Philosophical conundrum of the day

This is where the study of artificial intelligence really comes into its own: programming robots with the ability to navigate a sea of sense data and determine what should influence behavior and decision making. Some robotic household vacuum cleaners already have sensors and can exhibit crude learning.

“A Roomba goes around bouncing off the wall and pretty soon it begins to understand, ‘Hey, I’m expecting a wall in this room,'” Wadsworth said. “So it avoids that wall, and it eventually forms a map of the room so it doesn’t need to bounce off the walls anymore.”