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The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives

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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  * 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.

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2011

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About the author

Frank Moss

56 books1 follower
1860-1920

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for D.w..
Author 12 books25 followers
July 9, 2011
Frank Moss can write about the Media Labs of MIT where he is the director, but he has a lot to learn about telling a compelling story. Their are far too many errors of English that the man should not have found a literature major in all the colleges of the Boston area to correct his work.

Added to that, as a story, the Media Labs are done a disservice for someone who is not drinking the cool-aid should have taken a look at the work. 8 chapters to tell the tale of what should be one of the greatest places for innovation in the USA. What we get are many examples of great technology that because the author wants to make the book sound current, are for projects that are going on now, or six months ago, and are not finished and so you don't know if the technology that he spouts is going to bear fruit. A year from now, or two, when someone picks up the book, you will get an even worse sense of the Media Lab not being able to complete a project.

I am sure that the PHds of the media lab will appreciate this. Too much time is spent dropping names and double dropping them, instead of showcasing that the technology at the Media Lab should be blowing all of our socks off. The book thus reads as the Freshman introduction to the lab. Not something that those who think that Tech is fantastic and want to know about the history of it, as well as how we will use it in the next ten years will find of use.

If Moss had given us a better ratio of recent wins, showing how we are now using what the Lab has thought of. How the labs partnerships really work, instead of a paragraph saying how it was started. We might see how this really is a great think tank. Or even as Moss wants us to believe, where America's Sorcerers are.

In the end, Moss fails. How do I know that this is a better place then where the brains of Google are, or Apple, or IBM. Why do I want to believe that the Media Lab, and there are apparently other labs at MIT that he does not really talk of that develop Tech as well, is the best of them. With Moss writing in the way he has, I do not.

Shame, because the potential is really there for a much better book. Moss should consider Sorcery 2.0 and talk to someone like Garrison Kellior. We may find that all the Sorcerers are Intelligent, Handsome, and really making magic real.
Profile Image for William Torgerson.
Author 5 books44 followers
September 15, 2012
This book helps me think about 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.
Profile Image for Gaby.
649 reviews22 followers
August 18, 2011
Rather than focusing too much energy on building machines that behave as smart as or smarter than humans, we should devote most of our efforts to building machines that help us to be the best human being we can be for ourselves and others. - Frank Moss

In The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives, Frank Moss shares anecdotes from the unique and deeply innovative MIT Media Lab. He gives us an insider's tour of a laboratory that encourages collaboration between scientists, academics, and business. The academics that Moss introduces us to are vastly different from what I'd expected -- most of the productive members of the Media Lab go beyond one specific discipline and combine different areas of knowledge -- an anti-disciplinary approach -- to come up with an unexpected and innovative application.

Here are just a few of the innovations we read about:

* CityCar - a networked, digitally controlled, stackable, foldable electric vehicle that was created to make our urban spaces more livable, sustainable and safe.

* PowerFoot, a prosthetic ankle that gives amputees the ability to walk at normal speed and effort as well as other biohybrids created by the Biomechtronics group under the guidance of Professor Hugh Herr.

* Chumby - created by CollaborRhythm in the belief that if patients understand how their medications work, they will be more likely to be responsible about adhering to their medication schedules is a compact device resembling a digital clock with a touchscreen, wifi connection, and embedded computer that is approachable for the computer illiterate. Chumby reminds you to take each of your pills and then demonstrates just how each medication works in your body and in conjunction with the other medicines. If you haven't taken your medication, it also shows the impact on your body on a cellular level, so that you can see the damage even if you feel well.

* Nexi - a mobile, dexterous, sociable robot that can learn from and live together with elderly people and provide companionship and help.

* Merry Miser - a personalized phone app that gently reminds you of your previous purchases at a store, the overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and helps you make informed choices and control impulse purchases.

But beyond the specific technological innovations, the book is also a fascinating read as it shares the innovations in ways of thinking about technology. I recommend The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices to techies, regular readers, and anyone interested in learning more about science, creativity, and how we think.

