Fast Cheap, and Out of Control

Drawing upon the Brooks readings, Fast Cheap and Out of Control, and the Robot, Fembot, Ribbon radio program, answer the following questions and bring in your printed responses by class on Monday. Each question should be answered clearly and precisely, citing references as necessary. As a guideline, each response (except where noted) should be at least 50 but no more than 500 words.

  1. Of the people profiled in the movie, who was your favorite and why? ( < 50 words)

  2. When talking about the robot Genghis in the movie, Brooks talks about letting world control the robot and the importance of intelligence being embodied in a physical body. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method? Is it really true that disembodied intelligence is not possible?

  3. Brooks states the following in the movie:
    Interactions of lots and lots of simple behaviors ... looks good enough to explain insect-type behavior. A more radical hypothesis is that's all there is. Maybe, that's what humans are doing. Humans have evolved from much simpler systems.

    Critique Brooks' hypothesis about the possibilities of intelligence from the interaction of lots of simple agents. (200-350 words)

  4. Brooks then states the following:
    When I think about it, I can almost see myself as being made up of thousands and thousands of little agents, doing stuff Independently. But at the same time I fall back into believing the things about humans that we all believe about humans and living life that way. Otherwise I think that if you analyze it too much life becomes almost meaningless.
    What is Brooks saying here about consciousness? Would life really be "almost meaningless" if you were the result of thousands of little agents?

  5. Why do you think female robots are depicted as they are in movies? How does this depiction reflect differently on robotics researchers and movie studios/screenwriters?
Jeffrey R.N. Forbes
Last modified: Tue Oct 18 15:53:03 EDT 2005