About 20 years ago I worked on an artificial intelligence project at MIT. One of my first experiences there was to stand in a small room full of all kinds of devices. The professor that invited me to participate handed me a music conductor’s baton and asked me to move it in any repetitive way – side to side, up and down or circles. I started moving it side to side and about five second later I heard classical music moving to my pattern. If I moved faster, the beat of the music increased. If I moved it slower, the music slowed down. The purpose of the project was to create a virtual dog and my music chamber was just one of the necessary ingredients to simulate what a dog does without thinking – connecting initially meaningless information to real events. That’s how they learn what it means when the doorbell rings and a thousand other things about living with humans. If you wish to know more about dogs this is where to start.

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