Books & Movies

Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us

Flesh and Machines explores the startlingly reciprocal connection between humans and their technological brethren, and explains how this relationship is bring 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 Brooks' 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.

The body, this mass of biomolecules, is a machine that acts according to a set of specifiable rules... We are machines, as are our spouses, our children, and our dogs... I believe myself and my children all to be mere machines. But this is not how I treat them. I treat them in a very special way, and I interact with them on an entirely different level. They have my unconditional love, the furthest one might be able to get from rational analysis. Like a religious scientist, I maintain two sets of inconsistent beliefs and act on each of them in different circumstances. It is this transcendence between belief systems that I think will be what enables mankind to ultimately accept robots as emotional machines, and thereafter start to empathize with them and attribute free will, respect, and ultimately rights to them... When our robots improve enough, beyond their current limitations, and when we credit humans, then too we will break our mental barrier, our need, our desire, to retain tribal specialness, differentiating ourselves from them.

Robotics Research: Results of the 12th International Symposium ISRR

Edited by Sebastian Thrun, Rodney Brooks and Hugh Durrant-Whyte

2007, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Vol. 28 - order a copy from springer.com

The International Symposium of Robotics Research (ISRR) continues to be the premiere meeting of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR). The 12th International Symposium of Robotics Research took place October 12-15, 2005, in San Francisco, near Fisherman's Wharf, and was organized by the three editors of this book.

This volume contains a collection of 50 contributed papers, which were presented at the 12th International Symposium of Robotics Research. These papers are organized in twelve scientific tracks: Physical Human-Robot Interaction and Haptics, Planning, Humanoids, Mechanisms and Design, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, Field Robots, Robotic Vision, Robot Design and Control, Underwater Robotics, Learning and Adaptive Behavior, Networked Robotics, and Interfaces and Interaction. Further articles in this volume summarize one of the invited overview talks of the scientific panel that took place during the ISRR.

Historically, the proceedings of the ISRR have featured ground-breaking work of the highest caliber, which influenced generations to come. The present volume promises to be no exception. The collection of scientific articles in this volume provides new insights to important problems in robotics, written by some of the leaders in the field.

Cambrian Intelligence: The Early History of the New AI

1999, MIT Press (a Bradford Book) - order a copy from amazon.com

Until the mid-1980's, AI researchers assumed that an intelligent system doing high-level reasoning was necessary for the coupling of perception and action. In this traditional model, cognition mediates between perception and plans of action. Realizing that this core AI, as it was known, was illusory, Rodney A. Brooks turned the field of AI on its head by introducing the behavior-based approach to robotics. The cornerstone of behavior-based robotics is the realization that the coupling of perception and action gives rise to all the power of intelligence and that cognition is only in the eye of an observer. Behavior-based robotics has been the basis of successful applications in entertainment, service industries, agriculture, mining, and the home. It has given rise to both autonomous mobile robots and more recent humanoid robots such as Brooks's Cog. This book represents Brooks's initial formulation of and contributions to the development of the behavior-based approach to robotics. It presents all of the key philosophical and technical ideas that put this bottom-up approach at the forefront of current research in not only AI but all of cognitive science.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control

A film by Errol Morris

1996, Sony Pictures Classics - order a copy from amazon.com

Acclaimed filmaker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time) paints a fascinating portrait of four obsessed eccentrics in Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. Morris weaves interviews with a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot designer and an expert on the naked mole rat together with old movies, cartoons and stock footage for a compelling, kaleidescope look at the very thin line which separates madness from genius.

Rodney Brooks - Roboticist
Home Publications Books & Movies Graduated PhDs Companies	Books & Movies
	2002 Pantheon Books order a copy from amazon.com	Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us Flesh and Machines explores the startlingly reciprocal connection between humans and their technological brethren, and explains how this relationship is bring 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 Brooks' 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. The body, this mass of biomolecules, is a machine that acts according to a set of specifiable rules... We are machines, as are our spouses, our children, and our dogs... I believe myself and my children all to be mere machines. But this is not how I treat them. I treat them in a very special way, and I interact with them on an entirely different level. They have my unconditional love, the furthest one might be able to get from rational analysis. Like a religious scientist, I maintain two sets of inconsistent beliefs and act on each of them in different circumstances. It is this transcendence between belief systems that I think will be what enables mankind to ultimately accept robots as emotional machines, and thereafter start to empathize with them and attribute free will, respect, and ultimately rights to them... When our robots improve enough, beyond their current limitations, and when we credit humans, then too we will break our mental barrier, our need, our desire, to retain tribal specialness, differentiating ourselves from them.
		Arabic Obeikan Publishers - order a copy from obeikanbookshop.com
		British Robot: The Future of Flesh & Machines Penguin Books, Ltd. - order a copy from amazon.co.uk
		Chinese Eurasian Publising Group - order a copy from booklife.com.tw
		Dutch De Kunstmatige Mens: Hoe Machines Ons Veranderen De Bexige Bij - order a copy from boekboek.nl
		German Menschmaschinen, Wie uns die Zukunftstechnologien neu erschaffen Campus Verlag, GmbH - order a copy from amazon.de
		Italian Arnoldo Mondadori, Editore
		Japanese Flesh and Machines Ohmsa Ltd - order a copy from amazon.co.jp
		Korean Flesh and Machines Bada Publishing Co.
		Spanish Cuerpos Y Maquinas: De Los Robots Humanos a Los Hombres Robot Ediciones B - order a copy from casadellibro.com

