Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 65.
John McCarthy, almost half a century later
20
(Courtesy of John McCarthy)
Manifestly computers do make choices, but does this mean that they have
free will? After all, the choices made by computers are often explicitly
determined within a program. But some of the decision-making mech-
anisms employed in programs are capable of the same type of flexibility
as those evident in humans, incorporating a balance between predictable
choices determined solely by the logic expressed within a program and
the unpredictable choice of randomness. This balance is the aim of the
ARASEM
21
software architecture, described by Frank Dacosta.
20
Compare the photograph of McCarthy circa 1957 in Chapter 2.
21
Artificially Random Self-Motivation. This was a simple algorithm wherein a robot pet was
programmed, sometimes to make random decisions as to the pet's actions and sometimes to make
