Kate Darling continues the tradition of the brilliant but nearly-narcissistic auteurs reviewed on this blog. The book is cool and capably written. The main thesis of the book is that robots evolve into human companions similarly to the path and significance animals took in the past. Being historically considered as implements (her judgement; not mine), domesticated animals became anthropomorphic incarnations of our own selves.
P.S. She claims that there is no acceptable definition of 'robot' and cannot come with one, which is strange for the Harvard-trained jurist. I suggest the following working definition:
Robot is a machine having:
1) Intelligence, i.e. the capability to gather information from its environment and use it to modify one's own actions;
2) Capability of autonomous movements, and
3) Articulated parts, by which it performs its main functions.
There will always be borderline cases, but it seems this definition provides clear distinction between robots and other computerized devices.
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