Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us

商家名称	信用等级	购买信息	订购本书
		Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us
		Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us

基本信息·出版社：Vintage Books USA
·页码：272 页
·出版日期：2003年02月
·ISBN：037572527X
·条形码：9780375725272
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语

内容简介 Are we really on the brink of having robots to mop our floors, do our dishes, mow our lawns, and clean our windows? And are researchers that close to creating robots that can think, feel, repair themselves, and even reproduce?

Rodney A. Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory believes we are. In this lucid and accessible book, Brooks vividly depicts the history of robots and explores the ever-changing relationships between humans and their technological brethren, speculating on the growing role that robots will play in our existence. Knowing the moral battle likely to ensue, he posits a clear philosophical argument as to why we should not fear that change. What results is a fascinating book that offers a deeper understanding of who we are and how we can control what we will become.
作者简介 Rodney A. Brooks is Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at MIT and director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He is also chairman and chief technological officer of iRobot Corporation. He is a founding fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAA) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The author of several books and a contributor to many journals, he was one of the subjects of Errol Morris’s 1997 documentary, Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Brooks was born in Australia and now lives in suburban Boston.
媒体推荐 ?A book that will spark intense reactions and generate mind-twisting questions.? -The Boston Globe

?A stimulating book written by one of the major players in the field?perhaps the major player. . . . Offers surprisingly deep glimpses into what it is to be human.? -The New York Times Book Review

?Brooks . . . lucidly explores his life with robots....Flesh and Machines ranges far and wide, but remains unified by the author's passion.??Wired

?Readers don?t have to share Brooks? vision of the future to love reading his book, the imaginative work of a skilled yet genial provocateur.??Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

?Brooks [is] the irrepressible Pied Piper of robotics.? ?Los Angeles Times

?A considered and thought-provoking work. . . . This is the best kind of popular science book: The ideas are clear and accessible but not dumbed down.??American Scientist

?A man-as-machine thesis that is presented accessibly and humanely.? ?Booklist -- Review
编辑推荐 Amazon.com Review
The world of HAL and Data, of sentient machines, is fast approaching. Indeed, in some ways it has already arrived, as humans incorporate bionic technology and as humanlike machines increasingly take on the work of humans.

Rodney Brooks, a professor of engineering at MIT, has been involved in this transformation for decades. He has helped design robots that reason, at least after a fashion. The machines are as yet primitive, but, Brooks writes, in five years the boundary between what is now fantasy and fact will be breached, and intelligent machines will come into their own. With them will come a host of ethical problems, as we wrestle with the implications of Asimov's laws of robotics and with the very real possibility that we have created a new kind of slave. There's no way of getting around this future, it would seem, and, adds Brooks, our species will change in the bargain: "With all these trends we will become a merger between flesh and machines."

Antitechnologists may shudder at the story line, but readers interested in the gee-whiz possibilities of the digital age will be fascinated by Brooks's vision of what is and what will be. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Brooks, a leading "roboticist" and computer science professor at MIT, believes that robots in the future will probably be nothing like such all-knowing brain machines as 2001's HAL, nor will they resemble the sleek cyborgs of other Hollywood nightmares. Rather, they will be simple, ubiquitous, curious little machines that will have more in common with humans than one might think. Brooks, and his fellow researchers, suggest that the focus of much AI and robot research has been to develop superhuman devices that operate at the highest intellectual levels. Much better, he says, to make a lot of simple, cheap robots that can perform only a few tasks, but do them well. Brooks begins with a brief but comprehensive overview of the field of research into AI and robotics, then dives quickly into his and his fellow enthusiasts' work as they engineer one strange, insect-looking (and weirdly human-acting) metallic creature after another. Occasionally, Brooks's involvement with iRobots (he is chairman and chief technical officer of the robot company) shifts the book into an advertisement for upcoming products. Brooks points the way toward a future where humans work in tandem with and even begin to resemble a host of his fast, cheap creations not a science fiction utopia, but a future where people have a lot more and better tools to work with.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
A scientist at MIT's famous artificial intelligence lab, Brooks here splits his book in two: the first part describes various robots he and his group have built; the second part philosophizes on the nature of artificial intelligence. As sophisticated as current robots are, the real world (especially visual clues) can easily stymie them. Brooks advocates strategies to circumvent such problems--namely, giving up trying to program a model of the world in the robot's memory--in favor of an "out-of-control" approach, in which the robot reacts more naturally with humans. Brooks sees a day not far off when robots become maids, butlers, and lawn mowers, which, combined with remote sensing, will create a demand in robotics that has previously been confined to manufacturing. Similar optimism infuses Brooks' ruminations on machine intelligence; in particular, he addresses our fear that robots could dominate humanity. A man-as-machine thesis that is presented accessibly and humanely. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
?A book that will spark intense reactions and generate mind-twisting questions.? -The Boston Globe

