Robots: What Everyone Needs to Know
- Length: 208 pages
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication Date: 2021-12-28
- ISBN-10: 0198845383
- ISBN-13: 9780198845386
- Sales Rank: #0 (See Top 100 Books)
Since the turn of the millennium a quiet revolution has been underway. Millions of autonomous robots with some level of intelligence are now in domestic use, mainly as vacuum cleaners. Driverless cars – which are nothing less than autonomous robots – are starting to appear on our streets.
There is a huge effort underway in industry and universities to develop the next generation of more intelligent, autonomous, mobile robots. Accompanying these arrivals has been a steady stream of inflammatory articles in the media raising concerns over the impending spectre of super-intelligent robots, along with stories about how most jobs will soon be lost to robots.
Here, using the Question-and-Answer format, Phil Husbands gives a balanced and broad introduction to robotics and the current state of the field, analysing where it has come from, and where it might go in the future. He begins with the history of robotics and its complex relationship with popularculture, and then moves on to discuss the technology underlying robots in an engaging, non-technical way, exploring the limits of what robots can actually do now and what they might be able to do in the future. Naturally these machines, which often seem to display life-like properties, areattracting great attention. Do they pose a threat or an unprecedented opportunity? And although the ‘singularity’ may not be something to worry about, there are certainly ethical issues needing consideration as robots with some intelligence are used increasingly across many sectors. Husbandsconsiders both these ethical problems and also the wider socio-political challenges that robots are already creating, and the larger ones they might bring in the future.
Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Robots Are Here What do we think about when we think of robots? Why should we care about robots? Why do robots fascinate and sometimes scare us? How many robots are out there now? 2. The Basics What exactly is a robot? What different kinds of robots are there? Do they all behave in the same way? How do robots work? Can different sensors change a robot’s capabilities? How do legged robots walk? Is there one best approach to robot design? Do virtual robots count? What can robots do? What can’t robots do? 3. Some History Where did the idea for robots come from? When were actual robots first built? When did genuinely autonomous robots first appear? What did Grey Walter’s tortoises do? How did the tortoises work? What is cybernetics? When did industrial robots start to be used in factories? When did work on intelligent autonomous robotics start? How well did these robots perform? What happened next? 4. Inside the Machine What is actually going on? How does the robot’s “brain” work? How many ways are there to control a robot? How do driverless cars work? When did work on driverless cars start? How do the artificial neural networks used in cars and robots work? What was the structure of ALVINN’s neural network? How does an autonomous vehicle “know” where it is? What kind of sensors do current autonomous vehicles use? What are the main approaches to achieving the goal of widespread fully autonomous vehicles? Is it a good idea to copy biology? How reliable are current robots? How intelligent are they, really? 5. Robot Fantasies: Robots in Popular Culture When did robot-like machines first appear in literature? What about organic, bio-engineered robots? How plausible are mainstream fictional portrayals of robots? Can imaginary robots help us to think about the potential implications of technology? 6. Intelligence, Super-Intelligence, and Cyborgs There has been a lot of talk about the singularity in relation to robotics, but what is it? Is the singularity near? Should we be worried? Are super-intelligent robots inevitable? What about cyborgs? Will we be able to enhance ourselves robotically? Should we be concerned about robotic cyborg enhancements? 7. Robots at Work What work do robots do now? When will fully autonomous vehicles appear widely? What about robots in health and social care? How are robots used in education? How are robots used in the military? Can robots be used in art? How are robots used in pure science? Will robots take over our jobs? Should we let them take our jobs? Will robots fundamentally change the way we live? 8. Robot Ethics What is robot ethics? Why is robot ethics important? Should robots be socially and morally responsible? Should roboticists be socially and morally responsible? What about cases where ethical robots are used in an unethical way? Who should be held to account when something goes wrong? Are the ethical issues related to robots different from those that arose with earlier technologies? 9. Robot Futures How might we be using robots in the relatively near future? Say in fifty or sixty years’ time? How might we be using robots in the far future? Say in five or six hundred years’ time? Notes Index
Donate to keep this site alive
1. Disable the AdBlock plugin. Otherwise, you may not get any links.
2. Solve the CAPTCHA.
3. Click download link.
4. Lead to download server to download.