		Robotics Research: Results of the 12th International Symposium ISRR Edited by Sebastian Thrun, Rodney Brooks and Hugh Durrant-Whyte 2007, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, Vol. 28 - order a copy from springer.com The International Symposium of Robotics Research (ISRR) continues to be the premiere meeting of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR). The 12th International Symposium of Robotics Research took place October 12-15, 2005, in San Francisco, near Fisherman's Wharf, and was organized by the three editors of this book. This volume contains a collection of 50 contributed papers, which were presented at the 12th International Symposium of Robotics Research. These papers are organized in twelve scientific tracks: Physical Human-Robot Interaction and Haptics, Planning, Humanoids, Mechanisms and Design, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, Field Robots, Robotic Vision, Robot Design and Control, Underwater Robotics, Learning and Adaptive Behavior, Networked Robotics, and Interfaces and Interaction. Further articles in this volume summarize one of the invited overview talks of the scientific panel that took place during the ISRR. Historically, the proceedings of the ISRR have featured ground-breaking work of the highest caliber, which influenced generations to come. The present volume promises to be no exception. The collection of scientific articles in this volume provides new insights to important problems in robotics, written by some of the leaders in the field.

		Cambrian Intelligence: The Early History of the New AI 1999, MIT Press (a Bradford Book) - order a copy from amazon.com Until the mid-1980's, AI researchers assumed that an intelligent system doing high-level reasoning was necessary for the coupling of perception and action. In this traditional model, cognition mediates between perception and plans of action. Realizing that this core AI, as it was known, was illusory, Rodney A. Brooks turned the field of AI on its head by introducing the behavior-based approach to robotics. The cornerstone of behavior-based robotics is the realization that the coupling of perception and action gives rise to all the power of intelligence and that cognition is only in the eye of an observer. Behavior-based robotics has been the basis of successful applications in entertainment, service industries, agriculture, mining, and the home. It has given rise to both autonomous mobile robots and more recent humanoid robots such as Brooks's Cog. This book represents Brooks's initial formulation of and contributions to the development of the behavior-based approach to robotics. It presents all of the key philosophical and technical ideas that put this bottom-up approach at the forefront of current research in not only AI but all of cognitive science.

		The Artificial Life Route to Artificial Intelligence: Building Embodied Situated Agents Edited by Luc Steels and Rodney Brooks 1995, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. - order a copy from amazon.com

		Artificial Life IV: Proceedings of the Fourth International Worksop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems Edited by Rodney Brooks and Pattie Maes 1994, MIT Press - order a copy from amazon.com

		Programming in Common LISP 1985, John Wiley and Sons - order a copy from amazon.com
		German LISP: Programmieren in Common Lisp R. Oldenbbourg Verlag - order a copy from amazon.de
		Japanese Programming in Common Lisp John Wiley & Sons - order a copy from amazon.co.jp

		Model-Based Computer Vision 1984, UMI Research Press - order a copy from amazon.com

		Fast, Cheap & Out of Control A film by Errol Morris 1996, Sony Pictures Classics - order a copy from amazon.com Acclaimed filmaker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time) paints a fascinating portrait of four obsessed eccentrics in Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. Morris weaves interviews with a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot designer and an expert on the naked mole rat together with old movies, cartoons and stock footage for a compelling, kaleidescope look at the very thin line which separates madness from genius.
Copyright 2008-2018 last updated January 2018 Accessibility

Rodney Brooks - Roboticist

Books & Movies

Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us

Arabic

British

Robot: The Future of Flesh & Machines

Chinese

Dutch

De Kunstmatige Mens: Hoe Machines Ons Veranderen

German

Menschmaschinen, Wie uns die Zukunftstechnologien neu erschaffen

Italian

Japanese

Flesh and Machines

Korean

Flesh and Machines

Spanish

Cuerpos Y Maquinas: De Los Robots Humanos a Los Hombres Robot

Robotics Research: Results of the 12th International Symposium ISRR

Cambrian Intelligence: The Early History of the New AI

The Artificial Life Route to Artificial Intelligence: Building Embodied Situated Agents

Artificial Life IV: Proceedings of the Fourth International Worksop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems

Programming in Common LISP

German

LISP: Programmieren in Common Lisp

Japanese

Programming in Common Lisp

Model-Based Computer Vision

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control