Author(s): John Long

General

Why using natural selection to design robots is revolutionizing our understanding of life? Robots have come a long way since the days of futuristic metallic humanoid dreams. In "Darwin's Devices", biorobotics expert John Long takes readers on a tour of his own work and thinking - showing how evolutionary concepts can revolutionize design and engineering, while using evolved robots to unlock the biology of living and extinct species. Long himself uses robots to answer two primary sets of questions. The first is about living organisms, especially fish: how do they get around, catch food - simply, how do they do what they do? The second is about long-dead organisms, including one of the toughest questions of them all: why did animals ever evolve backbones, and once they did, why did they prove so successful? But there's no reason to stop there - as Long himself argues, the most important aspect might just be the principles he's developing, which boil down to the power of dumb evolution to quickly output brilliant designs.
"Darwin's Devices" is not just an amazing trip through the laboratory of a very fertile mind - it's proof that both science and engineering can benefit when we simply sit back and let natural processes take control.