Hans Moravec

<h2 id="career">Career</h2>
Moravec attended <a href="/facts/Loyola_College_(Montreal)/1rU4fhmE">Loyola College in Montreal</a> for two years and transferred to <a href="/facts/Acadia_University/6YkAEP26">Acadia University</a>, where he received his <a href="/facts/BSc/9n3gvDf7">BSc</a> in <a href="/facts/Mathematics/pxTouaz4">mathematics</a> in 1969. He received his <a href="/facts/MSc/5xKwvXjm">MSc</a> in <a href="/facts/Computer_science/lN3pEyPz">computer science</a> in 1971 from the <a href="/facts/University_of_Western_Ontario/BcvT1C80">University of Western Ontario</a>. He then earned a <a href="/facts/PhD/paJumdN8">PhD</a> in <a href="/facts/Computer_science/lN3pEyPz">computer science</a> from <a href="/facts/Stanford_University/JEQeF9z2">Stanford University</a> in 1980 for a <a href="/facts/Television/X4YG5nT1">TV</a>-equipped robot which was remotely controlled by a large <a href="/facts/Computer/SQe1aK05">computer</a> (the Stanford Cart<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a>). The robot was able to negotiate cluttered <a href="/facts/Obstacle_course/CStHtnFp">obstacle courses</a>. Another achievement in robotics was the discovery of new approaches for robot spatial representation such as 3D occupancy grids. He also developed the idea of <a href="/facts/Bush_robot/j61Th6KW">bush robots</a>.
Moravec joined the newly established <a href="/facts/Robotics_Institute/h997CyAf">Robotics Institute</a> at Carnegie Mellon in 1980 as a research scientist, becoming research professor in 1995. He has been an adjunct professor at the institute since 2005.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a>
Moravec was a cofounder of Seegrid Corporation<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> of <a href="/facts/Pittsburgh%2c_Pennsylvania/42yPHyS0">Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> in 2003, which is a robotics company with one of its goals being to develop a fully autonomous robot capable of navigating its environment without human intervention.
He is also somewhat known for his work on <a href="/facts/Space_tether/vuK7nbJx">space tethers</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a>

<h2 id="futurism">Futurism</h2>
<h3>Predictions</h3>
Hans Moravec has made some concrete predictions as to the future of intelligence, by estimating the computational cost (measured in <a href="/facts/Instructions_per_second/N23PAFGV">instructions per second</a>) of various operations of human intelligence, and comparing it with the future of computer computational power as predicted by <a href="/facts/Moore%2527s_law/90CSekhl">Moore's law</a>.
In When will computer hardware match the human brain (1998),<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> he estimated that human brains operate at about 
 
 
 
 
 10
 
 15
 
 
 
 
 {\displaystyle 10^{15}}
 
 instructions per second, and that, if Moore's law continues, a computer with the same speed would cost only 1000 USD (<a href="/facts/Inflation_accounting/zWaSGVbG">1997 dollars</a>) in mid-2020s, thus "computers suitable for humanlike robots will appear in the 2020s".

<h3>Mind Children</h3>
In his 1988 book Mind Children,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a> Moravec outlines <a href="/facts/Moore%2527s_law/90CSekhl">Moore's law</a> and predictions about the future of artificial life. Moravec outlines a timeline and a scenario in this regard,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a> in that the robots will evolve into a new series of artificial species, starting around 2030–2040.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a>
Moravec also outlined the "neural substitution argument" in Mind Children<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a>: 109-122 , published 7 years before <a href="/facts/David_Chalmers/poKbqEWc">David Chalmers</a> published a similar argument in his paper "<a href="http://consc.net/papers/qualia.html">Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia</a>", which is sometimes cited as the source of the idea. The neural substitution argument is that if each neuron in a conscious brain can be replaced successively by an electronic substitute with the same behavior as the neuron it replaces, then a biological consciousness would be transferred seamlessly into an electronic computer, thus proving that consciousness does not depend on biology and can be treated as an abstract computable process.

<h3>Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind</h3>
In Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, published in 1999, Moravec further considers the implications of evolving robot intelligence, generalizing <a href="/facts/Moore%2527s_law/90CSekhl">Moore's law</a> to technologies predating the <a href="/facts/Integrated_circuit/fjn6vg7C">integrated circuit</a>, and extrapolating it to predict a coming "mind fire" of rapidly expanding <a href="/facts/Superintelligence/VL1NaEPS">superintelligence</a>.
<a href="/facts/Arthur_C._Clarke/2XJ6UGDB">Arthur C. Clarke</a> wrote about this book: "Robot is the most awesome work of controlled imagination I have ever encountered: Hans Moravec stretched my mind until it hit the stops."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a> <a href="/facts/David_Brin/4NHcXmxL">David Brin</a> also praised the book: "Moravec blends hard scientific practicality with a prophet's far-seeing vision."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a> On the other hand, the book was reviewed less favorably by <a href="/facts/Colin_McGinn/hxF1qjSB">Colin McGinn</a> for The New York Times. McGinn wrote, "Moravec ... writes bizarre, confused, incomprehensible things about consciousness as an abstraction, like number, and as a mere "interpretation" of brain activity. He also loses his grip on the distinction between virtual and real reality as his speculations spiral majestically into incoherence."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a>

