Brain Box

by Douglas Fox New Scientist, 5 Nov 2005 The infant crawls across a floor strewn with blocks, grabbing and tasting as it goes, its malleable mind impressionable and hungry to learn. It is already adapting, discovering that the striped blocks are yummy and the spotted ones taste bad. The infant is a trashcan-shaped robot called Darwin VII, and it has just 20,000 brain cells. Despite this, it has managed to master the abilities of a 18-month-old baby -- a pretty impressive feat for a machine. Read more