Earlier this week, author Lee Gutkind appeared on The Daily Show to talk about his new book,
Almost Human: Making Robots Think.
I've ordered a copy of the book, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. For six years, Gutkind followed a group of Carnegie Mellon roboticists around, while they developed human movement and artificial decision-making capabilities for robots. Here's a snip from the Publisher's Weekly review:
"The machines he encountered came in a variety of shapes and sizes, from dog-shaped toys programmed to play soccer to a Hummer equipped with sensors that enable it to drive itself. As that Hummer indicates, the institute's research isn't confined to the lab: Gutkind follows his roboticists to abandoned mine shafts and the northern edges of Chile, where they use the world's driest desert to test machines developed to find signs of life on the surface of Mars.
Gutkind's reporting captures the individual quirks of the scientists–like one researcher who only shaves on Sundays to save time during the week for his research…"
Here's the Daily Show clip: Video Link.
Gutkind was also recently interviewed by the BBC's Jason Margolis for "Robot Report." Link.
And he was the subject of an article titled "A Life of Observation," written by Eric Parker for the website Fresno Famous. Link.
(Thanks, Dory Adams!)
