Rodney Brooks

The human brain is still the most powerful computer we know.

We are still a long way from building truly intelligent machines.

The journey is more important than the destination.

Embodiment is not just about having a body; it's about interacting with the world through that body.

The world provides its own context.

Intelligence emerges from the interaction of simple behaviors.

The complexity of the world is not a problem to be solved, but a resource to be exploited.

We should build robots that are robust to the real world, not just to our idealized models of it.

The future of robotics is not about building perfect machines, but about building machines that can adapt.

The most interesting robots are the ones that surprise us.

The real world is the ultimate testbed for AI.

The future is not something we enter; the future is something we create through our actions in robotics and AI.

Embodied intelligence is the key to understanding cognition; minds are not disembodied.

Robots will change the world not by replacing us, but by augmenting our capabilities.

AI hype cycles lead to winters, but steady progress in robotics endures.

The subsumption architecture shows that intelligence emerges from simple behaviors layered together.

We need to build robots that learn from the physical world, not just simulations.

Life is about adapting to uncertainty; robots must do the same to be truly intelligent.

The myth of strong AI ignores the richness of biological embodiment.

In the end, it's not the machines that think, but the interactions that create thought.