Autonomous robots may become our closest companions in the near future. While the technology for physically building such machines is already available today, a problem lies in the generation of the behavior for such complex machines. Nature proposes a solution: young children and higher animals learn to master their complex brain-body systems by playing. Can this be an option for robots? How can a machine be playful? The book provides answers by developing a general principle---homeokinesis, the dynamical symbiosis between brain, body, and environment---that is shown to drive robots to self- determined, individual development in a playful and obviously embodiment- related way: a dog-like robot starts playing with a barrier, eventually jumping or climbing over it; a snakebot develops coiling and jumping modes; humanoids develop climbing behaviors when fallen into a pit, or engage in wrestling-like scenarios when encountering an opponent. The book also develops guided self-organization, a new method that helps to make the playful machines fit for fulfilling tasks in the real world. The book provides two levels of presentation. Students and scientific researchers interested in the field of robotics, self-organization and dynamical systems theory may be satisfied by the in-depth mathematical analysis of the principle, the bootstrapping scenarios, and the emerging behaviors. But the book additionally comes with a robotics simulator inviting also the non- scientific reader to simply enjoy the fabulous world of playful machines by performing the numerous experiments.

This Festschrift volume, published in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Artificial Intelligence, includes 34 refereed papers written by leading researchers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The papers were carefully selected from the invited lectures given at the 50th Anniversary Summit of AI, held at the Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte VeritA, Ascona, Switzerland, July 9-14, 2006.

The summit provided a venue for discussions on historical, business, political and educational perspectives of AI; scientific exchange on the state of the art; speculations about the future; contributions by researchers from different but related areas; presentations of the latest research by top scientists in the field; as well as many informal discussions among the participants and visitors. The selected papers reflect the breadth of the topics presented and discussed at the summit, covering subjects ranging from the history and prospects of AI, to speech recognition and processing, linguistics, bionics, and consciousness.

The papers are organized in topical sections on Historical and Philosophical Issues; Information Theory and Quantification; Morphology and Dynamics; Neurorobotics; Machine Intelligence, Cognition, and Natural Language Processing; Human-Like Intelligence: Motivation, Emotions, and Consciousness; Robot Platforms; and Art and AI.

Originating from a Dagstuhl seminar, the collection of papers presented in this book constitutes on the one hand a representative state-of-the-art survey of embodied artificial intelligence, and on the other hand the papers identify the important research trends and directions in the field.

Following an introductory overview, the 23 papers are organized into topical sections on

- philosophical and conceptual issues

- information, dynamics, and morphology

- principles of embodiment for real-world applications

- developmental approaches

- artificial evolution and self-reconfiguration

In psychoanalysis as in most other fields of science, English is the in ternationallanguage. Not being a native speaker of English, one is confronted with much higher barriers when communicating clinical observations and theoretical reflections. Thus, in the early 1960s, Ulrich Moser raised (in German ) some fundamental questions con cerning the methods, theories, and philosophy of science of psycho analysis, questions that became a topic of discussion in the English speaking psychoanalytic community more than a decade later (see, e. g., the "theory crisis" in psychoanalysis). Now, three of us, who pre viously worked at Moser's institute in Zurich, have decided to dedi cate this English book on psychoanalytic research to Ulrich Moser, supplementing the collection of papers now being published by him and Ilka von Zeppelin. This is not only intended to be an acknowl edgement of his achievements in psychoanalytic thought but also an illustration of the kind of interdisciplinary research that he directly or indirectly initiated, both in clinical psychoanalysis (part I of the book) and in empirical psychotherapy research (part II). In working on this project we ourselves encountered the language barrier mentioned above. Without the competent, careful, and friend ly help of Mrs. Katharina Goodwin, a translator who was willing to embark on the adventure of entering into a new field of thought and translated most of our German manuscripts, this book could not have been published. Dr."

Anhand von Modellen kognitiv-affektiver Prozesse, die im Laufe der letzten 20 Jahre mit verschiedenen Techniken der Simulation und der Konzeptuologie der Cognitive Science entwickelt worden sind, werden neue Wege der psychoanalyti- schen Theorienbildung und deren Anwendung explizit an Beispielen dargestellt. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Computer- simulationsmodelle der Abwehrprozesse und der Generierung von Schlaftr{umen, sowie ein allgemeines Modell der psychoanalytischen Theorie.

Anthology from the year 2011 in the subject Sociology - Knowledge and Information, grade: -, -, language: English, abstract: This is a book about embodiment -- the idea that intelligence requires a body -- and how having a body shapes the way we think. The idea that the body is required for intelligence has been around since nearly three decades ago, but an awful lot has changed since then. Research labs and leading technology companies around the world have produced a host of sometimes science fiction-like creations: unbelievably realistic humanoids, robot musicians, wearable technology, robots controlled by biological brains, robots that can walk without a brain, real-life cyborgs, robots in homes for the elderly, robots that literally put themselves together, and artificial cells grown automatically. This new breed of technology is the direct result of the embodied approach to intelligence. Along the way, many of the initially vague ideas have been elaborated and the arguments sharpened, and are beginning to form into a coherent structure. This popular science book, aimed at a broad audience, provides a clear and up to date overview of the progress being made. At the heart of the book are a set of abstract design principles that can be applied in designing intelligent systems of any kind: in short, a theory of intelligence. But science and technology are no longer isolated fields: they closely interact with the corporate, political, and social aspects of our society -- so this book not only provides a novel perspective on artificial intelligence, but also aims to change how we view ourselves and the world around us. Credits: Front Cover Design by Hakam El Essawy Featuring the humanoid robot 'EDS' Photo: Patrick Knab Robot construction: The Robot Studio (TRS) ECCE Robot project: EU's 7th Framework Programme, ICT Challenge2, 'Cognitive Systems and Robotics' Motors: maxon motor, Switzerland Know-How Partner: Starmind.com

An exploration of embodied intelligence and its implications points toward a theory of intelligence in general; with case studies of intelligent systems in ubiquitous computing, business and management, human memory, and robotics. How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment-in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies. This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence-"understanding by building"-to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.