unl-digifab

Even Machines As Simple as Thermostats

In his 1969 essay arguing in favor of Strong Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy ascribed human qualities of belief, desire, and intention to simple sensors and electronics. In fact, he said: “Even machines as simple as thermostats can be said to have beliefs.”

Link John McCarthy, in “Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines” 1969

For this exercise, I want you to make a functional design sketch of a machine that appears to have feelings. It should incorporate one simple sensor (distance, temperature, light), and some simple output (servo, jumbo LED, or other like buzzer).

You will write simple code that reads in the input sensor and responds to that input with some behavior. As you did in the biomimicry exercise, think about how a simple system can communicate with very limited means. But here we are adding a sensor so a way of responding to the world. You will combine parts of the Knob, Sweep, rangefinder, and other examples from the past two weeks.

Submission

1. Canvas:
   • Arduino code as .zip file.
   • Photo of your circuit.
   • Video documenting your biomimicry in action.
   • (use the naming convention ex12_Lastname_1.zip, ex12_Lastname.jpg and _ex12_Lastname.mp4 for the files.)
2. Sketchbook Updates:
   • add images of the scans, Rhino file, and STL file to your sketchbook.

DUE: 12/2/2021, 9PM. See Canvas.

References