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Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species
 
 
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Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species [Paperback]

Peter Menzel (Author), Faith D'Aluisio (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
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If you believe the children are our future, you're only half right. Photographer Peter Menzel and journalist Faith D'Aluisio traveled around the world interviewing researchers who want to jump-start our evolution by designing and building electrical and mechanical extensions of ourselves--robots. Their book, Robo Sapiens, takes its title from the notion that our species might somehow merge with our creations, either literally or symbiotically. The photography is brilliant, showing the endearing and creepy sides of the robots and roboticists and feeling like stills from unmade science-fiction films. D'Aluisio's interviews are insightful and often very funny, as when she calls MIT superstar Rodney Brooks on his statement that we ought not "overanthropomorphize" people. Brooks is an interesting study. Having shaken up the robotics and artificial-intelligence fields with his elimination of high-level intelligence and dedication to tiny, insectoid, built-from-the-ground-up robots, he now works on large, human-mimicking machines. But hundreds of other researchers, in Japan, Europe, and the United States, are working on various aspects of machine behavior, from the eerily lifelike robotic faces of Fumio Hara and Alvaro Villa to the monkeylike movement of Brachiator III; each of them casts a bit of light on the future of their field in their short interviews. Though it's clear that we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for a robot butler, Robo Sapiens suggests that much cooler--and stranger--events are coming soon. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

"Today's robots... are explorers, space laborers, surgeons, maids, actors, pets." What do they look like? How do they work? And what's next? Tech photographer Menzel and journalist D'Aluisio worked together on Material World and Man Eating Bugs. Their latest collaboration joins terrific photos of robotsA176 color pictures of themAto short essays, sidebars and interviews explaining what each robot can do, how it works and what problems it was designed to solve. Several researchers tell D'Aluisio that true artificial intelligence (AI) is coming soonAa couple even believe that smart machines will someday wipe out humans. But this volume doesn't really add up to an argument about our mechanoid future: instead, it's an informativeAand handsomeAview of some current work in robotics, from out-there AI research to practical (and profitable) surgical technology. Menzel and D'Aluisio divide the machines they chronicle into six groups: the first two sets try to copy human abilities, while other sorts of 'bots function more like machines in industry or in science education. Many gizmos have special abilities of obvious, even lifesaving, practical use: "Ariel the crab-robot... walks pretty well underwater"; eventually, it will detect and clear mines. "Rosie," a remote boom crane robot, can help control damage from a reactor meltdown. Other constructions simulate human and animal actions, like running and walkingAa field called "biomimicry." More impressive yet are robots designed to investigate psychology and cognition; some of these are learningAand teaching their creatorsAwhat it means to be human. MIT researcher Cynthia Breazel introduces us to Kismet, a Kermit-the-Frog-esque 'droid whose big-eyed, goofy "facial expressions" (in her words) "tune the human's behavior so that it is appropriate for the robotAnot too much, not too little, just right."
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars Terrible fears and high hopes, Jun 7 2004
By 
Simon Laub (Aarhus, Denmark, Europe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species (Paperback)
In Karel Capeks 1920 play "R.U.R." a factory populates the world with worker robots, meant to relieve humans from the hardships of work. But unfortunately the robots end up revolting against their masters, finally wiping out the human race.

Somehow, it seems that this theme has never left us. From the Robosaurus machine that prowls a parking lot of a Las Vegas casiono, showing off its ability to breathe fire and crush cars in its mighty claws, to Arnold Schwarzeneggers Terminators - robots are in western culture associated with a sense of doom. Never mind that humans false teeth, titanium hips, artificial eyes - are already making us beginning to resemble our machines, turning us halfways into cyborgs even today. No, Robots still feel kind of eery.
Roboticist Hugo de Garis puts its out in the open with his
"moral obligation" to raise the alarm of the fruits of his research (into artificial intelligent beings).
As it is stated in the book "The terrible fear, and great hope, is that we may lose some of our humanity. With good luck we might lose some of the powerty, fear and desperation that has always been the human lot. With bad luck we might lose ourselves"
Looking at the bright side - robots could be engineered to be moral. Robots could be saints. So I guess there is still hope.

Great book. Awesome pictures.

-Simon

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4.0 out of 5 stars Very Inspirational, Mar 2 2004
This review is from: Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species (Hardcover)
This book won't tell you how electronics work or advise which microcontroller to use. I found that it does succeed in inspiring the reader to create better robots through the colorful images and the design philosophies of the robot builders.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing quite like it, Dec 22 2003
This review is from: Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species (Paperback)
They can climb stairs, juggle balls, open a door, smile engagingly, hear and see, swing like a monkey, crawl like a crab and swim like a fish. Who? Why the robots, of course. This startling picture book explores the amazing scope of robot capabilities. The photographs of the robots and their creators provide a unique picture of the dawn of these intelligent machines. The narratives are brief and to the point, explaining just enough but always remaining as support for the pictures. As I thumbed through this book, it became clear that the development of humanlike robots will come one project at a time, not by a thunderous breakthrough from a single genius working in a dark lab. Definitely buy this book; there's nothing quite like it.
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