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Hans P. Moravec
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Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence Paperback – January 2, 1990

by Hans Moravec (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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Imagine attending a lecture at the turn of the twentieth century in which Orville Wright speculates about the future of transportation, or one in which Alexander Graham Bell envisages satellite communications and global data banks. Mind Children, written by an internationally renowned roboticist, offers a comparable experience―a mind-boggling glimpse of a world we may soon share with our artificial progeny. Filled with fresh ideas and insights, this book is one of the most engaging and controversial visions of the future ever written by a serious scholar.

Hans Moravec convincingly argues that we are approaching a watershed in the history of life―a time when the boundaries between biological and postbiological intelligence will begin to dissolve. Within forty years, Moravec believes, we will achieve human equivalence in our machines, not only in their capacity to reason but also in their ability to perceive, interact with, and change their complex environment. The critical factor is mobility. A computer rooted to one place is doomed to static iterations, whereas a machine on the prowl, like a mobile organism, must evolve a richer fund of knowledge about an ever-changing world upon which to base its actions.

In order to achieve anything near human equivalence, robots will need, at the least, the capacity to perform ten trillion calculations per second. Given the trillion-fold increase in computational power since the end of the nineteenth century, and the promise of exotic technologies far surpassing the now-familiar lasers and even superconductors, Moravec concludes that our hardware will have no trouble meeting this forty-year timetable.

But human equivalence is just the beginning, not an upper bound. Once the tireless thinking capacity of robots is directed to the problem of their own improvement and reproduction, even the sky will not limit their voracious exploration of the universe. In the concluding chapters Moravec challenges us to imagine with him the possibilities and pitfalls of such a scenario. Rather than warning us of takeover by robots, the author invites us, as we approach the end of this millennium, to speculate about a plausible, wonderful postbiological future and the ways in which our minds might participate in its unfolding.

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  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harvard University Press
  4. Publication date
    January 2, 1990
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.56 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0674576187
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0674576186
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“One would be making a mistake to let Mind Children recede unopened into a guiltless oblivion. It’s a tonic book, thought-provoking on every page. And it reminds us that, in our accelerating, headlong era, the future presses so close upon us that those who ignore it inhabit not the present but the past.”―Brad Leithauser, New Yorker

“A comprehensive and highly readable survey of the state of the art in robotics.”―M. Mitchell Waldrop, New York Times Book Review

“Moravec, by his own admission, is an intellectual joyrider, and riding his runaway trains of thought is an exhilarating experience… This is an intellectual party that shouldn’t be pooped, no matter how much it may disturb the neighbours and encourage over-indulgence.”―Brian Woolley, Guardian

“[Mind Children] has the accuracy of a college text and the can’t-put-it-down appeal of a good novel. Moravec has turned the flights of mind of one of the world’s foremost roboticists into hard copy. And he has written a tremendously good book in the process.”―Eric Bobinsky, Byte

“A dizzying display of intellect and wild imaginings by Moravec, a world-class roboticist who has himself developed clever beasts… Undeniably, Moravec comes across as a highly knowledgeable and creative talent―which is just what the field needs.”―Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Hans Moravec is known for his work on robotics and artificial intelligence, and his writings on the impact of technology.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; Reprint edition (January 2, 1990)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674576187
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674576186
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.56 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

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Hans P. Moravec

Hans P. Moravec

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Digna Irizarry Cassens
5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't believe how easy it was to read this book
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2014
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I couldn't believe how easy it was to read this book; it reads like a novel. Marveec, writing in 1988 had an enviable vision, one that Isaac Asimov would have envied. I compare his easy prose to my alltime si-fi author, Octavia Butler, whose books I've read repeatedly for the same reason. Knowing that this book is our present reality makes it even more marvelous for me.
3 people found this helpful
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Sarahlynn Nichols
4.0 out of 5 stars Interested in AI, philosophy, and history?
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2023
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I'm currently reading classic literature about AI and came across this title recently: Mind Children, by Hans Moravec, published in the early 1980s. If you have any interest in speculative non-fiction about transferring human consciousness to a machine, check this out. Check it out as well if you would like to consider how some people were talking about AI 40 years ago, and as an aid to grounding your understanding of today's AI in an historical perspective.

Of note, do you know what was missing in the early 1980s that (besides a lack of funding) held back AI advancements for so long? Voluminous and novel data ... which we have today--and will have more of tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.
2 people found this helpful
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Darrel Staat
5.0 out of 5 stars Good shipping.
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2018
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The book arrived as advertised.
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JohnnyB
2.0 out of 5 stars probably was interesting when first written, but is not now
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2020
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This book is 30 years old. It deals with topics (AI, robotics, automation) that change VERY rapidly. Because of this, the information in it seems very stale and out of date. I'm sure it was relevant when first written, but is no longer so. It talks about Moore's Law, Trans-humanism, cybernetics, and the state of AI up through the end of the 1980s. Well, needless to say, a lot has happened since then. If you want a view into what well informed computer scientists thought about AI 30 years ago, this book is for you. If you want something more timely, then skip this one. Instead read, "Life 3.0".
6 people found this helpful
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Joe Silva
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2016
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Fast shipment and product as described. Thanks!
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Baraniecki Mark Stuart
5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent robots inherit the earth (and the stars)
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2010
Hans Moravec is director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory of Carnegie Mellon University and has spent his time from his days as a graduate student investigating artificial intelligence. Specifically he was attracted by the debate about the possibility of replacing the human nervous system with a more durable artificial equivalent. His essays turned into articles and his articles eventually turned into this book.

