Robotic salamander provides clues to the past

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EVN @ Mar 11th 2007 1:23PM

Would someone explain how a purposefully designed robot developed by intelligent persons mirrors the random and indeterminate processes of evolution?

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netgarou @ Mar 11th 2007 1:49PM

While I see what you're getting at, I don't think that your statement is completely true. _Mutations_ are the main random component. And it's certainly correct to say that evolution is indeterminate in the sense that species are not evolving with any ultimate goal. Rather, they evolve (read: adapt) in response to some selection pressure that has, say, the possibility to kill some off. So while evolution doesn't have some end-goal, it isn't completely directionless.

That being said, it's not that odd for researchers to build something to test a random process. They are probably just testing some of the possible locomotive variations that might have been. Even if evolution was random they can still do this.

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