One of Time magazine's '32 Books You Need to Read This Summer' --
'a riveting read'. 'Intensely readable, downright terrifying, and
surprisingly uplifting.' Vanity Fair 'A fascinating work of
imaginative futurology, a science journalist takes a look at our
current technologies and anticipates the human-robot future that
could await us - one full of warrior bots, politician bots, doctor
bots and sex bots.' One of Barbara VanDenburgh's '5 Books Not to
Miss', USA Today One of the best summer reads of 2019, according to
top authors David Baldacci and Elizabeth Acevedo on USA Today's
Today programme. 'A refreshing variation on the
will-intelligent-robots-bring-Armageddon genre . . . this colorful
mixture of expert futurology and quirky speculation does not
disappoint' Kirkus Reviews What robot and AI systems are being
built and imagined right now? What do they say about us, their
creators? Will they usher in a fantastic new future, or destroy us?
What do some of our greatest thinkers, from physicist Brian Greene
and futurist Kevin Kelly to inventor Dean Kamen, geneticist George
Church and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, anticipate for our human-robot
future? For even as robots and AI intrigue us and make us anxious
about the future, our fascination with robots has always been about
more than the potential of the technology - it also concerns what
robots tell us about being human. From present-day Facebook and
Amazon bots to near-future 'intimacy' bots and 'the robot that
swiped my job' bots, bestselling American popular science writer
David Ewing Duncan's Talking to Robots is a wonderfully
entertaining and insightful guide to possible future scenarios
about robots, both real and imagined. Featured bots include robot
drivers; doc bots; politician bots; warrior bots; sex bots;
synthetic bio bots; dystopic bots that are hopefully just bad
dreams; and ultimately, God Bot (as described by physicist Brian
Greene). These scenarios are informed by discussions with
well-known thinkers, engineers, scientists, artists, philosophers
and others, who share with us their ideas, hopes and fears about
robots. David spoke with, among others, Kevin Kelly, David
Baldacci, Brian Greene, Dean Kamen, Craig Venter, Stephanie Mehta,
David Eagleman, George Poste, George Church, General R. H. Latiff,
Robert Seigel, Emily Morse, David Sinclair, Ken Goldberg, Sunny
Bates, Adam Gazzaley, Tim O'Reilly, Tiffany Shlain, Eric Topol and
Juan Enriquez. These discussions, along with some reporting on
bot-tech, bot-history and real-time societal and ethical issues
with robots, are the launch pads for unfurling possible bot futures
that are informed by how people and societies have handled new
technologies in the past. The book describes how robots work, but
its primary focus is on what our fixation with bots and AI says
about us as humans: about our hopes and anxieties; our myths,
stories, beliefs and ideas about beings both real and artificial;
and our attempts to attain perfection. We are at a pivotal moment
when our ancient infatuation with human-like beings with certain
attributes or superpowers - in mythology, religion and storytelling
- is coinciding with our ability to actually build some of these
entities.
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