To Be a Machine

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Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385540426
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis To Be a Machine by : Mark O'Connell

Download or read book To Be a Machine written by Mark O'Connell and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This gonzo-journalistic exploration of the Silicon Valley techno-utopians’ pursuit of escaping mortality is a breezy romp full of colorful characters.” —New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice) Transhumanism is a movement pushing the limits of our bodies—our capabilities, intelligence, and lifespans—in the hopes that, through technology, we can become something better than ourselves. It has found support among Silicon Valley billionaires and some of the world’s biggest businesses. In To Be a Machine, journalist Mark O'Connell explores the staggering possibilities and moral quandaries that present themselves when you of think of your body as a device. He visits the world's foremost cryonics facility to witness how some have chosen to forestall death. He discovers an underground collective of biohackers, implanting electronics under their skin to enhance their senses. He meets a team of scientists urgently investigating how to protect mankind from artificial superintelligence. Where is our obsession with technology leading us? What does the rise of AI mean not just for our offices and homes, but for our humanity? Could the technologies we create to help us eventually bring us to harm? Addressing these questions, O'Connell presents a profound, provocative, often laugh-out-loud-funny look at an influential movement. In investigating what it means to be a machine, he offers a surprising meditation on what it means to be human.

Transhumanism - Engineering the Human Condition

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030049582
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism - Engineering the Human Condition by : Roberto Manzocco

Download or read book Transhumanism - Engineering the Human Condition written by Roberto Manzocco and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-11 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to offer a comprehensive high-level introduction to transhumanism, an international political and cultural movement that aims to produce a “paradigm shift” in our ethical and political understanding of human evolution. Transhumanist thinkers want the human species to take the course of evolution into its own hands, using advanced technologies currently under development – such as robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cognitive neurosciences, and nanotechnology – to overcome our present physical and mental limitations, improve our intelligence beyond the current maximum achievable level, acquire skills that are currently the preserve of other species, abolish involuntary aging and death, and ultimately achieve a post-human level of existence. The book covers transhumanism from a historical, philosophical, and scientific viewpoint, tracing its cultural roots, discussing the main philosophical, epistemological, and ethical issues, and reviewing the state of the art in scientific research on the topics of most interest to transhumanists. The writing style is clear and accessible for the general reader, but the book will also appeal to graduate and undergraduate students.

Human Entrance to Transhumanism

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Author :
Publisher : Independently Published
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (757 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Entrance to Transhumanism by : James Tunney

Download or read book Human Entrance to Transhumanism written by James Tunney and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transhumanism is a movement which aims to remake humanity through technology. Humanity will be fabricated and natural evolution will end. It is merely a new manifestation of an older desire for scientific control of the world. Transhumanism seeks fabrication by fascination. We have been entranced by media propaganda. We are yielding the spirit of the race. Transhumanism represents a technique akin to magic. If we do not become aware of the danger of use of enhancement as a subterfuge for mass control we may end in a magicians dream. While transhumanists might genuinely want longer lives, more intelligence and more happiness, the implications of the movement are much deeper beyond the realm of individuals legitimately choosing their own path in life. The transhumanist narrative as part of the black magic of materialism is an ad for add-ons that does not add up. Without a commitment to the individual, human person and the importance of their consciousness the human race will be sacrificed.

Transhumanism

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Author :
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452954887
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism by : Andrew Pilsch

