Vestigial Heart (Robot Age)

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Carme Torras (Research Professor, Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (CSIC-UPC)) Josephine Swarbrick

Vestigial Heart

Robot Age

Carme Torras (Research Professor, Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (CSIC-UPC)), Josephine Swarbrick

$49.99

Paperback

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English

Massachusetts Inst of Tec
13 April 2018

Science fiction; Biotechnology / Genetic Engineering; Robots; Future Society; Censorship; Society

Series: The Vestigial Heart

"A thirteen-year-old girl wakes up in a future where human emotions are extinct and people rely on personal-assistant robots to navigate daily life.

Imagine a future in which many human emotions are extinct, and ""emotional masseuses"" try to help people recover those lost sensations. Individuals rely on personal-assistant robots to navigate daily life. Students are taught not to think but to employ search programs. Companies protect their intellectual property by erasing the memory of their employees. And then imagine what it would feel like to be a sweet, smart thirteen-year-old girl from the twenty-first century who wakes from a cryogenically induced sleep into this strange world. This is the compelling story told by Carme Torras in this prize-winning science fiction novel. We meet Celia, brought back to life when a cure is found for her formerly terminal disease, and Lu, Celia's adoptive mother, protective but mystified by her new daughter. There is Leo, a bioengineer, who is developing a ""creativity prosthesis"" to augment humans' atrophied capacities, and the eccentric robotics mogul Dr. Craft. And there is Silvana, an emotional masseuse who reads old books to research the power of emotion. Silvana sees Celia as a living, breathing example of the emotions and feelings that are now out of reach for most people. Torras, a prominent roboticist, weaves provocative ethical issues into her story. What kind of robots do we want when robot companions become as common as personal computers are now? Is it the responsibility of researchers to design robots that make the human mind evolve in a certain way? An appendix provides readers with a list of ethics questions raised by the book."

By: Carme Torras (Research Professor Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (CSIC-UPC))
Translated by: Josephine Swarbrick
Imprint: Massachusetts Inst of Tec
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 13mm
ISBN: 9780262037778
ISBN 10: 0262037777
Series: The Vestigial Heart
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 13 April 2018
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Vestigial Heart (Robot Age)

A fascinating and provocative speculative tale. -Publishers Weekly, 4/20/2018 Readers of William Gibson, Nnedi Okorafor, Pat Murphy, Neal Stephenson, and other cultural code-tweaking authors will find Torras's vision equally startling in its anticipation-and portrayal-of possible scenarios around complex social issues today's researchers and policymakers are only now beginning to recognize as imminent. -Library Journal, STARRED, 04/16/2018 * Reviews * A fascinating and provocative speculative tale. -Publishers Weekly, 4/20/2018 * Reviews *