It's not easy pretending to be a robot. Ask Charlie. The very morning his employer was to unveil the world's first artificial human being to a select group of investors, the android ran away. Now it's up to Charlie to pose as the robot until the real machine is found. The only thing is, androids are supposed to be tall and good looking. Or at the very least, be good at board games. And Charlie? Well, he just...isn't. To make matters worse, a rival robotics company is intent on stealing Charlie for themselves. In short, it's a nightmare, and as the weeks pass and there's still no sign of the run-away android, Charlie is faced with a difficult decision, continue the deception or come clean. Either way, his life will never be the same.
From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement—”a sharply intelligent novel of ideas” (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding. Set in an uncanny alternative 1982 London—where Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence—Machines Like Me powerfully portrays two lovers who will be tested beyond their understanding. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first generation of synthetic humans. With Miranda's assistance, he codesigns Adam's personality. The near-perfect human that emerges is beautiful, strong, and smart—and a love triangle soon forms. Ian McEwan's subversive, gripping novel poses fundamental questions: What makes us human—our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns against the power to invent things beyond our control. Don’t miss Ian McEwan’s new novel, Lessons, coming in September!
Robots in groups or colonies can exhibit an enormous variety and richness of behaviors which cannot be observed with singly autonomous systems. Of course, this is analogous to the amazing variety of group animal behaviors which can be observed in nature. In recent years more and more investigators have started to study these behaviors. The studies range from classifications and taxonomies of behaviors, to development of architectures which cause such group activities as flocking or swarming, and from emphasis on the role of intelligent agents in such groups to studies of learning and obstacle avoidance. There used to be a time when many robotics researchers would question those who were interested in working with teams of robots: `Why are you worried about robotic teams when it's hard enough to just get one to work?'. This issue responds to that question. Robot Colonies provides a new approach to task problem-solving that is similar in many ways to distributed computing. Multiagent robotic teams offer the possibility of spatially distributed parallel and concurrent perception and action. A paradigm shift results when using multiple robots, providing a different perspective on how to carry out complex tasks. New issues such as interagent communications, spatial task distribution, heterogeneous or homogeneous societies, and interference management are now central to achieving coordinated and productive activity within a colony. Fortunately mobile robot hardware has evolved sufficiently in terms of both cost and robustness to enable these issues to be studied on actual robots and not merely in simulation. Robot Colonies presents a sampling of the research in this field. While capturing a reasonable representation of the most important work within this area, its objective is not to be a comprehensive survey, but rather to stimulate new research by exposing readers to the principles of robot group behaviors, architectures and theories. Robot Colonies is an edited volume of peer-reviewed original research comprising eight invited contributions by leading researchers. This research work has also been published as a special issue of Autonomous Robots (Volume 4, Number 1).
When Code Lightfall tumbles down a hole in pursuit of a mysterious robotic insect, he lands in a world that defies imagination. Everything in Mekhos is made from metal and circuitry, including the inhabitants. To find his way home Code must cross Mekhos's bizarre and dangerous landscape to reach the legendary Robonomicon - a guide to all robot wisdom. But the robots of Mekhos are also in peril, and Code must rescue them before he can save himself. With its dazzling array of robots and futuristic gadgets, this rollicking story will hold special appeal for budding techno-lovers everywhere.
In a factory on the slopes of Mount Fuji, industrial robots are now making more robots, working flawlessly around the clock with virtually no human supervision. In Beverly Hills, a robot which normally serves drinks at parties is arrested for handing out business cards illegally in a busy downtown street. From forbidding lunar landscapes to mineral-rich ocean floors, robots perform tasks we thought only humans could do-or could not be done at all. In The Robot Revolution, noted author and computer engineer Tom Logsdon reveals the fact-is stranger than fiction world of robots and the impact they are having in all facets of society, from industry and defense to sports and entertainment. He explores their history from the legendary creations of the ancient Greeks to the experimental ultra sensitive machines of today. And he explains just what robot is and why the latest advances in such fascinating fields as artificial intelligence are making real robots more and more similar to R2D2 and C3P0. Ready or not, The Robot Revolution is here and our lives are never going to be the same again.
Nick Noonan takes his readers on a journey that spans time, space and the imagination! Alien ships, space labs, dinosaurs, time machines and more make this a fast moving fun read for adventurers of all ages. This novel contains a series of 3 books tied together in a continued theme. A family's normal life becomes decidedly abnormal and quite exciting in a series of events that thrusts them into situations like fighting tribes, battling aliens, blowing up labs and running from dinosaurs. Nick Noonan, a member of Louisiana Young Artists, Young Authors, is a teen writer from Belle Chasse, La attending Holy Cross High School. This is his first published novel. Look for future works by Nick Noonan on the website at www.Layaya.org or at your local bookstore.
The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms. The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did. Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers -- a superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades. At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason's for Boutin's betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his "father," he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat... Old Man's War Series #1 Old Man’s War #2 The Ghost Brigades #3 The Last Colony #4 Zoe’s Tale #5 The Human Division #6 The End of All Things Short fiction: “After the Coup” Other Tor Books The Android’s Dream Agent to the Stars Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded Fuzzy Nation Redshirts Lock In The Collapsing Empire (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Ten years after the horrific murders at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza that ripped their town apart, Charlie, whose father owned the restaurant, and her childhood friends reunite on the anniversary of the tragedy and find themselves at the old pizza place which had been locked up and abandoned for years. After they discover a way inside, they realize that things are not as they used to be. The four adult-sized animatronic mascots that once entertained patrons have changed. They now have a dark secret . . . and a murderous agenda. *Not suitable for younger readers*
AI is poised to disrupt our work and our lives. We can harness these technologies rather than fall captive to them—but only through wise regulation. Too many CEOs tell a simple story about the future of work: if a machine can do what you do, your job will be automated. They envision everyone from doctors to soldiers rendered superfluous by ever-more-powerful AI. They offer stark alternatives: make robots or be replaced by them. Another story is possible. In virtually every walk of life, robotic systems can make labor more valuable, not less. Frank Pasquale tells the story of nurses, teachers, designers, and others who partner with technologists, rather than meekly serving as data sources for their computerized replacements. This cooperation reveals the kind of technological advance that could bring us all better health care, education, and more, while maintaining meaningful work. These partnerships also show how law and regulation can promote prosperity for all, rather than a zero-sum race of humans against machines. How far should AI be entrusted to assume tasks once performed by humans? What is gained and lost when it does? What is the optimal mix of robotic and human interaction? New Laws of Robotics makes the case that policymakers must not allow corporations or engineers to answer these questions alone. The kind of automation we get—and who it benefits—will depend on myriad small decisions about how to develop AI. Pasquale proposes ways to democratize that decision making, rather than centralize it in unaccountable firms. Sober yet optimistic, New Laws of Robotics offers an inspiring vision of technological progress, in which human capacities and expertise are the irreplaceable center of an inclusive economy.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2019, held in Madrid, Spain, in November 2019.The 69 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 92 submissions. The theme of the 2018 conference is: Friendly Robotics.The papers focus on the following topics: perceptions and expectations of social robots; cognition and social values for social robots; verbal interaction with social robots; social cues and design of social robots; emotional and expressive interaction with social robots; collaborative SR and SR at the workplace; game approaches and applications to HRI; applications in health domain; robots at home and at public spaces; robots in education; technical innovations in social robotics; and privacy and safety of the social robots.
