# Valentino Braitenberg - Quotes: 8 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg ## Books - [Vehicles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles.md) — 8 quotes ## Recently added quotes > Not it is different with type 14 vehicles. They move through their world with consistent determination, always clearly after something that very often we cannot guess at the outset - something that may not even be there when the vehicle reaches the place it wants to get to. But it seems to be a good strategy, this running after a dream. Most of the time the chain of optimistic predicitions that seems to guide the vehicles's behaviour proves to be correct, and Vehicle 14 achieves goals that Vehicle 13 and its predecessors "couldn't not even dream of." The point is that while the vehicle goes through its optimistic predicitions, the succession of internal states implies movements and actions of the vehicle itself. While dreaming and sleepwalking, the vehicle transforms the world (and its own position in the world) in such a way that ultimately the state of the world is a more favorable one. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/not-it-is-different.md) > [The final chapter of the book] sketch a few facts about animal brains that have inspired some of the properties of our vehicles, and their behavior will then seem less gratuitous than it may have seemed up to this poin.t p. 95 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/the-final-chapter.md) > This is an exercise in fictional science, or science fiction, if you like that better. Not for amusement: science fiction in the service of science. Or just science, if you agree that fiction is a part of it, always was, and always will be as long as our brains are only miniscule fragments of the universe, much too small to hold all the facts of the world but not too idle to speculate about them. p. 1 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/this-is-an-exercise.md) > It is actually impossible in theory to determine exactly what the hidden mechanism is without opening the box, since there are always many different mechanisms with identical behavior. Quite apart from this, analysis is more difficult than invention in the sense in which, generally, induction takes more time to perform than deduction: in induction one has to search for the way, whereas in deduction one follows a straightforward path. p. 20 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/it-is-actually.md) > We will talk only about machines with very simple internal structures, too simple in fact to be interesting from the point of view of mechanical or electrical engineering. Interest arises, rather, when we look at these machines or vehicles as if they were animals, in a natural environment. We will be tempted, then, to use psychological language in describing their behavior. And yet we know very well that there is nothing in these vehicles that we have not put there ourselves. p. 2 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/we-will-talk.md) > A psychological consequence of this is the following: when we analyze a mechanism we tend to over estimate its complexity. p. 20 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/a-psychological-consequence.md) > We must be careful, however, not to let the process of acquiring new ideas interfere with the detailed knowledge that our vehicle has assiduously collected and carefully stored in many associative connections during its lifetime. We know that this may happen in humans who are overly dedicated to the development of ideas. They tend to connect many individual cases into general categories ad then use the categories as if they were things, losing the potential for categorizing in other ways by remembering each instance. p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/we-must-be-careful.md) > You may regret this, but you will soon notice that is a good idea to give chance a chance in the further creation of new brands of vehicles. This will make available a source of intelligence that is much more powerful than any engineering mind. p. 26 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/valentino-braitenberg/vehicles/you-may-regret.md)