From Bricks to Brains

From Bricks to Brains introduces embodied cognitive scienceand illustrates its foundational ideas through the construction andobservation of LEGO Mindstorms robots. Discussing the characteristics that distinguish embodied cognitivescience from classical cognitive science, From Bricks toBrains places a renewed emphasis on sensing and acting, theimportance of embodiment, the exploration of distributed notions ofcontrol, and the development of theories by synthesizing simple systemsand exploring their behaviour. Numerous examples are used to illustratea key theme: the importance of an agent's environment. Evensimple agents, such as LEGO robots, are capable of exhibiting complexbehaviour when they can sense and affect the world around them.