Moravec's Paradox

Moravec’s Paradox is a concept in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, named after Hans Moravec, a computer scientist and roboticist. The paradox is based on the observation that, contrary to common intuition, it is often easier to program a computer or a robot to perform high-level cognitive tasks than it is to teach them basic sensorimotor skills. Moravec expressed this idea in his book “Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence,” published in 1988.

Moravec’s Paradox can be summarized as follows: tasks that are relatively simple for humans, such as perception and motor control, turn out to be difficult for computers and robots to perform, while tasks that are difficult for humans, such as complex reasoning and problem-solving, can be more easily programmed into machines.

Moravec attributed this paradox to the evolutionary history of human cognition. Over millions of years of evolution, humans have developed sophisticated cognitive abilities to navigate complex social environments, reason about abstract concepts, and plan for the future. These high-level cognitive skills are the result of natural selection and are deeply ingrained in the human brain.

On the other hand, basic sensorimotor skills, such as walking, grasping objects, and recognizing faces, are tasks that humans and animals have been performing for much longer in an evolutionary context. As a result, these skills are highly optimized and innate in biological organisms. When it comes to replicating them in machines, it turns out to be a more challenging endeavor.

In summary, Moravec’s Paradox highlights the discrepancy between the apparent difficulty of programming machines to perform tasks that are easy for humans and the relative ease of programming machines to perform tasks that are difficult for humans. This insight has important implications for the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, suggesting that AI systems may excel in areas where human intelligence is weak and struggle in areas where human intelligence is strong.