Volume 50, Number 2 · February 13, 2003
Hello, Dolly!
By Jennifer Schuessler
Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life
by Gaby Wood
Knopf, 304 pp., $24.00
Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us
by Rodney A. Brooks
Pantheon, 260 pp., $26.00
One day early in December, readers may have noticed a peculiar cat-and-mouse game in the pages of The New York Times. A story on the front page trumpeted yet another milestone in scientific history: the official release of the first rough draft of the complete mouse genome, which revealed a startling similarity between ourselves and our most persistent household pest. A story in the 'Circuits' section described another dramatic product launch. FurReal, a new robotic cat developed by the toy giant Hasbro, has strokably soft fur, sparkling eyes, and the disarming habit of purring loudly and pressing against your hand. Though it can't play fetch, or roll over, the $35, battery-powered feline is endowed with startlingly lifelike motion (thanks to a spine of interlocking plastic vertebrae) and marks an advance on the heavily armored plastic robot dogs already on the market. 'You can make tricks that you would do one time,' explained Leif Askeland, the toy's creator. 'We preferred to focus on the emotional aspects of play. Nurturing and friendship are things that stay with you for a lifetime.'
Review, 3462 words
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