Towards irrational robots

“How the mind really works? It often works irrationally. But, we argue in this paper, a bit of irrationality may supports [sic] survival and cognitive development.”

And furthermore, say authors Syed I. Ahson and Andrzej Buller in their chapter for Human-Computer Systems Interaction, Volume 60 of the series Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing, irrational robots may go some way towards realistically emulating human beings. There are caveats however :

“Unfortunately, a robot designed to deliberately expose itself to inconveniences and dangers may be hardly welcomed by today’s corporate investors. The same undoubtedly applies to a robot that displays visible signs of indecisiveness. Nonetheless, we argue that such troublesome properties may be an unavoidable price to pay for a robot’s cognitive self-development up to a level beyond that which can be achieved by handcrafting or simulated evolution.”

See: ‘Toward Daydreaming Machines’ (additional material may be found here.)

Note: The team are somewhat dismissive of “speaking mascots” and “human-shaped reception-desk staff”

“Their ‘intelligence’ is nothing but a masquerade designed to impress laymen”