Robot History

Robots features sound design and special effects to enhance your listening enjoyment. Listen out for the beeps and hums of computers and techno music! The future is here. Explore the world of robots and artificial intelligence in this kids’ STEM audiobook by robotics professor Dr. Henny Admoni...

Sometimes, getting what you want is the worst thing that can happen. Dell Eckhart lives on the wrong side of the portal. The side where the ruin and devastation left behind by the war makes everyday life harder than it’s ever been. More than anything, he wants to win a ticket for passage through the portal. He’s running out of chances, but he’s not going to let that stop him. He needs that ticket. It’s the only way to save the one person he truly cares about. There’s just one problem. That person is actually an android. And androids aren’t allowed through the portal. Doesn’t ...

Master Lecture Series: History of the Third Robot War is a future history lecture so epic it will knock your digital socks off! In this satirical Audible Original that turns The Great Courses on its head, Professor Tirannous Rexavier Shepard guides you through the multiverse-shattering events of the war, from the opening "pyew pyews" through Le Battle Finale. Master Lecture Series pays homage to the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres with gut-busting (and circuit-bending) whimsy.

Welcome to The History of Dysfunctional Robots. This is a book which starts by chronicling a history of another future then ends with content indescribable. Equal parts ethnography and prophecy, this little book is bound to be a hit with the Remnant of a future time who reside in the Great Cube City. It is a warning, a prayer of vengeance and praise. No further explanation shall be given.

From award-winning author Eve L. Ewing comes a middle grade novel about a forgotten homemade robot who comes to life just when aspiring fifth-grade scientist Maya needs a friend -- and a science fair project. Maya's nervous about fifth grade. She tries to keep calm by reminding herself she knows...

WE’RE NOT HERE Right Now: When the leader’s missing citizens return, they tell her why they vanished, but it must stay secret or humanity's future will be doomed. It looks as though everybody on these three blocks of Lasalle Lane left suddenly in the middle of breakfast. None arrived at work. None arrived at school. Can the detectives Harriet calls for find them? They find the security-cam video of horrifying abductions. If word gets out about this, mass hysteria is inevitable.. The evidence they find turns where into a different question—well, two of them, really. Why are they gone, ...

Echo London never wanted to be the curator of the People’s Library, a digital collection of human consciousness. But when she’s assigned as its head librarian, Echo is entrusted with humanity’s greatest minds and historical figures, all of whom have been recreated through controversial consciousness-capturing technology that lets visitors interact with the dead. But an anti-tech rebellion is stirring. When a rebel attack results in tragedy, a mysterious woman wearing an ancient death mask leaves behind cryptic final words for Echo: It all begins with nothing.

In a world of self-driving cars and big data, smart algorithms and Siri, we know that artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day. Though all these nifty devices and programs might make our lives easier, they're also well on their way to making "good" jobs obsolete. A computer winning Jeopardy might seem like a trivial, if impressive, feat, but the same technology is making paralegals redundant as it undertakes electronic discovery, and is soon to do the same for radiologists.

"This book is a tour de force." -- Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work by leading anthropologist James Suzman Work defines who we are. It determines our status, and dictates how, where, and with whom we...

Things are rarely what they seem in the city of New Orleans. A wild and powerful love story. Let the games begin. ◆◆◆ It was midnight when FBI Special Agent Piper Pierce arrived in New Orleans with her luggage, a new assignment, and a head full of secrets. She was a strikingly beautiful woman with long silky brown hair and sultry blue eyes. But the gun, the badge, and the attitude warned that she was tough. On purpose. All day. Every day. Even in the French Quarter. And just a few miles away, Detective Maverick Patterson with the NOPD was ending a biker undercover case. You know, ...

The most remarkable true stories of all time and around the world brought vividly to life - from the Big Bang right up to the present day. Embark on a journey across millennia and around the world, from the latest understanding of the origins of the universe, the birth of the Earth, the very first life, the age of dinosaurs, the rise of humans, ancient civilisations, colonialism, wars, technology, everyday life, global struggles for freedom and equality, pandemics - and much more.

As robots are increasingly integrated into modern society—on the battlefield and the road, in business, education, and health—Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times science writer John Markoff searches for an answer to one of the most important questions of our age: will these machines help...

In Robot-Proof, Northeastern University president Joseph Aoun proposes a way to educate the next generation of college students to invent, to create, and to discover - to fill needs in society that even the most sophisticated artificial intelligence agent cannot. A "robot-proof" education, Aoun argues, is not concerned solely with topping up students' minds with high-octane facts. Rather, it calibrates them with a creative mindset and the mental elasticity to invent, discover, or create something valuable to society.

This is a colaboration between Human and Artifical Intellegence. The Chronicle of Dust and Light: Volume I – From Rivers to Rome As told by HSS-917K, Archive Unit & Reluctant Storyteller Long after the last satellite blinked out and the world fell quiet, one robot remained at its post. In the ivy-covered ruins of a forgotten university, HSS-917K—a once-modest signal scribe, now affectionately known as Hissik—powers up each morning, dusts off another drive, and resumes the impossible task of cataloging all of human history. With failing monitors, flickering data, and a curious ...

There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, and that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better.

Unlock a world of even more wonder for your child with hundreds of brand-new, mind-blowing facts, quizzes, and activities—perfect for curious kids who just can’t stop asking “why?” Does your child devour random facts, ask endless questions, and love telling you what they’ve learned? Are you looking for something that’s as entertaining as it is educational, and that actually pulls them away from screens? Curious Kids’ Amazing Fact Vault 2 is the next exciting volume in the hit series for ages 5–15. Whether or not they’ve read Book 1, kids will dive straight into this all-...

The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention, more than 2,500 years ago. In this groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements - and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.

This audiobook explains why AI is unique, what legal and ethical problems it could cause, and how we can address them. It argues that AI is unlike any other previous technology, owing to its ability to take decisions independently and unpredictably. This gives rise to three issues: responsibility - who is liable if AI causes harm; rights - the disputed moral and pragmatic grounds for granting AI legal personality; and the ethics surrounding the decision-making of AI.

Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like? Many think the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations, or ems. Scan a human brain, then run a model with the same connections on a fast computer, and you have a robot brain, but recognizably human. Train an em to do some job and copy it a million times; an army of workers is at your disposal. When they can be made cheaply, within perhaps a century, ems will displace humans in most jobs.

Surprising as it sounds, war has made humanity safer and richer. In War! What Is It Good For?, the renowned historian and archaeologist Ian Morris tells the gruesome, gripping story of 15,000 years of war, going beyond the battles and brutality to reveal what war has really done to and for the world. War, and war alone, has created bigger, more complex societies, ruled by governments that have stamped out internal violence.