ISBN-10: 0307589102 - Hardcover $27.50
Publisher: Crown Business (June 7, 2011), 272 pages.
Review copy courtesy of Amazon Vine and the publisher.
Profile Image for Mike Barretta.
125 reviews4 followers
January 5, 2012
Very little to this book. Once you learn (which most know) the iterative, freewheeling, interdisciplinary approach to the Media Lab, the book provides you with nothing else but stories about a few of the projects that have been done and are currently being done. Most of this could be gleaned from press releases or by browsing the media lab website.
Profile Image for Ami Iida.
547 reviews309 followers
February 29, 2016
it is interesting some videos in my comments rather than the book.
the book is supplemental of videos.
Profile Image for Nick.
Author 5 books10 followers
November 6, 2025
This is a neat book written by a head of the MIT Media Lab which goes into some detail. Written in 2011, it's interesting to look back fourteen years later to see what projects have actually gone to greater success and how the world of technology has changed since then. I think the book ends up being a bit stuck in time as most of it is a project portfolio rather than something that might be more philosophical and relevant even today.
59 reviews
October 25, 2018
Well written. But, unfortunately, the material was outdated (written in 2010). While I am certain it sounded amazing at the time, it has lost some of it's luster. I was looking for more of a how-to manual. While this did contain some of that, it was mostly stories of the lab as a history lesson.
7 reviews
December 7, 2019
A great story from excellent point of view

I am a creator myself, who love to create something, and Media Labs is always a mystery. How can one organization can pull all the best talent to learn and create a piece of work that ahead of its time. I found a lot of answer in this book!
Profile Image for Erica Sanders.
32 reviews9 followers
April 18, 2018
MIT Media Lab does a lot of cool stuff, and I really enjoyed learning how they are structured and reading about various projects that have come out of the lab. But I felt the stories got repetitive once I got about halfway through the book and I couldn't make it all the way to the end.
148 reviews
April 7, 2021
Fascinating read. Useful for developing ways to create an innovation culture in your workplace or schools and universities.
Profile Image for Aaron Taylor.
35 reviews
March 21, 2023
Old Audible I listened for free. Relevant, maybe 15 years ago. Fun listen, but of so so value anymore.
Profile Image for Oingo B..
34 reviews
November 29, 2025
Fun to read, although now a bit dated. At times feels a bit like marketing copy, fortunately the Media Lab is interesting enough to warrant it.
Profile Image for Brent McGregor.
125 reviews9 followers
October 5, 2011
The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices is an amazing journey into perhaps the most famous workshops in the world: The MIT Media Lab.
At first I was expecting a rather dry run-through of another CEO’s tenure at an institution that produced cool gadgets. Boy, was I surprised. The behind the scenes story of some the most ground breaking technological advances is riveting.
Most of the book covers several projects and how the private sector has collaborated and hugely funded many of these projects. Prosthetic technology wedded with advanced micro-processing the Rheo Knee, MIT Powered Ankle, and other devices have advanced the “human-machine interface” to the point that millions world wide may soon benefit.
Speechome is an amazing project that uses learning models (obtained from the best learners of them all, children) to teach computers how to think. By learning how to be more human, computers are capable of predicting human behavior. This may be a little more than we’d ask for, and naturally, I wondered the same.
The Age of Agency is probably my favorite chapter in that it ties up much of the technology detailed in earlier chapters and delivers a fantastic alternative to our failing, over-regulated, health care system. By putting the patient in charge and giving them the tools with an interface that is as easy to use as talking to a friend. Autom is the name of a personal robot who helps you loose weight. It is interactive and according to the reports, very personable.
Technologies like that are only as good as the programs run on them and these are very good. We have moved into a time where everything is changing rapidly and we need tools that will make sense of this, not lengthy user manuals or months of learning how to adapt to a machine. Rather, these sorcerers have been working on machines that listen to us and learn from us.
Very enjoyable read.
Profile Image for Artur Coelho.
2,603 reviews74 followers
June 27, 2012
O título é sugestivo, e o conteúdo não lhe fica atrás. Mas se esperamos pegar neste livro e ver impactos directos dos projectos do Media Lab na sociedade contemporânea esta não é a obra para isso. Escrita por um ex-director do centro de investigações, traça um panorama dos vários grupos de pesquisa salientando alguns dos mais intrigantes projectos saídos de um laboratório concebido de raiz como um recreio de sabedoria. O aspecto mais reforçado é o carácter interdisciplinar - descrito pelo autor como anti-disciplinar, das metodologias de pesquisa, alicerçadas em processos de reforço a partir do erro e do falhanço, atitudes hands-on e focalizado num derrubar de barreiras disciplinares na formulação de problemas cuja aplicabilidade é imprevisível. Robótica avançada, interfaces naturais, inteligência artificial aplicada, arte aumentada pelo digital, educação, são algumas das áreas onde os investigadores deste laboratório deslumbram com inovações inesperadas e conceitos intrigantes. Não são o tipo de invenções criadas com o fim expresso de fazer chegar ao mercado um novo gadget para maravilhar as massas, mas desenvolvimentos com impacto profundo na forma e objectivos do uso de tecnologias cujos reflexos se encontram muitas vezes longe das áreas originais de investigação. Quebrar barreiras conceptuais e hiperligar o conhecimento, é o que o Media Lab nos habituou. Só para recordar, no campo da educação o Media Lab é responsável por conceitos que possibilitam novas e criativas abordagens como a linguagem Scratch, o Processing ou os lego mindstorms, entre outras ferramentas que potenciam aprendizagens profundas.
9 reviews4 followers
January 20, 2013
Ok. This is one of my all time favourite reads -- not just because I have had some connections with both the Media Lab and some of its people over the years -- but because the educational philosophies embodied in their practices and 'reasons for being' are ones I would love to see adopted widely throughout both educational systems and other organizations.