<h2 id="publications">Publications</h2>
<ul><li>Moravec, Hans (1988). Mind Children. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-674-57618-6.</li>
<li>Moravec, Hans P. (June 15, 1988). <a href="https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/676">"Sensor Fusion in Certainty Grids for Mobile Robots"</a>. AI Magazine. 9 (2): 61. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1609%2Faimag.v9i2.676">10.1609/aimag.v9i2.676</a>. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2371-9621">2371-9621</a>. Retrieved September 25, 2024.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Moravec, Hans P. (1999). Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind. Oxford New York Paris: Oxford University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-19-513630-6.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Moravec, Hans (1999). <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/26058531">"Rise of the Robots"</a>. Scientific American. 281 (6). Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc.: 124–135. <a href="/facts/Bibcode_(identifier)/9HtdQSGB">Bibcode</a>:<a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999SciAm.281f.124M">1999SciAm.281f.124M</a>. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fscientificamerican1299-124">10.1038/scientificamerican1299-124</a>. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0036-8733">0036-8733</a>. <a href="/facts/JSTOR_(identifier)/YTeVmaJ7">JSTOR</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26058531">26058531</a>. Retrieved September 25, 2024.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Moravec, Hans (1998). <a href="https://jetpress.org/volume1/moravec.htm">"When will computer hardware match the human brain"</a>. Journal of Evolution and Technology. 1 (1).</li></ul>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Artificial_general_intelligence/vbxwaq8t">Artificial general intelligence</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Moravec%2527s_Paradox/uuhXrvxM">Moravec's Paradox</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Mind_uploading/Egs4sJpN">Mind uploading</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Simulated_reality/IVrml807">Simulated reality</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Space_elevator/VUBYsbM6">Space elevator</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Technological_singularity/xcg4M6AF">Technological singularity</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Tether_propulsion/vuK7nbJx">Tether propulsion</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Novikov_self-consistency_principle/oHeAzPVE">Time-loop logic</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Automated_guided_vehicle/jl1XLtap">Vision guidance</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190217004738/http://www.primitivism.com/superhumanism.htm">"Superhumanism--Interview with Hans Moravec by Charles Platt"</a>. Archived from <a href="http://www.primitivism.com/superhumanism.htm">the original</a> on 2019-02-17. Retrieved 2016-11-13. (Interview with Moravec on technical progress and artificial intelligence)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/">Hans Moravec's official website at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Center</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/hpm.cv.html">Hans Moravec's official biography page</a></li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090410033301/http://www.ri.cmu.edu/person.html?person_id=410">Hans Moravec's webpage at the Robotics Institute</a></li>
<li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080511161337/http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/users/hpm/project.archive/robot.papers/1999/NASA.report.99/9901.NASA.summary.html">Moravec Bush Robot Final Report</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/robots/moravec.html">NOVA online interview with Moravec in October, 1997.</a></li>
<li>Moravec, Hans (March 23, 2009). <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rise-of-the-robots">"Rise of the Robots--The Future of Artificial Intelligence"</a>. <a href="/facts/Scientific_American/jkl8bhUN">Scientific American</a>.</li>
<li>Wikiversity:Mind Children</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Moravec, Hans P. (24 February 1983). "The Stanford Cart and The CMU Rover" (PDF). <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA133207.pdf" target="_blank">https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA133207.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"Hans P. Moravec". Archived from the original on 2023-04-19. Retrieved 2023-06-03. <a href="https://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/hpm.cv.html" target="_blank">https://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/hpm.cv.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"Seegrid Corporation website". Archived from the original on 2020-11-05. Retrieved 2020-10-06. <a href="https://www.seegrid.com/" target="_blank">https://www.seegrid.com/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">"FAST COMPANY Announces Seegrid as One of the 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2013". Archived from the original on 2013-06-30. Retrieved 2013-04-19. <a href="https://archive.today/20130630051430/http://www.promatshow.com/press/release.aspx?id=3804" target="_blank">https://archive.today/20130630051430/http://www.promatshow.com/press/release.aspx?id=3804</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">"Momentum-Exchange Tethers". Archived from the original on 2018-11-22. Retrieved 2007-07-22. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181122051715/http://www.tethers.com/MXTethers3.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20181122051715/http://www.tethers.com/MXTethers3.html</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Moravec, Hans (1998). "When will computer hardware match the human brain". Journal of Evolution and Technology. 1 (1). <a href="https://jetpress.org/volume1/moravec.htm" target="_blank">https://jetpress.org/volume1/moravec.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Moravec, Hans (1988). Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-57618-6. OCLC 1154983637. <a href="978-0-674-57618-6" target="_blank">978-0-674-57618-6</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Moravec, Hans (1998). "When will computer hardware match the human brain?". Journal of Evolution and Technology. 1. Archived from the original on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2006-06-23. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060615031852/http://transhumanist.com/volume1/moravec.htm" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20060615031852/http://transhumanist.com/volume1/moravec.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Moravec, Hans (June 1993). "The Age of Robots". Archived from the original on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2006-06-23. <a href="http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/general.articles/1993/Robot93.html" target="_blank">http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/general.articles/1993/Robot93.html</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Moravec, Hans (April 2004). "Robot Predictions Evolution". Archived from the original on 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2006-06-23. <a href="http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/robot.papers/2004/Predictions.html" target="_blank">http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/robot.papers/2004/Predictions.html</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Moravec, Hans (1988). Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-57618-6. OCLC 1154983637. <a href="978-0-674-57618-6" target="_blank">978-0-674-57618-6</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">ISBN 0-19-511630-5: Cover praise for Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 1999 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">ISBN 0-19-511630-5: Cover praise for Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, by Dr David Brin, 1999 <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">McGinn, Colin (January 3, 1999). "Hello, HAL". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/01/03/reviews/990103.03mcginnt.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/01/03/reviews/990103.03mcginnt.html</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Hans Moravec open-in-new

Hans Moravec