The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices

How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives

By: Frank Moss

Narrated by: Bruce Turk

If you've ever read a book on an e-reader, unleashed your inner rock star playing Guitar Hero, built a robot with LEGO Mindstorms, or ridden in a vehicle with child-safe air bags, then you've experienced first hand just a few of the astounding innovations that have come out of the Media Lab over the past 25 years. But that’s old hat for today’s researchers, who are creating technologies that will have a much deeper impact on the quality of people’s lives over the next quarter century.

In this exhilarating tour of the Media Lab's inner sanctums, we'll meet the professors and their students - the Sorcerers and their Apprentices - and witness first hand the creative magic behind inventions such as:

* Nexi, a mobile humanoid robot with such sophisticated social skills she can serve as a helpful and understanding companion for the sick and elderly.
* CityCar, a foldable, stackable, electric vehicle of the future that will redefine personal transportation in cities and revolutionize urban life.
* Sixth Sense, a compact wearable device that transforms any surface – wall, tabletop or even your hand - into a touch screen computer.
* PowerFoot, a lifelike robotic prosthesis that enables amputees to walk as naturally as if it were a real biological limb.

Through inspiring stories of people who are using Media Lab innovations to confront personal challenges - like a man with cerebral palsy who is unable to hum a tune or pick up an instrument yet is using an ingenious music composition system to unleash his “inner Mozart”, and a woman with a rare life-threatening condition who co-invented a revolutionary web service that enables patients to participate in the search for their own cures - we’ll see how the Media Lab is empowering us all with the tools to take control of our health, wealth, and happiness.

Along the way, Moss reveals the highly unorthodox approach to creativity and invention that makes all this possible, explaining how the Media Lab cultivates an open and boundary-less environment where researchers from a broad array of disciplines – from musicians to neuroscientists to visual artists to computer engineers - have the freedom to follow their passions and take bold risks unthinkable elsewhere.

The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices can serve as a blueprint for how to fix our broken innovation ecosystem and bring about the kind of radical change required to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It is a must-read for anyone striving to be more innovative as an individual, as a businessperson, or as a member of society.

Also includes 16 pages of color photos highlighting some of the lab's most visually stunning inventions - and the people who make them possible.

Helped me Rethink my Teaching

The writer's phrase "antidiscipline" grabbed my attention. Sometimes I'm not sure about my professional move toward being interdisciplinary rather than an "expert" on a really narrow topic. This book helps me take confidence in the direction I'm headed as a writer, teacher, and filmmaker.

Makes you love science again

If you could sum up The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices in three words, what would they be?

Makes science fun

Any additional comments?

if you like technology, education and multidisciplinary studies and how things may shape up in the future, this book is bought to you by the man on the inside - the Media Lab director. Makes you dream about the future and the greater good for humanity.

Good Listen

It was a good listen, especially if you are curious about the media lab. Will say the author seems to over hype some of the technology people work on in the lab, but he was writing for a layman audience so that makes sense. I enjoyed it and found it interesting especially hearing how the lab structures corporate partnerships.

Informative and exciting!

It was very fun finding out what happens MIT's new Media Lab. I am a technology lover, and I constantly follow the different kinds of technological and scientific breakthroughs. So, after listening to what MIT's students are up to, I was very surprised and excited for things to come!

Like a promotional press release...

... corporate glow-speak to track investors. Writing style includes too many tedious long listings of the benefits and accomplishments. The narrator's voice is right out of Romper Room daycare. And his falsetto when quoting females seems quite unnecessary. Meanwhile, the kids don't get to sleep much while they passionately endeavor to help mankind with modern technology. Of course no mention of MIT's historic connections with developing spy gear, although most of the lab's developments praised in the book would almost certainly have clandestine usefulness. Try Secret Empire by Taubman, or Spycraft by Wallace, Melton et al instead to learn about the other cool stuff labs at MIT have been involved with.