And, yes, it's lovely to see and read about Seymour Papert, Mitch Resnick, Brian Silverman, Paula Bonta, Fred Martin and others. What Fred doesn't realize is the impact he had on me one time when he was a 19 year old graduate student at MIT and I was speaking there. He was in the audience and I had said that great teaching isn't all about 'techniques', it's about a 'way of being' in the classroom. Fred raised his hand and asked, "Can you describe more fully your 'way of being' that you suggest works well for you?"

I have never forgotten that and have spent the last 20 years attempting to articulate a reasonable answer to that question. It is still very much a work in progress. ;-)

If you want to read about anti-disciplinary approaches to education, this book is for you. If you like the 'maker revolution', this book is for you. If you think kids should be programming and constructing objects and knowledge, then read this book. Do you believe in a playful, tinkering - yet rigorous - learning space, read this book and transfer some of the practices to your school, classroom or organization.
Profile Image for Shiva.
8 reviews1 follower
February 20, 2016
I happened to read this book at the right time, at a point when I was unsure of my own career, and asking myself all sorts of existential questions on why I was in my chosen field of science and for that reason alone, I thank Dr. Frank Moss for having taken the time to pen this down. It was a real eye-opener! For anyone who has come across the fab-lab and maker movement in recent times and is looking for more of an explanation, this would be the go to book. It also serves as a reference on the goings-on in the MIT Media Lab, with a very human centric approach - focusing on the different sorcerers leading each of the research groups.

