces able to perform acoustic imaging.
- betwixthewires 4y ago
  Well of course they have useful applications in mind. But it does demonstrate something interesting: computation occurs naturally, on the "bare metal" of the universe, and systems can be built that perform computation that do not require an abstraction or purpose built computing device.

mjburgess 4y ago

It depends on how much koolaid you've drunk. A NN implemented on a digital computer is a fixed way of varying the electrical field of the CPU (etc.) given (eg.,) an SSD state which produces a fixed way of varying (eg.,) a motor. This is very (very) far away from adaptive motion at the "tissue" level. The semi-mystical notion that a NN is a kind of "programming of reality" is false: just as a NN running on a CPU cannot perform nuclear fusion, it likewise, cannot produce material adaptation. It is an open question whether any non-organic material is adaptive, and I'd bet against it.