Living Doll's by Gaby Wood may not be the most fascinating account of
             robots you have ever read, but it is certainly an original one. Wood
             collects the robotics-related true stories and puts them together to show
             that man's fascination with artificial intelligence and artificial life is
             anything but dead. The book explores this fascination and in some cases
             obsession of man to produce lifeless creatures that resemble living
             creatures but are not human. What is the cause of this fascination' This
             question sadly remains unanswered in the book despite some attempts made by
             the author to examine the causes. However Wood does a good job at
             collecting true stories and tracing the history of man's obsession with
             artificial life. The main purpose of the book was to trace the history of
             artificial life and not to unearth the causes of man's fascination with it.
             Gaby Wood has thus done a good job in this connection.
             Though most of us are familiar with some examples of humanoid machines and
             toys including Frankenstein, Pinocchio etc, yet the book reveals that these
             were not the oldest examples of man's fascination with artificial bodies.
             Wood maintains that the first concrete attempt in this regard was made by
             Jacques de Vaucanson, a French innovator, who in 17th century made a
             mechanical duck. The book is divided in five chapters, each dealing with a
             different invention and a different time period. The first one deals with
             the mechanical duck whose important feature was its excretion system. The
             second brings forth the story of Kempelen's invention, which closely
             resembled a modern computer and was specifically designed for chess
             playing. Gaby Wood makes some interesting observations regarding machines,
             their purpose and impact. For example when analyzing the chess machine,
             If chess -- particularly blindfold chess, chess in the mind -- can drive
             Its players mad, and then the automaton was...