From: hal@finney.org
Date: Wed Sep 20 2000 - 19:45:03 MDT
> The review below is from SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN online October 2000 issue at:
> http://sciam.com/2000/1000issue/1000reviews1.html
> Apocalyptic Optimism
> Menzel and D'Aluisio foresee a superintelligent hybrid species
>
> Robo sapiens:
> Evolution of a New Species
> by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
> The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2000 ($29.95)
This book is on sale for half price at fatbrain.com,
http://www1.fatbrain.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=0262133822,
until the 29th. Shipping is extra, of course.
I haven't seen the book, but I had the impression it was more of a picture
book, a coffee table book, something to leaf through but without much meat
(that was how the Wired article based on the book was). Vernor Vinge's
review makes it sound much better than this. Has anyone here looked
at it?
Hal
>
> REVIEWER_VERNOR VINGE
> Computers are the most important thing to come along since ...." It would be
> interesting to ask people from over the past 30 years to complete the
> preceding sentence. In the 1970s most people might finish the sentence with
> "television" or "the automobile" or even "atomic energy." In the 1990s the
> ante was raised, and I imagine that the average person would complete the
> sentence with "the industrial revolution" or even "the invention of
> writing." Now, as the 21st century dawns, some would say: "Computers are the
> most important thing to come along since the rise of humankind on Earth."
> Even this last comparison may be conservative. Computer hardware power is
> doubling every two years or so. If that trend continues, then in another 20
> years, our machines will be more powerful than many estimates of human
> brainpower.
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