An assessment of the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence and robotics traces how technology arrived at this point and how artificial life, machine consciousness, extreme prosperity, and technological warfare will be hotly debated issues of the near future. "A great turning point in the history of our species is at hand. AI and robotics are poised to redefine what it means to be human. So ... what exactly does that mean for you? In...

"This book presents a balanced and broad introduction to robotics and the current state of the field, analyzing where it has come from and where it might go in the future. Beginning with the history of robotics and its complex relationship with popular culture, it then moves on to discuss the technology underlying robots, exploring the limits of what robots can actually do now and what they might be able to do in the future. Naturally, these machines,...

A military expert reveals how science fiction is fast becoming reality on the battlefield, changing not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and ethics that surround war itself.

Human obsolescence is imminent. The factories of the future will be dark, staffed by armies of tireless robots. The hospitals of the future will have fewer doctors, depending instead on cloud-based AI to diagnose patients and recommend treatments. The homes of the future will anticipate our wants and needs and provide all the entertainment, food, and distraction we could ever desire. To many, this is a depressing prognosis, an image of civilization...

"From the critically-acclaimed author whom Publishers Weekly has called a "master storyteller" comes a taut new thriller where things are not always as they appear to be... Thirty years from now, when Kestrel Hathaway, a pastor in Cincinnati, witnesses a terror attack, she's drawn into a world of conspiracies and lies that she and Jordan, her cognizant robot, have to untangle before it's too late. With the help of counterterrorism agent Nick Vernon,...