Customer Reviews

Artificial Life Possibilities: A Star Trek Perspective (Computer Sciences)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a fan of the Star Trek series and as someone working in AI, this book was the obvious choice for me when I noticed it during a casual trip to the bookstore. There are 14 chapters on the characteristics we tend to associate with intelligent beings (e.g. sensing the environment, thinking and reasoning, imagination and creativity). In each, the author relates to episodes from the entire Star Trek series to date (i.e. the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise). Since I have seen all of them (except the original series), the explanations were familiar to me. It was also a nice refresher of certain episodes that I might just watch again. There is very little in this book in terms of technical information (thankfully, as AI can be quite complicated and mathematical) but a lot in terms of ideas and basic concepts. Dilettantes and fans of Star Trek would therefore enjoy this book more than academics and researchers. I have nothing against science fiction or television and I think many times, directions for further research can be inspired by it. This is why I still consider this book a contribution to the field. Overall, a worthwhile and light read.

Some minor errors in case there is a 2nd edition.

1. pg. 46, para 2, "pheromone trails" (not 'trials').
2. pg. 81, the second formula is the same as the first when it should be different i.e. p(success) cannot be the same as p(failure).
3. pg. 88, based on the second premise (i.e. It's temperate is always 50 degrees or above), the sentence in the following paragraph should be, "...any planet with a temperature of *less than* 50 degrees..." (not "50 degrees or less").
4. pg. 120, para 3, it's "Bajorans" (not Bajorians).
5. pg. 126, para 3, line 5, "...don't tend to always enjoy..." (missing 's'); same line, the endnote indicator should be after the period.
6. pg. 126, last line, "jokes...." (three periods are customary in an unfinished sentence, not four).

The author has picked an interesting way to examine the state of the art in artificial intelligence. It is an interesting turn around. The originators of the TV series Star Trek looked at the research that was being done and extrapolated this research into their characters. In turn, these characters were looked at by researchers to see how their research might really be carried forward.

In this book, Dr. Penny Baillie-de Byl, an Australian university lecturer has in turned looked at the research being conducted and tied it back to the TV show characters. She looks at androids and at purely projection characters such as those that are generated on the holodeck.

The chapter I liked best was her discussion of the Turing Test, a test Alan Turing devised to determine if a machine could think - (what's think, what's a machine). Have we passed the test yet? Then again, I see some humans once in a while that I don't think could pass the test.

Penny Baillie-De Byl's ARTIFICIAL LIFE POSSIBILITIES: A STAR TREK PERSPECTIVE examines what the future might bring in creating exceptional artificial environments such as Star Trek has featured. Using Star Trek's innovative concepts as a foundation, artificial intelligence researcher Dr. Penmny Baillie-De Byl considers artificial life forms depicted in the TV series and the state of current technology to consider the potentials behind creating advanced AI systems.