Robots Need to Know They Can Die at Any Minute, Just Like the Rest of Us

How do you get machines to perform better? Tell them they could croak at any minute. In a new paper from the University of Southern California, scientists say that "in a dynamic and unpredictable world, an intelligent agent should hold its own meta-goal of self-preservation." Lead researcher Antonio Damasio is a luminary in the field of intelligence and the brain. In his profile at the Edge Foundation, they say Damasio "has made seminal contributions to the understanding of brain processes underlying emotions, feelings, decision-making and consciousness."