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
The most important thing for building a robot that you can interact with socially is its visual attention system. Because what it pays attention to is what it's seeing and interacting with, and what you're understanding what it's doing. Rodney Brooks attentionbuildimportant share on social
If you make your robot look exactly like Albert Einstein, then the robot better be as smart as Einstein, or its user is going to feel cheated. Rodney Brooks albertcheateinstein Change image and share on social
I won some genetic lottery. I always happened to be strangely good at mathematics in my head. I just popped out weird. Rodney Brooks geneticgoodhappen Change image and share on social
You can make the assumption that most human drivers are not out to kill pedestrians. Well, maybe in some parts of Boston they are. But with a person at the wheel who you can see, you behave accordingly. With the robotic car, how do you know what assumption to make? Rodney Brooks assumptionbehaveboston share on social
Robotics is very interdisciplinary, and so, except at a very few colleges, there is not a major that is exactly fitted to robotics. Rodney Brooks collegefitinterdisciplinary 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
People don't say, 'I just had a kid and I hope it turns out to be a factory worker.' Rodney Brooks factoryhopekid Change image and share on social
So maybe with the research robots that are out there, people will come up with ways to use them to take care of the elderly. And that can help me someday. Because, you know what? I'm heading in that direction. Rodney Brooks caredirectionelderly share on social
One of the great things about the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner, which my company iRobot designed, is that it's too cheap not to be autonomous. Rodney Brooks autonomouscheapclean Change image and share on social
