I've been reading On Intelligence during this trip -- it's a fantastic book so far, though I'm only about half way through. It sparked a conversation with Christoph regarding Artificial Intelligence though, which sparked a memory of a study on analog robotics I had read way back when.

Basically, before the rise and domination of digital computing, much of AI was done using analog parts. I once read, though I can't remember the exact details, of a man who had successfully created little analog 'creatures' that measured against expected waves to find their way about. He wrote of a 'scotch tape test' where he'd put the creatures legs in a scotch tape dispenser and it would systematically find a way out of the tape by searching for the perfect wave pattern that it expected. Or something along those lines. If anyone knows the exact details or a place to point me to, I'd love to re-familiarize myself with it all.

Anyway, this morning I came across an article which kind of reminded me of our conversation the other day. Two robots who are taught to seek out energy, programmed to work together for the optimal joint solution. At some point during the experiment, one robot starts to basically take advantage of the other. The two that started off as equals, were no longer so. Inequality developed in ideal, controlled circumstances. Here's an expert of the conclusion, and what they theorize it could mean:

The experiment does not imply that inequalities are inevitable or that those who were lucky, like R1, have a kind of birthright to their position. However it warns us that inequalities may develop even if the rules are completely fair and initial conditions unbiased. If one were to apply these results to human societies, it has the disturbing implication that even if every agent within a society attempts a fair distribution of labor and benefit, gross inequalities will nevertheless have a tendency to develop.

Very cool stuff, and it's a fairly brief read.