I was thinking the same thing. I think it would be interesting to explore this area more and try to model it computationally.
Your point about physical features made me think of how physical attractiveness plays into human development as well.
Research has shown that beauty in humans is defined as physical symmetry. So "novelty" in our case might be defined as someone who is really ugly - the elephant man.
So in this case, beauty wouldn't really fit into the robot walking example as it's neither fitness (moving the foot forward) or novelty. More a different type of fitness that increases the odds of reproduction.
Your point about physical features made me think of how physical attractiveness plays into human development as well.
Research has shown that beauty in humans is defined as physical symmetry. So "novelty" in our case might be defined as someone who is really ugly - the elephant man.
So in this case, beauty wouldn't really fit into the robot walking example as it's neither fitness (moving the foot forward) or novelty. More a different type of fitness that increases the odds of reproduction.