Using a technique called reinforcement learning, a researcher at Google Brain has shown that virtual robots can redesign their body parts to help them navigate challenging obstacle courses—even if the solutions they come up with are completely bizarre.

Embodied cognition is the idea that an animal’s cognitive abilities are influenced and constrained by its body plan. This means a squirrel’s thought processes and problem-solving strategies will differ somewhat from the cogitations of octopuses, elephants, and seagulls. Each animal has to navigate its world in its own special way using the body it’s been given, which naturally leads to different ways of thinking and learning.