Reviews

"Clearly an enormous amount of work and thought went into this project. It’s the first serious attempt to create a systematic vocabulary around the intelligent technology rapidly taking over our world. Terminology is never just a set of words but also provides a conceptual framework. Ahmed points to Linnaeus’ famous categorization of life on earth. Without that kind of framework, it’s impossible to come to any deeper understanding. Here, Ahmed offers his vision of an orderly framework for understanding the world of machines, robots, artificial agents, and so on."

Michael Graziano

Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton Developer of the attention schema theory of consciousness Author of Rethinking Consciousness

"Is your robot a Colossal, a Servon, or a Mechatron? In Ali Ahmed's "Tractatus," you will discover the most comprehensive taxonomy for both current and future robot types. Establishing this taxonomy will enable every professional and enthusiast in robotics to clearly envision the ongoing robotics revolution."

Luis Sentis

Head of Human Centered Robotics Laboratory at UT Austin Founding member of the UT Robotics Portfolio Program Founding member of the UT Ethics of AI Portfolio Program

"The treatise of Ali Ahmed presents a comprehensive and interesting view on the evolution of robots in parallel to the development of our society since its inception. The treatise is easy to read and follow; it can be easily read by K12 students to get introduced to the world of robots, and it can be equally used by scholars to understand the perspective of a practitioner from an industrial standpoint. The treatise has three chapters, discussing at length nature, structure, and the future of robots. The author has diligently analyzed various robots used in industrial applications and classified them according to their form and design in the Robot Taxonomy. Towards the end the author raises thought provoking questions regarding the superintelligence of robots and what the future looks like. It was a joy reading the treatise."

Naira Hovakimyan

Roboticist IEEE Fellow Fellow and life member of AIAA Senior Member of National Academy of Inventors