onegoodmove

The point of Rodney Brooks new book Flesh and Machines - How Robots Will Change Us is that we are machines. That our bodies are a mass of biomolecules that act according to a set of specifiable rules. He believes that his spouse, his children are mere machines, but that is not how we treat them. The crux of the book is why that is so and what that means to a future world that will include more robots. He tells the history of robotics, from Shaky to Kismet with dozens of other interesting characters in between, and what is on the horizon. What is already here ranging from artificial hearing to the prospects for artificial vision, to robots that can make our lives easier and free our time for more rewarding pursuits. He discusses the what and how of artificial intelligence. There are currently two main approaches to artificial intelligence one is a top down representational view, the other is a bottom up more evolutionary view. One way to look at it would be to compare the spectrum of views with a robot, a distributed network, and a desktop pc. The robot would be no representations, the distributed network non-discrete distributed representations, and desktop computer discrete symbolic representations. Check out Steven Pinkers How the Mind Works and Andy Clarks Being There for additional insight into this aspect of the question. The notion that we are machines strikes at the core of our belief systems, and Rodney spends several chapters tracing that history. We are special, we are not special, we are them. What it is that we think makes us special and why we are so reluctant to part with beliefs that our rational mind find unsupportable but which support that idea. He takes us from Galileo to Darwin to the present, one belief at a time. This book will enlighten and challenge you. Whether you agree or not you'll understand the issues. In discussing his early attempts at building a robot Mr. Brooks says "I did manage to get my first robot, Norman, to the point where it could wander around the floor, respond to light, and bumble its way around obstacles." That is exactly how this Norman started out in this world simply change the it to he and Rodney could be talking about my beginnings. Is that the leap he is asking us to make? Are you ready? Highly Recommended. Here is an added bonus, a One Act Play by Terry Bisson entitled "They're Made Out Of Meat" published in 1991, which provides an amusing look at the question from the machines point of view.