From Bricks to Brains

Even simple agents, such as LEGO robots, are capable of exhibiting complex behaviour when they can sense and alter the world around them. From Bricks to Brains offers an introduction to embodied cognitive science and illustrates its foundational ideas through the construction and observation of LEGO Mindstorms robots. Discussing the characteristics that distinguish embodied cognitive science from classical cognitive science, the authors place a renewed emphasis on sensing and acting, on the importance of physical embodiment, and on the exploration of distributed notions of control. They also show how synthesizing simple systems and observing their behaviour can generate new theoretical insights. Numerous examples are brought forward to illustrate a key theme: the importance of environment to an actor. Even simple agents, such as LEGO robots, are capable of exhibiting complex behaviour when they can sense and alter the world around them.