How does a robot think?
A thinking machine has no little person inside. It runs one small loop, fast: look, try, check, fix. Run it quickly enough and it looks exactly like thinking.
A thinking machine has no little person inside. It runs one small loop, fast: look, try, check, fix. Run it quickly enough and it looks exactly like thinking.
When a robot does something clever, finds its way across a room, keeps its balance, follows you with its eyes, it is tempting to think there is a tiny person inside, watching and deciding. There is not. There is something simpler, and stranger, and once you see it you will spot it everywhere.
It has a goal, and it has a loop
Give the robot a goal. Not a big dream, just a simple wish it can measure. Stay near the light. Keep from falling. Get closer to the ball. Now it does the same four small things, over and over, faster than you can blink. Look: what is the world like right now? Try: make a small move. Check: am I closer to my goal than before? Fix: if yes, do more of that; if no, do the opposite. Look, try, check, fix. Then again. Then again.
The loop is the thinking
Each turn of the loop is tiny and almost dumb. One little look, one little move, one little check. But run that loop a thousand times a second and something surprising happens. The robot crosses the room, rights itself when it stumbles, hunts down the ball. From the outside it looks like it is deciding, planning, wanting. From the inside it is just look, try, check, fix, spinning around and around. The thinking is not hidden somewhere inside the loop. The thinking is the loop.
The thinking is not inside the loop. The thinking is the loop.
Why this is a big idea
Grown-up scientists have a serious name for this loop, feedback, and they have built it into everything from a robot to a rocket to the little dial that keeps your house warm. The deep secret is that you do not need a plan, or a map, or a mind, to act as if you have all three. You only need a goal you can measure and the patience to close the gap, look, try, check, fix, until the gap is gone. A machine that does only that can look astonishingly alive.