In my last blog post, I introduced readers to William Grey Walter (1910 – 1977), a renowned neurophysiologist, cybernetician, and robotician. His futuristic aim was to construct mechanical models--robots--that were capable of realistically simulating the behavior of living beings. Grey Walter's most famous robotic creations were his Cybernetic Tortoises. Elmer and Elsie, his first two robots, were constructed between 1948 and 1949. They appeared to exhibit intelligent action: they were goal-directed (they moved toward light and stopped doing so when they reached the light) and they avoided obstacles that blocked their way to the goal. In a truly remarkable coincidence, robotic tortoises have very recently made the news!

Steve Grand is currently teaching his children how to pee. Rather, he's teaching them to notice that mental niggle with which we're all familiar, the sense of a mounting pressure in some deep place that clues us to the fact that our bladder is full and we need to do something about it, quickly. Grand's children -- this current batch, at least -- have taken their father's name. The Grandroids, as they're known, are bug-eyed, quadrupedal animals. They look a bit like shaven dogs with giant octopus suckers for mouths (although that may radically change in the coming months).

If you met this lab-created critter over your beach vacation, you'd swear you saw a baby ray. In fact, the tiny, flexible swimmer is the product of a team of diverse scientists. They have built the most successful artificial animal yet. This disruptive technology opens the door much wider forlifelike robots and artificial intelligence. Like most disruption, it started with a simple idea.