HISTORY OF ROBOTS
The Human Brain
Kurzweil And The Future
Vocabulary
100

In what year and in what play did the word "robot" originate?

In 1921, in the play R.U.R.

100

Approximately how many neurons are there in a mature human brain?

100 billion

100

What does Ray Kurzweil call the phenomenon where technology doubles in capacity every year?

The Law of Accelerating Returns

100

What is the adverb of the word procedure?

Procedurally

200

What was the name of the mechanical child built in 1772 that could write with a pen?

L’Écrivain

200

Leibniz argued that if we could shrink and enter the brain, we would only see what mechanical parts?

Pumps, pistons, gears, and levers

200

By which year does Kurzweil predict machines will achieve human-level intelligence?

By 2029

200

 What is capacity?

The maximum amount or number that can be contained.

300

According to the text, what does the Czech word "robota" mean?

Obligatory work

300

What does Kurzweil compare the complexity of the human genome's "code" to?

A word processing program

300

How long did Kurzweil estimate it would take to create exhaustive models of the brain?

About 20 years

300

What is the adjective of the word document?

Documented (or well-documented).

400

Which philosopher in the 1700s speculated that the human brain was an elaborate automaton?

Wilhelm Leibniz

400

How many neural pathways does each neuron typically have?

About 1,000

400

What type of tiny robots will be sent into our bodies to augment our intellect?

Blood-cell-size robots

400

Use the word incapacitated in a sentence

The soccer player was incapacitated after his leg injury.

500

Who was the Swiss watchmaker who built the famous writing automaton in 1772?

Pierre Jacquet-Droz

500

What is the "performance/price ratio" of information technology doing every year?

It is doubling

500

According to the text, what will we "transcend" once we succeed in building these machines?

Our ultimate limitations (our bodies and minds)

500

Use the word notion in a sentence.

I have no notion of how to fix a computer.

M
e
n
u