Robo sapiens: Evolution of a new species by Peter Menzel and Faith D鈥橝luisio, MIT Press, 拢19.95, ISBN 0262133822
THE year 2000 may go down in history as the year a robot first made a scientific discovery: one recently found meteorites as it explored the Antarctic. Some people can boast of having been rescued by robots, while others have robotic implants and limbs. Today鈥檚 robots can even build themselves. Inspired by snakes, geckos, cockroaches and fish, robots are sliding, swimming and walking out of laboratories around the world.
Most of us find these haphazard-looking assemblies of engineered bits and pieces, controlled by chips and programs, very appealing. So it鈥檚 no surprise that robots, albeit fictional ones, have been elevated to the status of screen idols: witness R2D2 and C3PO of the Star Wars saga. Even the small screen has its droid arena. There are 鈥渞obot wars鈥� on TV in which techies air their violent fantasies by pitting their inventions against each other, and robot maze-running competitions where the things can display their cybernetic skills.
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In Robo sapiens, Peter Menzel and Faith D鈥橝luisio have done their bit to satisfy techie cravings by creating a coffee-table book of robots. It鈥檚 a stunning achievement. Menzel is an award-winning photographer, and his images of gnat-sized robots, telepresent gun platforms, keyhole surgery, space exploration and dancing robots hook you from the start.
D鈥橝luisio complements the visuals brilliantly, keeping your interest via well-written, engaging interviews with robot designers at the cutting edge. She has trawled the world to chronicle hundreds of inventors鈥� visions, from industrial robots to robot football for students. And although robots coming alive has always been a disturbing thought, that鈥檚 just what she manages to do in these pages.
D鈥橝luisio doesn鈥檛 assume that all her readers are robotocists, but does provide enough detail to excite and stimulate even knowledgeable readers. With a subject such as robots this is challenging: there鈥檚 a vast range of issues to cover, from technology to biology, computers to psychology, and even controversial issues in ethics and theology.
If anything could be said to be wrong with this book, it is that it does not back these inspiring stories with any technical information. It could have been done with a few pages of practical ideas on how to build a robot: some are surprisingly simple and elegant. Fortunately, the enterprising reader can search the Internet or go into any good toy shop or electronics store and find plenty of built or kit robots, including the wonderful Lego Mindstorms kits (see www.lego mindstorms.com). Hidden away in a corner on the dust jacket is the book鈥檚 own Web address, robosapiens.mit.edu, which one day might provide the links.
As a coffee-table book, however, Robo sapiens remains a real tour de force. For anyone wanting to be prepared for the future, it is money well spent.