A team of researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute found that inconsistencies in the social behaviour of termites offered unexpected insights into potential fluctuations in machine behaviour. The findings are published today in Nature Communications. Further research into the sociability of robots could reveal similar fluctuations, with wider implications for our expectations of machines.
A team of researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute found that inconsistencies in the social behaviour of termites offered unexpected insights into potential fluctuations in machine behaviour. While the team expected that the termites would behave as memoryless automatons whose actions were driven solely by probability, they were surprised to discover different personalities interacting within the wider social group. Further research into the sociability of robots could reveal similar fluctuations, with wider implications for our expectations of machines.