Of course the idea is not accepted by many people but Moravec doesn't go into the moral question. In his view the new world will be one in which "the human race has been swept away by the tide of cultural change, usurped by its own artificial progeny". In other words given the rate of improvement in artificial intelligence, robots in the not too distant future will be able outperform human beings and so they won't need them anymore.

At first the idea seems bizarre but so would the technology of the late 20th century looking from the vantage point of the 19th. Moravec collects all the evidence throughout the book. He presents very clearly data on the increases in computing power running from electro-mechanical machines, vacuum tubes, transistors to integrated circuits and shows how a top down approach (system design) and bottom up approach (learning evolving systems) are gradually chipping away at "humans only" areas.

Interestingly computers in medicine can already offer reliable diagnosis and they can play chess at grand-master level. They are everywhere in process control and are taking the first steps in learning by being given likes and dislikes and the capacity for boredom (the gradual fade of learnt and recorded tasks in favour of new ones).

Moravec builds up a convincing picture and along the way the reader gets to look at the 1972 ARPAnet breakdown caused by a spontaneous error (mutation) in a piece of data that went on to infect the whole network. Or alternatively the direction that the evolution of duplicating speciating data objects might take. He expects digital wildlife to reproduce sexually as this is the optimum way to provide the variety needed to fill the niches in their new world.

He plays a robotic version of Axelrod's prisoners dilemma and concludes that the "tit for tat" result applies (i.e. robots would find it in their interests to cooperate between themselves-but not necessarily with us).

Essentially the book follows Dawkins idea of human evolution having switched from genes to memes (stored knowledge evolution or evolution in the library) and takes it to its logical conclusion when knowledge abandons its human hosts.

This is a very surprising book worth looking out for.
6 people found this helpful
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Bobb Collins
4.0 out of 5 stars Buy it for the prologue alone!
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 1999
I picked up this book, expecting to learn a little bit about where we're headed with our computers, and the consequences therein. I learned all that--but I got even more than I bargained for. I have to say, the prologue in and of itself blew me away. I had never quite thought of humans as the first step in a bigger evolution. I read this book six months ago, and I haven't been able to get the implications of it out of my head since. If you're looking for the big answers--like "Why are we here?" and "What's the point?"--you may be like me and find more in here than in more traditional spiritual texts.
36 people found this helpful
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Peter McCluskey
5.0 out of 5 stars Visionary
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2005
This book does a great job of exploring the future of robots, artificial intelligence, the human mind, and human identity. A few parts of it seem dated, but most of what the book describes seems likely to happen this century and to surprise the large fraction of the population which still hasn't given any thought to the possibilities this book describes.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Sanjay C Mahagaokar
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully packaged, safely delivered before committed date.
Reviewed in India on January 3, 2022
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I wanted to read this book for a long time and decided to present myself on my birthday. Arrived ahead of schedule to my delight. Nice pages and print.
Contents were a delight.
As Joel II says “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."
Hans Moravec truly sees visions. No less.
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Gab
5.0 out of 5 stars After many decades still up-to-date
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2019
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An amazing book on robotics from the amazing 80's.

The world of robotics, compting and AI changed a lot since then. Nowadays Arduino, NodeMCU, Raspberry Pi are household names. Motor shield, camera and tons other sensors are cheap and available for everyone. Speech and image recognizers are available for free, or low cost in the cloud, with enormous processing power. Flying, soft and swarm of robots are child's play.

And still, this book is up-to-date. It grabs the very core issues of robotics, valid even today.
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Dr.Juergen Schmidt MBA, LLM
5.0 out of 5 stars Eine Empfehlung für alle kritischen IT-Fanatiker
Reviewed in Germany on March 23, 2019
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Dank dieses Buches weiß man, wohin die IT-Euphorie hinführen kann und ggf. auch wird.
MfG Dr. Schmidt
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Gérard Chazal
4.0 out of 5 stars Une approche de la robotique
Reviewed in France on June 11, 2012
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Hans Moravec est connu dans le domaine de la robotique. Dans cet ouvrage il développe une approche plus philosophique que technique à travers des questions comme celle de la multiréalisation (l'esprit étant une sorte de structure - pattern - pouvant être instanciée sur différents supports matériels, biologique ou informatique. On peut, certes, ne pas partager les options philosophiques de l'auteur ou émettre des réserves mais sa lecture reste toujours stimulante dans la mesure où elle soulève de nombreuses questions, toutes passionnantes pour qui s'intéresse à l'univers des machines tel qu'il se construit autour de nous.
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Josef Riga
2.0 out of 5 stars Wie man sich über die Zukunft täuschen kann.
Reviewed in Germany on February 26, 2021
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Kluge Futurologen und Wissenschaftler, die sich mit der Zukunft beschäftigen, tuen gut daran, in verschiedenen Medien jeweils alternative Szenarien zu dokumentieren. Am Tag X können sie dann auf eine der beiden Publikationen verweisen (die sich diametral widersprechen können) und siehe: sie hatten richtig vorhergesagt. Nicht so Hans Moravec, für den das Leben aus Datenverarbeitung besteht. So wie man sich im Barock das Gehirn als eine Ansammlung kleinster Rädchen vorstellte, die in einander greifen und den "Geist" darstellen, so sind es bei Moravec kleinere Informationseinheiten. Aber der Denkirrtum ist der gleiche. Ich kann das Gehirn noch so hauchdünn scheibchenweise abtragen, ich werde niemals dadurch zum
"Ich" gelangen.
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