Download or read book Transhumanism written by Andrew Pilsch and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transhumanism posits that humanity is on the verge of rapid evolutionary change as a result of emerging technologies and increased global consciousness. However, this insight is dismissed as a naive and controversial reframing of posthumanist thought, having also been vilified as “the most dangerous idea in the world” by Francis Fukuyama. In this book, Andrew Pilsch counters these critiques, arguing instead that transhumanism’s utopian rhetoric actively imagines radical new futures for the species and its habitat. Pilsch situates contemporary transhumanism within the longer history of a rhetorical mode he calls “evolutionary futurism” that unifies diverse texts, philosophies, and theories of science and technology that anticipate a radical explosion in humanity’s cognitive, physical, and cultural potentialities. By conceptualizing transhumanism as a rhetoric, as opposed to an obscure group of fringe figures, he explores the intersection of three major paradigms shaping contemporary Western intellectual life: cybernetics, evolutionary biology, and spiritualism. In analyzing this collision, his work traces the belief in a digital, evolutionary, and collective future through a broad range of texts written by theologians and mystics, biologists and computer scientists, political philosophers and economic thinkers, conceptual artists and Golden Age science fiction writers. Unearthing the long history of evolutionary futurism, Pilsch concludes, allows us to more clearly see the novel contributions that transhumanism offers for escaping our current geopolitical bind by inspiring radical utopian thought.

Transhumanism and the Image of God

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Author :
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830865780
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism and the Image of God by : Jacob Shatzer

Download or read book Transhumanism and the Image of God written by Jacob Shatzer and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the transhumanist movement, biblical ethicist Jacob Shatzer grapples with the potential for technology to transform the way we think about what it means to be human. Exploring the doctrine of incarnation and topics such as artificial intelligence, robotics, medical technology, and communications tools, he guides us into careful consideration of the future of Christian discipleship in a disruptive technological environment.

Beyond Human

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Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1441173994
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Human by : Charlie Blake

Download or read book Beyond Human written by Charlie Blake and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-03-08 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond Human investigates what it means to call ourselves human beings in relation to both our distant past and our possible futures as a species, and the questions this might raise for our relationship with the myriad species with which we share the planet. Drawing on insights from zoology, theology, cultural studies and aesthetics, an international line-up of contributors explore such topics as our origins as reflected in early cave art in the upper Palaeolithic through to our prospects at the forefront of contemporary biotechnology. In the process, the book positions "the human" in readiness for what many have characterized as our transhuman or posthuman future. For if our status as rational animals or "animals that think" has traditionally distinguished us as apparently superior to other species, this distinction has become increasingly problematic. It has come to be seen as based on skills and technologies that do not distinguish us so much as position us as transitional animals. It is the direction and consequences of this transition that is the central concern of Beyond Human.

Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential

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Author :
Publisher : Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN 13 : 1579830234
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential by : Ted Chu

Download or read book Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential written by Ted Chu and published by Red Wheel/Weiser. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For millennia, great thinkers have contemplated the meaning and purpose of human existence; but while most assumed that humanity was the end point of creation or the pinnacle of evolution, Ted Chu makes the provocative claim that the human race may in fact be a means rather than an end—that humankind will give rise to evolutionary successors. In this wide-ranging and authoritative work, Chu reexamines the question of human purpose in light of the extraordinary developments of science and technology. Arguing that a deep understanding of our place in the universe is required to navigate the magnitude of the choices that lie ahead, he surveys human wisdom from both East and West, traces the evolutionary trajectory that has led to this point, and explores the potentials emerging on the scientific frontier. The book addresses the legitimate fears and concerns of “playing God” but embraces the possibility of transcending biological forms and becoming or creating entirely new life-forms.

The Transhumanist Reader

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Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118555996
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (185 download)

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Book Synopsis The Transhumanist Reader by : Max More

Download or read book The Transhumanist Reader written by Max More and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature.

Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism

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Author :
Publisher : IGI Global
ISBN 13 : 1522584323
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (225 download)

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Book Synopsis Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism by : Sisman-Ugur, Serap

Download or read book Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism written by Sisman-Ugur, Serap and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2019-05-03 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a movement, transhumanism aims to upgrade the human body through science, constantly pushing back the limits of a person by using cutting-edge technologies to fix the human body and upgrade it beyond its natural abilities. Transhumanism can not only change human habits, but it can also change learning practices. By improving human learning, it improves the human organism beyond natural and biological limits. The Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism is an essential research publication that discusses global values, norms, and ethics that relate to the diverse needs of learners in the digital world and addresses future priorities and needs for transhumanism. The book will identify and scrutinize the needs of learners in the age of transhumanism and examine best practices for transhumanist leaders in learning. Featuring topics such as cybernetics, pedagogy, and sociology, this book is ideal for educators, trainers, instructional designers, curriculum developers, professionals, researchers, academicians, policymakers, and librarians.

