A provocative work of ethics that may prove altogether timely given the state of the technology.
Asimov’s rules of robots require that they shall not harm humans. But what obligations do humans have toward robots in turn?
MIT Media Lab researcher Darling believes that the long-awaited robotics revolution is just around the corner, with people wondering not whether but when they’ll be replaced by robots “against the backdrop of broader economic and social anxiety.” Some worry is well placed, but much is not, for robots are likeliest to be “delegated jobs that qualify as one of the three Ds: tasks that are dirty, dull, or dangerous for humans.” Indeed, Darling notes, Elon Musk once built an autonomous assembly line for his Tesla electric car only to discover that robots were not yet smart enough to figure out and deal with unexpected glitches in the manufacturing process; a repentant Musk “tweeted that human workers were underrated.” Robots are best at single specialized tasks and repetitive processes—for now. Separate questions arise when robots become companions and pets. In that vein, Darling engagingly examines robots and their uses in relation to our interactions with animals—and not just pets, but also working animals such as donkeys and horses, bred over years to help with specific tasks that are difficult for humans to accomplish alone. The author notes that in the instance of both robots and animals, “we have an inherent tendency to anthropomorphize—to project our own behaviors, experiences, and emotions onto other entities.” Animals please us in part because we ascribe our best qualities to them, and in the same way, robots “engage us because we’re drawn to the recognizable human cues in their behavior.” A minor shortcoming of this book is Darling’s cursory attention to the problem of abuse, for if animals suffer so much hardship at human hands, so might those machines. Still, she provides a useful addition to a body of literature that is growing at a rapid pace.
A provocative work of ethics that may prove altogether timely given the state of the technology.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-29610-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.
A delightful ode to birds and a powerful defense of the planet we share with them.
In this moving memoir, filmmaker and novelist Kumar explores encounters with birds as meditations on the natural world. Told in a series of vignettes comprised of notable bird sightings, the narrative offers countless magnificent reminders of the beauty and force of nature as well as warnings of human-caused destruction as bird populations plummet due to such factors as habitat loss, water shortages, and changing temperatures. Kumar didn’t take up birding until her 20s, when a chance encounter on the beach with some avid birders and a flock of curlews transformed her life. This experience became her access point to nature, and she nurtured that connection, whether living in urban settings like Los Angeles or, later, rural New Mexico, where “even the winters are sun-drenched.” Through birds, the author was able to revisit the childhood intimacy with her surroundings that she cherished growing up in the heavily forested mountains of northeastern India. “Birds became a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world,” she writes, and “allowed me once again to relish solitude in the way I had as a child.” This sense of enchantment permeates the book as she brings us along on her adventures, including long odysseys to see bald eagles, bobcat sightings through her living room window, and glimpses of the mango-colored tanager in a city park. The author is clearly concerned about leaving a planet rich with wildlife for her children, but her ancestors are also on her mind. She lost both her parents and brother as a young adult, and she connects to their spirits through birds and nature. Ultimately, this is a book about the interconnectedness of generations and ecosystems, and birds are the conduit between the two. “Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us,” writes Kumar.
An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-57131-399-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Milkweed
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
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