Final answer:
Rodney Brooks, a robotics researcher, posited that simple robots with reactive behaviors could be efficient, influencing the field of robotics and AI.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the 1990s, robotics researcher Rodney Brooks suggested that simple robots with reactive behaviors could be effective. This idea deviated from the prevailing assumption that robots needed to have complex programming to be useful. Instead, Brooks championed the notion that robots, with simpler reactive behaviors, could adapt and respond to their environment, thus performing tasks effectively. His philosophy laid the groundwork for a new approach to robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), emphasizing the potential for simpler systems to still make significant contributions to the field.