“Will robots of the future be our partners or our Frankenstein’s monster? You should read this book. As Markoff explains in this engrossing narrative filled with colorful characters and head-snapping insights, the answer is up to us.”—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators

Pulitzer-Prize-winning science writer John Markoff confronts one of the most important questions we face today: Robots are poised to transform society as completely as the Internet did twenty years ago, but will these robots help us or will they replace us?

Robots have become an integral part of society on the battlefield and the road; in business, education, and health care. Cheap sensors and powerful computers will ensure that in the coming years, these robots will act on their own. This new era offers the promise of immensely powerful machines, but it also reframes a question first raised more than half a century ago, when the intelligent machine was born. Will we control these systems, or will they control us?

In this sweeping history of the complicated and evolving relationship between humans and computers, John Markoff traces the different ways developers have addressed this fundamental tension between man and machine and the ethical quandaries raised as the pace of technological change accelerates dramatically. We are on the brink of the next stage of the computer revolution, and robots have already begun to transform modern life. Designers must draw a bright line between what is human and what is machine. We must decide to design ourselves into our future—or risk being excluded from it altogether.