LEARNING Th e world is a constantly changing and unpredictable place. Any person or machine must therefore have some way of dealing with unexpected and novel events. Th e capacity to learn is what enables this. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. Th e fact that we can learn enables us to deal with situations similar to those we have encountered in the past. It allows us to draw on our history of the past where we have acted effi caciously and apply it to a current situation where we’re not quite sure what to do. Th is is a tremendous boon to any creature that must interact with a variable environment. Without learning, we are condemned to making the same mistakes over and over again.