That said, it does get repetitive at times, as far as extolling the virtues of being 'antidisciplinary' goes - but that never gets in the way of the reading. The sheer breadth of projects delved into here had me hooked. The Media Lab continues to be a case study in being an ecosystem for innovation, and rightly so.
Profile Image for Jen Beuning.
25 reviews1 follower
December 15, 2011
Pretty good. Very interesting to read about all of the new technologies in the works at the MIT Media Lab, particularly the CityCar and the different things being developed to help autistic people in their everyday lives. I would have liked to see more storytelling, however. So many names of so many different people were mentioned, and I found that to be a lot of extra fodder for the brain. Now don't get me wrong; I do believe in giving credit where credit is due, but couldn't some of these people be credited in the footnotes instead? It would be interesting to re-read this book 20 years from now and see which of these inventions have come to fruition.
Profile Image for María Teresa.
14 reviews
August 9, 2012
I think this book was really good. it really made me think about the inventions that we will have in the future and all the great ideas that are being developed and we don't even know about. What I liked the most is that you get a really good idea of how the culture on the lab is and how all those inventions can change people's lives. At first I wasn't that interested on the media lab but after reading this book I would really like to go there and see all this innovative ideas in action. I would really recommend this book if you are interested about technology and inventions or just as a book to read in your free time, you will be amazed by everything that's going on in the lab.
Profile Image for Martin.
Author 13 books56 followers
January 14, 2015
This serves as a nice companion piece to The Department of Mad Scientists, an excellent showcase of what's up our government's technological sleeve. Whereas here, the showcase is the MIT Media Lab. The book is certainly filled with its wonders, much inspiring, but it also has its flaws. The author is a bit rambly, and could have used help with his sentence structure. Most glaring for me is that he failed to discuss what exactly his job was on a daily basis. That would have been some key information to know. From the looks of it, he just shows people around the place. I'm certain there must be more to it.
155 reviews3 followers
September 23, 2011
Light reading and full of ideas but nothing that grabbed me. An interesting part was the social networking and web-site as part of the solutions to solve certain puzzles. Example: a disease/health condition not significant enough for serious research by big pharma; create a web site for people to log their experiences in dealing with these disease/condition, such as what foods worked/didn't work. It reminds me of the concept of "evidence-based medicine" which the health-care industry hates. So it was a nice story in the pantheon of the MIT Media Lab.
Profile Image for Lisa Kurt.
27 reviews6 followers
January 16, 2012
I love the MIT Media Lab and this was a great book in terms of discussing both the projects and the philosophies that the MIT Media Lab embodies. My one criticism would be that the organization of the book could've been better. I am a huge fan of the work done- the creative thinking. innovation, and spirit that comes out of the Media Lab but it lost steam for me about halfway through. Maybe if it was edited down a bit more- it felt a little repetitive here and there though I would still recommend this book.
Profile Image for Chris Bates.
53 reviews2 followers
February 5, 2013
Frank Moss, as former director, highlighted some of the inventions and innovative products from MIT's Media Lab. As a result I was inspired to start my own inventors workshop where I live. I just need more funding. Our jr. high school's FIRST Lego League robotics team does similar research and prototyping using students and local scientists and engineering mentors. There's even an opportunity for students to get an Innovation Award which includes applying for a patent and building a better prototype. For more info see www.usfirst.org
Profile Image for darla.
22 reviews1 follower
February 2, 2012
This book has some REALLY interesting stories, but unfortunately you spend most of your time wading through writing that is highly repetitive with little to no continuity.

There were not a few times I had to set down the book because the author felt the need to AGAIN explain that the departments at the MIT media lab are inter-disciplinary, like this is a concept so hard to grasp that it needs to be explained to the reader every 12 pages.
Profile Image for Leif.
35 reviews7 followers
January 30, 2012
This book wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be, but it was still pretty damned interesting. I loved the parts where Moss talks about the projects and their potential impact, but I could have done without all the talkiness about his involvement with the lab and the pains he took to convince the reader that the Media Lab is a cool place. That's obvious and could have been handled in the introduction, leaving the rest of the book to cram with cool technology.
Profile Image for Sarah.
14 reviews2 followers
April 16, 2014
The work being done at the MIT Media Lab is fascinating and makes this book worth considering. I just wish it had be written by someone else-- the writing style is heinously repetitive and shamelessly arrogant. The author and his colleagues are certainly innovative and deserving of high praise, but proclaiming your own awesomeness and avant-garde workplace dynamic on every page is both tacky and distracting.
Profile Image for Mark Schulz.
47 reviews
May 9, 2015
Having read "The Media Lab" by Stewart Brand a number of years back I was looking forward to learning more about the philosophy of the new media lab that I actually got from this book. it was interesting to learn more about some of the project, but it was little more than one gets from reading some of the publications from the lab. "In The Plex" gives a much clearer explanation of how Google works than Moss was able to give in this book.
Profile Image for Brandur.
300 reviews11 followers
September 13, 2011
Fast read that describes many up coming technologies developed by the MIT Media Lab. Some parts, such as the next steps in medical diagnosis and technology, were extremely interesting. On the whole, it seemed like some of MIT Lab's contributions to modern technology and life were slightly exaggerated, but this should be expected to some degree.
2 reviews2 followers
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November 30, 2011
I started this new book about the Media Lab but doubt I will finish it as a book to read, but only as a quick look at the stories. The writing and story-telling is pretty banal. So far, it is relentlessly 1st person and his voice is just not that interesting and seems rather prosaic. I expected a lot more given the subject.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews

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