When Alan Turing visited the Science Museum in Kensington in 1951 he was reportedly taken with the “proto-robots” from Grey Walter. Fitted with lights and photoreceptors, these cybenetic “tortises” were pretty darn cute. Here’s more from the Science Museum:
There were two, called Elsie and Elmer, and these bumbling, ‘proto-robots’ were fitted with lights and photoreceptors, so they appeared to dance together clumsily when they caught sight of each other across their enclosure.
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When they were on good form, they could show surprisingly lifelike behaviour. Each had just two ‘senses’ – attraction to light and repulsion on contact, but this generated quite complex and amusing behaviour – particularly when two were together since their lights attracted them to each other but when they bumped together they backed away, continually repeating the cycle of attraction and repulsion.
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