disinformation | hans moravec

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hans moravec
by roy christopher (royc@frontwheeldrive.com) - October 18, 2000

Machines will attain human levels of intelligence by the year 2040, predicts roboticist Hans Moravec without a hint of irony. And he claims by 2050, they will have far surpassed us. Moravec, one of the leaders of robotics research, was a founder of the world's largest robotics program, at Carnegie Mellon University. He's been toying with making inanimate objects animate for the past fifty years.

"I've been interested in the idea that life and intelligence can result from properly assembling inanimate matter since at least age four," he told me in a recent interview, "when my father helped me build a 'dancing man' using parts from a mechanical construction set." Hans Moravec has literally been working with robots his entire life, building his first full-on robot, a construct of tin cans, batteries, lights and a motor, at age ten. As an undergraduate he designed a computer to control fancier robots, and experimented with learning and automatic programming on commercial machines. During his master's work he built a small robot with whiskers and photoelectric eyes controlled by a minicomputer, and wrote a thesis on a computer language for artificial intelligence.

He has published many papers and articles in robotics, computer graphics, multiprocessors, space travel and other speculative areas. Venture ahead with him in the links below.

Honk If You Own a Robot
Here's a Mercury Center Computing and Personal Tech story about the current state of household robots.

Robot Book Supplement
An online collection of figures and commentary to supplement the "Robot" book.

Robotbooks' interview with Hans Moravec
An in-depth interview with Hans Moravec about his "Robot" book and his recent work and conjectures from November, 1998.

Hans Moravec Interview for PBS's NOVA Online
PBS's NOVA Online interview with Moravec from October, 1997. Moravec outlines the future of Third and Fourth generation robots, and discusses potential applications in anti-terrorism and other spheres.

frontwheeldrive interview with Hans Moravec
A brief interview conducted by Front Wheel Drive's Roy Christopher with Moravec in early 1999.

Pigs in Cyberspace
Another great paper by Hans Moravec. This one is from 1992.

Uploading by the Moravec Procedure
A brief description of Hans Moravec's theoretical mind-uploading procedure. I'd explain it here, but I can't comprehend it myself.

Roger Penrose's Gravitonic Brain
The debates between Mathematical Physicist Roger Penrose and enthusiasts of Strong AI is legendary. This review of Penrose's book "Shadows of the Mind" by Hans Moravec is more fuel for the fire.

Will Robots Inherit the Earth?
A paper by one of the founders of Artificial Intelligence, MIT's Marvin Minsky.

Hans Moravec's Homepage
Han's Moravec's homepage includes current research, publications and a vast project archive. Dig around in here for the goods on Moravec's far-reaching vision of the robotic future.

Robot Book Preview
An online preview to Moravec's latest book, "Robot."

Hans Moravec's page at The Robotics Institute
Includes current projects and labs, research interests and recent publications.

Superhumanism: The Wired Interview
Wired Magazine's interview with Moravec from October 1995. In-depth and informative thanks to Charles Platt.

Robots Inherit Human Minds paper by Moravec
A 1994 paper by Moravec outlining much of the content in his book, "Robot."

Disinformation Article on Moravec's Dangerous Idea

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