Led by Robots, Roaches Abandon Instincts

[The2ndWheel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/science/16roach.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Many a mother has said, with a sigh, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too?”

The answer, for cockroaches at least, may well be yes. Researchers using robotic roaches were able to persuade real cockroaches to do things that their instincts told them were not the best idea.

This experiment in bug peer pressure combined entomology, robotics and the study of ways that complex and even intelligent patterns can arise from simple behavior. Animal behavior research shows that swarms working together can prosper where individuals might fail, and robotics researchers have been experimenting with simple robots that, together, act a little like a swarm.

-snip-

“It’s a cascade of imitation, so a small effect can become quite large,” said Stephen Pratt, a professor of life sciences at Arizona State University. “This one is a real step forward. They’ve developed these theories about what kinds of individual behavior rules would have to follow to generate a collective intelligence. I thought it was very gratifying they could get the roaches to do what they normally would not do.”

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"I thought it was very gratifying they could get the roaches to do what they normally would not do."

I'd say creepy more than gratifying, but hey, people are different.

[daninthemoon]

1. I like it. A robot roach assassin in every home, trickin em all into

some ghastly death trap. The more gruesome the better.

[htuttle]

2. ...or send the roaches toward your sister or your friends as a gag!

I think there's a great Christmas toy in all of this somewhere...

[Demeter]

3. Sounds Like a Bunch of Republicans to Me

We can stop defaming sheep now.

[Joanne98]

4. The Republican base!