"Technically, as Shannon would point out, the mouse wasn't solving the maze; the maze was solving the mouse." #readingToday "Theseus was propelled by a pair of magnets, one embedded in its hollow core, and one moving freely beneath the maze. The mouse would begin its course, bump into a wall, sense that it had hit an obstacle with its "whiskers," activate the right relay to attempt a new path, and then repeat the process until it hit its goal, a metallic piece of cheese. The relays stored the directions of the right path in "memory": once the mouse had successfully navigated the maze by trial and error, it could find the cheese a second time with ease. Appearances to the contrary, Theseus the mouse was mainly the passive part of the endeavor: the underlying maze itself held the information and propelled Theseus with its magnet. Technically, as Shannon would point out, the mouse wasn't solving the maze; the maze was solving the mouse. Yet, one way or another, the system was able to learn." "A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age" by Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman Start reading this book for free: http://a.co/4REs9Wz