Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent MindOxford University Press, 1999 - 227 pages Machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, predicts robotics expert Hans Moravec. And by 2050, they will have far surpassed us. In this mind-bending new book, Hans Moravec takes the reader on a roller coaster ride packed with such startling predictions. He tells us, for instance, that in the not-too-distant future, an army of robots will displace workers, causing massive, unprecedented unemployment. But then, says Moravec, a period of very comfortable existence will follow, as humans benefit from a fully automated economy. And eventually, as machines evolve far beyond humanity, robots will supplant us. But if Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs. "Intelligent machines, which will grow from us, learn our skills, and share our goals and values, can be viewed as children of our minds." And since they are our children, we will want them to outdistance us. In fact, in a bid for immortality, many of our descendants will choose to transform into "ex humans," as they upload themselves into advanced computers. We will become our children and live forever. In his provocative new book, the highly anticipated follow-up to his bestselling volume Mind Children, Moravec charts the trajectory of robotics in breathtaking detail. A must read for artificial intelligence, technology, and computer enthusiasts, Moravec's freewheeling but informed speculations present a future far different than we ever dared imagine. |
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Page 12
... future activity , ei- ther under the wings of superintelligent hosts , or by being trans- formed into a compatible form - surely becoming very unhuman in the process . There is an analogy between the evolution of the first living or ...
... future activity , ei- ther under the wings of superintelligent hosts , or by being trans- formed into a compatible form - surely becoming very unhuman in the process . There is an analogy between the evolution of the first living or ...
Page 13
... future . It be- hooves us to give them every advantage and to bow out when we can no longer contribute . But , as ... future belongs . The available tools for peek- ing into that strange future - extrapolation , analogy , abstraction ...
... future . It be- hooves us to give them every advantage and to bow out when we can no longer contribute . But , as ... future belongs . The available tools for peek- ing into that strange future - extrapolation , analogy , abstraction ...
Page 146
... future might . Even so , Darwinian selection will remain the final arbiter . Forethought re- veals the future only dimly , especially concerning entities and in- teractions more complex than the thinker . Prototypes uncover only short ...
... future might . Even so , Darwinian selection will remain the final arbiter . Forethought re- veals the future only dimly , especially concerning entities and in- teractions more complex than the thinker . Prototypes uncover only short ...
Contents
Caution Robot Vehicle | 15 |
Power and Presence | 51 |
Universal Robots | 91 |
Copyright | |
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actions Alan Turing animals answer arithmetic Artificial Intelligence atoms automated become behavior biological body brain calculation camera Cart cells century chess circuit collapse competitive complex computer chess computer power conditioning modules consciousness Cray Blitz cyberspace decades Deep Blue Earth electronic encoded energy entities evolution evolved Exes exist experience faster fourth-generation robot future Garry Kasparov grid human humanlike hundred ical industry input integrated circuits interaction interpretation learning less loop machines match mathematical megabytes memory mental million mind MIPS mobile robot models motor move navigation Navlab negative nervous systems neurons objects orbit particles patterns perhaps personal computers physical world predictable probably problems puters quantum computers quantum mechanics reasoning program road scale sense sensors shaped signals simple simulation solver sonar space spacetime speed supercomputers tachyons task theory thinking thought thousand tiny tion today's Turing universal robots wave function