Anything that's living is a machine. I'm a machine; my children are machines. I can step back and see them as being a bag of skin full of biomolecules that are interacting according to some laws. Rodney Brooks backbagbiomolecule Change image and share on social
Two big questions that people ask me are: if we make these robots more and more human-like, will we accept them - will they need rights eventually? And the other question people ask me is, will they want to take over? Rodney Brooks acceptbigeventually share on social
If you want a machine to be able to interact with people, it better not do things that are surprising to people. Rodney Brooks interactmachinepeople Change image and share on social
We have to accept that we are just machines. That's certainly what modern molecular biology says about us. Rodney Brooks acceptbiologymachine Change image and share on social
Are those 'terrible' machines really putting those people out of work? Or are they getting rid of a really dull job that we shouldn't be torturing people with? Rodney Brooks dulljobmachine Change image and share on social
In the future, I'm sure there will be a lot more robots in every aspect of life. If you told people in 1985 that in 25 years they would have computers in their kitchen, it would have made no sense to them. Rodney Brooks aspectcomputerfuture share on social
I see robotic technology getting rid of the dangerous, the dirty, and the just plain boring jobs. Some people say, 'You can't. People won't have anything to do.' But we found things that were a lot easier than backbreaking labor in the sun and the fields. Let people rise to better things. Rodney Brooks backbreakboredangerous share on social
Every technology, every science that tells us more about ourselves, is scary at the time. Rodney Brooks scarysciencetechnology Change image and share on social
If we are machines, then in principle at least, we should be able to build machines out of other stuff, which are just as alive as we are. Rodney Brooks alivebuildmachine Change image and share on social
I grew up in Adelaide, Australia. No one in my family had finished high school, and I was smart at mathematics, so I became an academic and got my Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford. I didn't set out to be a businessperson. Rodney Brooks academicadelaideaustralia share on social