154. Can Robots Get a Grip?

Ken Goldberg is at the forefront of robotics — which means he tries to teach machines to do things humans find trivial.

• SOURCES:• Ken Goldberg (goldberg.berkeley.edu), professor of industrial engineering and operations research at U.C. Berkeley.

• RESOURCES:• "The Bitter Lesson, (cs.utexas.edu/~eunsol/courses/data/bitter_less…)" by Rich Sutton (UT Austin, 2019).
• R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama in Three Acts and an Epilogue (gutenberg.org/files/59112/59112-h/59112-h.htm), by Karel Capek (2019).
• "The Robot in the Cloud: A Conversation With Ken Goldberg (archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/201…)," by Quentin Hardy (New York Times, 2014).
• Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (amazon.com/Mind-Children-Future-Robot-Intellig…), by Hans Moravec (1990).
• "Stochastic Plans for Robotic Manipulation (goldberg.berkeley.edu/pubs/Ken-Goldberg-PhD-Di…)," by Ken Goldberg (Carnegie Mellon University, 1990).
• "The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution (sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5110/…)," by C. P. Snow (Cambridge University Press, 1959).
• Dex-Net (berkeleyautomation.github.io/dex-net)
• Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology (ancientwisdom.art).
• Ambi Robotics (ambirobotics.com).
• "The Telegarden (goldberg.berkeley.edu/garden)."

• EXTRAS:• "Feeling Sound and Hearing Color (freakonomics.com/podcast/feeling-sound-and-hea…)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
• "Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us? (freakonomics.com/podcast/are-our-tools-becomin…)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
• “My God, This Is a Transformative Power (freakonomics.com/podcast/my-god-this-is-a-tran…),” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
• "Drawing from Life (and Death) (freakonomics.com/podcast/drawing-from-life-and…)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
• "Aicha Evans Wants You to Take Your Eyes Off the Road (freakonomics.com/podcast/aicha-evans-wants-you…)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.