?A stimulating book written by one of the major players in the field?perhaps the major player. . . . Offers surprisingly deep glimpses into what it is to be human.? -The New York Times Book Review

?Brooks . . . lucidly explores his life with robots....Flesh and Machines ranges far and wide, but remains unified by the author's passion.??Wired

?Readers don?t have to share Brooks? vision of the future to love reading his book, the imaginative work of a skilled yet genial provocateur.??Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

?Brooks [is] the irrepressible Pied Piper of robotics.? ?Los Angeles Times

?A considered and thought-provoking work. . . . This is the best kind of popular science book: The ideas are clear and accessible but not dumbed down.??American Scientist

?A man-as-machine thesis that is presented accessibly and humanely.? ?Booklist -- Review

Review
“A book that will spark intense reactions and generate mind-twisting questions.” -The Boston Globe

“A stimulating book written by one of the major players in the field–perhaps the major player. . . . Offers surprisingly deep glimpses into what it is to be human.” -The New York Times Book Review

“Brooks . . . lucidly explores his life with robots....Flesh and Machines ranges far and wide, but remains unified by the author's passion.”–Wired

“Readers don’t have to share Brooks’ vision of the future to love reading his book, the imaginative work of a skilled yet genial provocateur.”–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Brooks [is] the irrepressible Pied Piper of robotics.” –Los Angeles Times

“A considered and thought-provoking work. . . . This is the best kind of popular science book: The ideas are clear and accessible but not dumbed down.”–American Scientist

“A man-as-machine thesis that is presented accessibly and humanely.” –Booklist


文摘 1.

Dances with Machines

What separates people from animals is syntax and technology. Many species of animals have a host of alert calls. For vervet monkeys one call means there is a bird of prey in the sky. Another means there is a snake on the ground. All members of the species agree on the mapping between particular sounds and these primitive meanings. But no vervet monkey can ever express to another "Hey, remember that snake we saw three days ago? There's one down here that looks just like it." That requires syntax. Vervet monkeys do not have it.

Some chimpanzees and gorillas have learned tens of nouns, a few adjectives and a few verbs, expressed as signs or symbols. They have sometimes put these symbols together in new ways, like "water bird" to refer to a duck. But they have never been able to say anything as sophisticated as "Please give me the yellow fruit that is in the bag." That requires syntax. Chimpanzees and gorillas do not have it.

Irene Pepperberg has raised and trained Alex, the famous African grey parrot for over twenty years, first at the University of Arizona and more recently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her results have been stunning and have rebuffed those who deny that any animals other than humans have any component of language. Alex has forced the naysayers to be much more careful in exactly what capabilities they deny for animals, even birdbrained animals. Alex is able to hear words and speak them. He can answer questions like "How many round green things are on the plate?"?even the first time anyone has ever said the two adjectives "round" and "green" in sequence to him. Alex has been heard to say as his trainer is evidently leaving for lunch, "I'm just going out for lunch and will be back in ten minutes." But this is just Alex parroting (and thus the word) what he has heard the trainer say in these circumstances before. Alex has never said, "I see that you are going out for lunch.
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