How to Build an Android : The True Story of Philip K. Dick's Robotic Resurrection

Dufty, David

ISBN 10: 0805095519 / ISBN 13: 9780805095517

Published by Henry Holt & Company, New York, 2012

About this Item

New York: Holt, 2012. First edition, first printing. 8vo. Hard cover binding, 272 pp. "You've got to love a book that includes physics-lecturing fish, android Einsteins, and researchers intent on building robot replicas of their wives and girlfriends. Not to mention Philip K. Dick himself." (Alex Boese) New in new dust jacket, protected with an archival-quality mylar cover.

Seller Inventory # 018265

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How to Build an Android : The True Story of Philip K. Dick's Robotic Resurrection
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, New York
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805095519
• ISBN 13: 9780805095517
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • Science and Nature

About this title

Synopsis

The stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious creation and loss of an artificially intelligent android of science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick

In late January 2006, a young robotocist on the way to Google headquarters lost an overnight bag on a flight somewhere between Dallas and Las Vegas. In it was a fully functional head of the android replica of Philip K. Dick, cult science-fiction writer and counterculture guru. It has never been recovered.

In a story that echoes some of the most paranoid fantasies of a Dick novel, readers get a fascinating inside look at the scientists and technology that made this amazing android possible. The author, who was a fellow researcher at the University of Memphis Institute of Intelligent Systems while the android was being built, introduces readers to the cutting-edge technology in robotics, artificial intelligence, and sculpture that came together in this remarkable machine and captured the imagination of scientists, artists, and science-fiction fans alike. And there are great stories about Dick himself―his inspired yet deeply pessimistic worldview, his bizarre lifestyle, and his enduring creative legacy. In the tradition of popular science classics like Packing for Mars and The Disappearing Spoon, How to Build an Android is entertaining and informative―popular science at its best.

About the Author

David F. Dufty is a senior research officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Memphis at the time the android was being developed and worked closely with the team of scientists who created it. He completed a psychology degree with honors at the University of Newcastle and has a PhD in psychology from Macquarie University.