The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots
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- 14,99 €
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- 14,99 €
Publisher Description
Daniela Rus, a leading roboticist and computer scientist, explores how we can use a new generation of smart machines to help humankind.
There is a robotics revolution underway. A record 3.1 million robots are working in factories right now, doing everything from assembling computers to packing goods and monitoring air quality and performance. A far greater number of smart machines impact our lives in countless other ways—improving the precision of surgeons, cleaning our homes, extending our reach to distant worlds—and we’re on the cusp of even more exciting opportunities.
In The Heart and the Chip, roboticist Daniela Rus and science writer Gregory Mone provide an overview of the interconnected fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and reframe the way we think about intelligent machines while weighing the moral and ethical consequences of their role in society. Robots aren’t going to steal our jobs: they’re going to make us more capable, productive, and precise.
At once optimistic and realistic, Rus and Mone envision a world in which these technologies augment and enhance our skills and talents, both as individuals and as a species—a world in which the proliferation of robots allows us all to be more human.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rus, a computer science professor at MIT, teams up with former Popular Science editor Mone (Sea of Gold) for an optimistic exploration of how advanced robots might help humans in the near future. Envisioning smart fridges capable of detecting and automatically disposing of expired food, exoskeleton suits "equipped with motorized joints that enhance or augment the strength of the individuals using them," and a "two-armed, wheeled robot" capable of performing yard work, the authors argue that offloading daily drudgeries to droids will allow humans "to focus on higher-level work and interactions." Taking note of the advances needed to realize such technologies, the authors explain that roboticists are still struggling to develop hand-like sensors to make robots more dexterous. Though Rus and Mone are bullish on technology's promise, they emphasize the need to keep in mind ethical and environmental considerations, citing a 2019 study that found the electricity expended training the average deep learning model adds as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as the "lifetime emissions of five cars." Unfortunately, the authors provide more speculation than actual science, and recommendations "to encourage developers... to draw power only from renewable resources" and to take a variant of the Hippocratic oath feel inadequate to the challenges at hand. Readers might not share the authors' rosy outlook, but this still offers a stimulating glimpse into what the future might hold.
