Talk given at the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences of the University of Sussex, May 14th, 2002.
These audio files are in mp3 format, and can be listened to with most computers or with any portable mp3 player.
16-bit: [download] 79:16, 9.2 Mb.
8-bit: [download] 79:16, 4.6 Mb (low quality).
Introduced by Dr. Phil Husbands, Prof. Brooks gave a general talk related to his recent book "ROBOT: The Future of Flesh and Machine". He first gave historical examples of robots, for then focussing on the research he has directed in the MIT AI Lab for more than a decade, mainly showing the capabilities of the robots COG and Kismet. He also addressed two media-influenced questions. In the first one, "Will robots will be accepted as humans?", he suggested that in principle yes, since humans can be seen as machines, so it is only a matter of building machines complex enough to simulate convicingly human characteristics, such as emotions. In the second question, "Will robots take over?", he noted recent advancements in technology where humans and machines seem to merge, for example in intelligent prostheses or implants. In other words, it seems that the boundaries between humans and machines will continue to disappear. At the end of the talk Prof. Brooks also addressed promising alternative ways of computing, with DNA and molecules, for example. There were also interesting questions and answers.
Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
Webserver space kindly provided by the Centrum Leo Apostel of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
For a theoretical background of the Complexity Digest Virtual Conference Network see: