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The Intimate Machine: Close Encounters with Computers and Robots
This provocative book sets out to prove the unimaginable – that human brings will come to regard machines as if they were human. In a stimulating presentation that covers many areas of technology, art and psychology, the author attempts to show that such an outcome is not merely plausible – it is inevitable.
Human beings are obsessed with anything that reminds them of people. Faces in rocks, walking talking dolls, ventriloquists’ dummies, waxworks and realistic art. Entertainers, engineers and artists have long striven to produce artefacts which stimulate this fascination but they have been thwarted by the limits of their technology. Until now. The new micro-technology provides the means for constructing machines which speak, hear and understand. Intelligent interaction and conversation will soon be possible and, with imagination, these computers will be provided with synthetic personalities that are both appealing and seductive. Their power will be undeniable and human beings will greatly enjoy social contact with this new breed of creature.
We are facing a dramatic new challenge. Hardly any aspect of personal life will remain untouched by this development. The new generation of intimates will affect art, medicine, family life, religion, sex and politics. The new developments will profoundly affect the ways in which we think about machines in relation to ourselves. We are about to encounter – The Intimate Machine.
This book was first published in 1983 and was in many ways 'before its time'. Now, republished in the 21st century, the key message has a striking new resonance. We are indeed about to encounter intimate machines, and they will change forever how we think about technology and how we feel towards machines, ourselves and other people.
Human beings are obsessed with anything that reminds them of people. Faces in rocks, walking talking dolls, ventriloquists’ dummies, waxworks and realistic art. Entertainers, engineers and artists have long striven to produce artefacts which stimulate this fascination but they have been thwarted by the limits of their technology. Until now. The new micro-technology provides the means for constructing machines which speak, hear and understand. Intelligent interaction and conversation will soon be possible and, with imagination, these computers will be provided with synthetic personalities that are both appealing and seductive. Their power will be undeniable and human beings will greatly enjoy social contact with this new breed of creature.
We are facing a dramatic new challenge. Hardly any aspect of personal life will remain untouched by this development. The new generation of intimates will affect art, medicine, family life, religion, sex and politics. The new developments will profoundly affect the ways in which we think about machines in relation to ourselves. We are about to encounter – The Intimate Machine.
This book was first published in 1983 and was in many ways 'before its time'. Now, republished in the 21st century, the key message has a striking new resonance. We are indeed about to encounter intimate machines, and they will change forever how we think about technology and how we feel towards machines, ourselves and other people.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 23, 2017
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