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Robots, Robots, Robots
destructor writes: "It looks as though robots can answer the questions of life and capitalism through robotic soccer simulations. I found this article over at megarad.com that tells us about Dr. Balch's experiments with soccer robots [NYT, free reg, blah blah]. For now, it is purely a computer simulation, but I guess it will be turned into a physical environment rather soon."
Additionally Shabazz writes: "The SF Weekly has a story about a band called 'Captured! by Robots' that started by Jay Vance (who some may recognize from Skankin' Pickle) and several robots that he created. The band is a bit out there, but something that any true geek can appreciate. Maybe this is the start of something great!" Additionally Phred noted that the Oregon Robotics Tournament being held this Saturday (December 1).
How can robotic action teach us about human relations? Humans are so much more complicated than capacitors, circuits and processing units that there is very little that one could find that would allow us to understand human behavior.
If you look hard enough at anything, you will find what you are looking for.
Remember a scooner is a sailboat and there is no Easter Bunny.
You will get a lot more useful information if you do social experiments with people instead.
I agree that group performance as well as individual reward should be rewarded, and in most large companies it is. Annual bonuses are often based on company performance multiplied by individual performance. Rewarding a small group/division is useful where its possible.
Soccer is individualistic. You will make more money (or receive more fame if amateur) as a striker than as a defender, so if you have the talent, that's the position you want. Economics also alow for people to realize that their talent level may be better suited to being a defender.
The robot social system may also evolve into letting better robots be the strikers, but its incidental. The motivations of individual fame and wealth are not being accounted for, but is what causes teams and players to stabilize into their positions.
I agree with the opinion of many others that the connection drawn between this simulation and capitalism is a little far fetched. The modivation behind human behaviour is far more complex. Besides group production is rewarded through profit sharing, bonuses and stock options. However, I do think this simulation shows something useful on a far more obvious level. That is that rewarding group behavoir of autonomous agents may produce better group behaviour than individualistic behaviour. As opossed to some behaviour such as bird flocking which has been shown to coorelate well with a purely individual reward (motivation) system. I think one fundemental flaw in his reward system is that rewards are only based on goals. In an individual sense, this will never produce a goalie. So without the proper reward stimulation you can not expect the team to perform well on all levels. A useful experiment to show what's really happening here would be to set up two sets of 50 (or more) teams. Then keep statistics on each player such as scoring, saves, take-aways, etc. For the first set of 50 use an individual reward system. For the second set of 50 use a team reward system. Then draft two teams consisting of the top players from each division and pit them against one another. This might give a better understanding of which reward system really produces better players. Perhaps the individual reward system would produce some real supper stars, where the group reward system only produces good teams, but no stars. Jettra