Synopses & Reviews
Flesh and Machines explores the startlingly reciprocal connection between humans and their technological brethren, and explains how this relationship is being redefined as humans develop increasingly complex machines. The impetus to build machines that exhibit lifelike behaviors stretches back centuries, but for the last fifteen years much of this work has been done in Rodney Brookss laboratory at MIT. His goal is not simply to build machines that are like humans but to alter our perception of the potential capabilities of robots. Our current attitude toward intelligent robots, he asserts, is simply a reflection of our own view of ourselves.
In Flesh and Machines, Brooks challenges that view by suggesting that human nature can be seen to possess the essential characteristics of a machine. Our instinctive rejection of that idea, he believes, is itself a conditioned response: we have programmed ourselves to believe in our “tribal specialness” as proof of our uniqueness.
Provocative, persuasive, compelling, and unprecedented, Flesh and Machines presents a vision of our future and our future selves.
Synopsis
Flesh and Machines is a clear-sighted look into the technological future from the director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Rodney A. Brooks.
Brooks graphically depicts the history of robotic progress while he vividly speculates on a plausible, not-too-distant world in which robotic helpers will be able to think, feel, repair themselves, and even reproduce. But he doesn't stop there. Acknowledging the moral battle likely to ensue, he puts forth a lucid philosophical argument as to why we should not fear this change. The result is this fascinating book that offers a deeper understanding of who we are and how we can control what we will become.
About the Author
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 Morriss 1997 documentary, Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Brooks was born in Australia and now lives in suburban Boston.