Religion and Transhumanism

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 632 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Transhumanism by : Calvin Mercer

Download or read book Religion and Transhumanism written by Calvin Mercer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-11-17 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should technology be used to improve human faculties such as cognition and longevity? This thought-provoking dialogue between "transhumanism" and religion examines enhancement technologies that could radically alter the human species. "Transhumanism" or "human enhancement" is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates the use of emerging technologies to change human traits. Although they may sound like science fiction, the possibilities suggested by transhumanism are very real, and the questions they raise have no easy answers. If these enhancements—especially major ones like the indefinite extension of healthy human life—become widely available, they would arguably have a more radical impact on humankind than any other development in history. This book comprises essays that explore transhumanism and the issues that surround it, addressing numerous fascinating questions posed by scholars of religion from various traditions. How will "immortality" or extreme longevity change our religious beliefs and practices? How might pharmaceuticals enhance spiritual experiences? Will "post-human" technologies be available to all persons, or will a superior "post-human race" arise to dominate the human species? The discussions are as intriguing as the future they suggest.

The Transhumanism Handbook

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030169200
Total Pages : 837 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis The Transhumanism Handbook by : Newton Lee

Download or read book The Transhumanism Handbook written by Newton Lee and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-03 with total page 837 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern humanity with some 5,000 years of recorded history has been experiencing growing pains, with no end in sight. It is high time for humanity to grow up and to transcend itself by embracing transhumanism. Transhumanism offers the most inclusive ideology for all ethnicities and races, the religious and the atheists, conservatives and liberals, the young and the old regardless of socioeconomic status, gender identity, or any other individual qualities. This book expounds on contemporary views and practical advice from more than 70 transhumanists. Astronaut Neil Armstrong said on the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Transhumanism is the next logical step in the evolution of humankind, and it is the existential solution to the long-term survival of the human race.

Transhumanism and Transcendence

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Publisher : Georgetown University Press
ISBN 13 : 1589017943
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism and Transcendence by : Ronald Cole-Turner

Download or read book Transhumanism and Transcendence written by Ronald Cole-Turner and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.

Transhumanism

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Author :
Publisher : David Livingstone
ISBN 13 : 1515232573
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (152 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism by : David Livingstone

Download or read book Transhumanism written by David Livingstone and published by David Livingstone. This book was released on 2015-09-02 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transhumanism is a recent movement that extols man’s right to shape his own evolution, by maximizing the use of scientific technologies, to enhance human physical and intellectual potential. While the name is new, the idea has long been a popular theme of science fiction, featured in such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, the Terminator series, and more recently, The Matrix, Limitless, Her and Transcendence. However, as its adherents hint at in their own publications, transhumanism is an occult project, rooted in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and derived from the Kabbalah, which asserts that humanity is evolving intellectually, towards a point in time when man will become God. Modeled on the medieval legend of the Golem and Frankenstein, they believe man will be able to create life itself, in the form of living machines, or artificial intelligence. Spearheaded by the Cybernetics Group, the project resulted in both the development of the modern computer and MK-Ultra, the CIA’s “mind-control” program. MK-Ultra promoted the “mind-expanding” potential of psychedelic drugs, to shape the counterculture of the 1960s, based on the notion that the shamans of ancient times used psychoactive substances, equated with the “apple” of the Tree of Knowledge. And, as revealed in the movie Lucy, through the use of “smart drugs,” and what transhumanists call “mind uploading,” man will be able to merge with the Internet, which is envisioned as the end-point of Kabbalistic evolution, the formation of a collective consciousness, or Global Brain. That awaited moment is what Ray Kurzweil, a director of engineering at Google, refers to as The Singularly. By accumulating the total of human knowledge, and providing access to every aspect of human activity, the Internet will supposedly achieve omniscience, becoming the “God” of occultism, or the Masonic All-Seeing Eye of the reverse side of the American dollar bill.

