

  (Source: Markus Waibel, Dario Floreano, Laurent Keller)










This study was published in PLoS Biology.

Comments     Threshold


RE: Robots needed ?
By foolsgambit11 on 5/5/2011 7:14:11 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. And what's more important, the actual code they used makes a huge impact on the viability of this study. How did the robots know which other robots were related to it, and how closely related they were? Did this code actually include an altruistic subroutine, and they demonstrated the results of its expression? Or did the altruism arise totally spontaneously from the experiment? What amount of mutation was involved between generations, and how often did that result in non-contributing group members?

Additionally, an experiment like this (though it would be easier if simply run as a simulation) should answer some questions which weren't discussed in this article. How often was altruism displayed? What level of altruism resulted in the most viable gene groups? A high level of altruism would allow genetically weak members to 'pollute' the gene pool, while a lower level would reduce the total size of the gene pool, so where exactly was the happy medium that produced the 'best' group (based on any of several criteria)?

RE: Robots needed ?
By Kiffberet on 5/6/2011 8:45:06 AM , Rating: 2
What about the selfish robots? Why were they taken out? Surely if all the robots were altruistic and then a selfish one was added (through mutation), then the selfish one would flurish (taking all the food etc), and pass it's genes on.
Eventually only selfish robots would exist, but then they'll suffer because of their nature. A altruist/selfish hybrid would evolve, which can punish selfish robots as well as dumb ass altruists.


Related Articles
Scientist Creates Evolutionary Robots
January 21, 2011, 11:01 AM
