Growing Up with Lucy: How to Build an Android in Twenty Easy Steps

by Steve Grand

Steve Grand is a self-taught scientist who has deliberately eschewed large public grants and laboratory affiliation so as to give himself the freedom required to put his revolutionary theories on artificial intelligence to the test. The result is Lucy, one of the most advanced research robots in existence, and it is Lucy's successes and failures which stand as indicators of the present state of robotics. The compelling story of Lucy's creation, all done in Steve's own home, is a fascinating mixture of human perseverance and cutting edge scientific endeavour.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dan Relluchs · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's quite shallow rather than deep on how Lucy works or is anticipated to work and there's very little about "growing up with Lucy" i.e. the process of builidng her and what she can achieve at the end. All that said, I found it interesting and a nice to see a holisitc suggestion for how to approach recreating animal like intelligence.

[to'c · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting presentation of Mr. Grand's thoughts on how thinking and consciousness may work. Which is worthwhile but not the book I was expecting. Talk about judging a book by it's cover! I was hoping for more detail on the construction of the android and the results of his experiments. That's not what this book is.

But it is a good book and anyone interested in how to construct an artificial mind should give it a read. Mr. Grand has some out-of-the-box ideas (tho' perhaps not as far out as he claims) on how the brain constructs itself, based on initial hardware and experience. And it all makes sense!

But if he ever did get around to discussing how his ideas were made electronic flesh then I missed it totally. A nice synopsis tying his theories to his construction would just may have granted him another star in my rating!

[Joseph Monti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting, informative, and inspiring work documenting Grand's ideas and experiences in building an intelligent mechanical orangutan.