Scientists have created a virtual predator that has the beginnings of self-awareness, feels hunger, and distinguishes tasty food from bad food. Full article by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Institute for Evolutionary Biology. Max Planck is published in the eNeuro magazine.
Biologists have modeled an artificial predator in the image and likeness of the marine gastropod - the slug Pleurobranchaea californica. Scientists called their creation Cyberslug (literally "cyberslug" or "cyberulite"). "It relies on its motivation and memories of its perception of the outside world, and reacts to information based on how that information makes it feel," says one and its creators, Rano Gillett, professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois, of the slug.
Anyone can run the simulation on the website of one of the authors of the article, Mikhail Voloshin. When creating cyberslays, scientists based on the fact that real Pleurobranchaea californica, when faced with a new object for them, have three options for behavior: either it can be eaten, or it must be avoided, or it can be paired with it if it is a gastropod of the same species.
As scientists note, a hungry cyberslake can even attack a painful stimulus, and a full one can avoid even tasty food. Over time, he even learns what to eat and what not to.
Mikhail Voloshin created the first, more primitive model of this predator back in 1999.