Transhumanism and Society

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400749813
Total Pages : 97 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Transhumanism and Society by : Stephen Lilley

Download or read book Transhumanism and Society written by Stephen Lilley and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an introductory overview to the social debate over enhancement technologies with an overview of the transhumanists' call to bypass human nature and conservationists' argument in defense of it. The author present this controversy as it unfolds in the contest between transhumanists proponents and conservationists, who push back with an argument to conserve human nature and to ban enhancement technologies. This book provides an overview of the key contested points and present the debate in an orderly, constructive fashion. Readers are informed about the discussion over humanism, the tension between science and religion, and the interpretation of socio-technological revolutions; and are invited to make up their own mind about one of the most challenging topics concerning the social and ethical implications of technological advancements.

Posthuman Bliss?

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190051493
Total Pages : 371 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Posthuman Bliss? by : Susan B. Levin

Download or read book Posthuman Bliss? written by Susan B. Levin and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transhumanists would have humanity's creation of posthumanity be our governing aim. Susan B. Levin challenges their overarching commitments regarding the mind, brain, ethics, liberal democracy, knowledge, and reality. Her critique unmasks their notion of humanity's self-transcendence via science and technology as pure, albeit seductive, fantasy.

The Techno-Human Condition

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262294400
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis The Techno-Human Condition by : Braden R. Allenby

Download or read book The Techno-Human Condition written by Braden R. Allenby and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-04-22 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative analysis of what it means to be human in an era of incomprehensible technological complexity and change. In The Techno-Human Condition, Braden Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz explore what it means to be human in an era of incomprehensible technological complexity and change. They argue that if we are to have any prospect of managing that complexity, we will need to escape the shackles of current assumptions about rationality, progress, and certainty, even as we maintain a commitment to fundamental human values. Humans have been co-evolving with their technologies since the dawn of prehistory. What is different now is that we have moved beyond external technological interventions to transform ourselves from the inside out—even as we also remake the Earth system itself. Coping with this new reality, say Allenby and Sarewitz, means liberating ourselves from such categories as “human,” “technological,” and “natural” to embrace a new techno-human relationship. Contributors Boris Barbour, Mario Biagioli, Paul S. Brookes, Finn Brunton, Alex Csiszar, Alessandro Delfanti, Emmanuel Didier, Sarah de Rijcke, Daniele Fanelli, Yves Gingras, James R. Griesemer, Catherine Guaspare, Marie-Andrée Jacob, Barbara M. Kehm, Cyril Labbé, Jennifer Lin, Alexandra Lippman, Burkhard Morganstern, Ivan Oransky, Michael Power, Sergio Sismondo, Brandon Stell, Tereza Stöckelová, Elizabeth Wager, Paul Wouters

Robot

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780195136302
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (363 download)

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Book Synopsis Robot by : Hans P. Moravec

Download or read book Robot written by Hans P. Moravec and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this compelling book, Hans Moravec predicts that machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, and that by 2050, they will surpass us. But even though Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs. "Intelligent machines, which will grow from us, learn our skills, and share our goals and values, can be viewed as children of our minds." And since they are our children, we will want them to outdistance us. In fact, in a bid for immortality, many of our descendants will choose to transform into "ex humans," as they upload themselves into advanced computers. This provocative new book, the highly anticipated follow-up to his bestselling volume Mind Children, charts the trajectory of robotics in breathtaking detail. A must read for artificial intelligence, technology, and computer enthusiasts, Moravec's freewheeling but informed speculations present a future far different than we ever dared imagine.