Here is an interesting and relevant excerpt from a book called "Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious". Most of you will probably disagree with the message behind this story (I'm not sure I completely agree with it myself) but it's very interesting. Anyway here it is:
The Fable of Robot Love
In the year 2525, engineers finally managed to build
robots that looked like humans, acted like humans, and were
ready to reproduce. 10,000 robots of various types had been
built, all of them female.
A research team set out to design a male robot who would be able to find a good
mate, found a family, and take care of the little robots until they were able to take care of
themselves. They called their first model Maximizer, M-1 for short.
Programmed to find the best mate, M-1 proceeded to identify a
thousand female robots that fit his goal of not marrying a model older
than himself. He detected 500 features on which individual female
robots varied, such as energy consumption, computing speed, and
frame elasticity.
Regrettably, the females did not have their individual feature values printed on their
foreheads; some even hid them, trying to fool M-1. He had to infer these values from
samples of behavior. After 3 months passed, he had succeeded in getting reliable
measures on the first feature he tested (memory size) from each female robot.
The research team made a quick calculation of when M-1 would be ready to pick the
best and discovered that no one in the team would still be alive at that point—nor would
the best female robot. The thousand females were upset that M-1 could not make up his
mind, and, as he began recording the second feature, the serial number, they pulled out
his batteries and dumped him in a scrap yard.
The team went back to the drawing board. M-2 was designed to
focus on the most important features and to stop looking for more
when the costs of collecting further information exceeded its benefits.
After 3 months, M-2 was exactly where M-1 was, and in addition was
busy measuring the benefits and costs of each feature so that he could
know what to ignore. The impatient females ripped out his wires and
got rid of him, too.
The team now adopted the proverb that the best is the enemy of the
good and designed G-1, a robot who looked for a mate that was good
enough. G-1 had an aspiration level built in. When he encountered the
first female who met his aspiration level, he would propose to her—and ignore the rest.
To make sure that he found a mate if his aspirations were too high, he was equipped
with a feedback loop that lowered the aspiration level if none of the females were good
enough for him over too long a period. G-1 showed no interest in the first 6 females he
met, but then proposed to number 7. Short of alternatives, she accepted. Three months
later, to everyone’s pleasure, G-1 was married and had two small kids.
While writing the final report, however, the team learned that G-1 had left his wife
for another robot. Nothing in his brain had prevented him from running off to what
looked to him like a better deal. One team member pointed out that M-1 would never
have left his wife, because he would only have accepted the best in the first place. That’s
true, responded the others, but G-1 at least found one.
The team discussed the problem for a while and then came up with
GE-1. He was happy with a good enough female, just like G-1, but was
additionally equipped with an emotional glue that was released when
he met a good enough robot and adhered more strongly with each
physical contact. Just to be sure, they inserted a second form of
emotional glue into his brain that discharged when
a baby was born and tightened after each physical contact with the
baby.
GE-1 proposed to a female as quickly as G-1 did, married, and
fathered three babies. He was still with them when the team
finished their report. He was somewhat clingy, but dependable.
Ever since, GE-1 robots have conquered the earth.
**Note that GE-1 was the "superior" robot. The previous model may have gotten more action than GE-1, but he was still inferior.**