Adam A. Stokes
Welcome to my personal webpage, where you’ll find a collection of essays on topics I’m actively trying to understand. These are not static publications but live documents that evolve over time as I think in public, refine my views, and respond to new ideas and conversations. If you wish to discuss anything I’ve written, or wish to engage with me on a project or a talk, then please contact me. My primary email address is a.a.stokes@ed.ac.uk.I am Full Professor and Head of the Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Edinburgh and a research-led advisor on robotics, AI, and bioinspired innovation. Outside of the academy I am an active entrepreneur and consultant. I work with organisations to stress-test assumptions about emerging technologies and chart practical paths from prototype to deployment. These essays capture the thinking behind that work—I offer them as a public resource and also as an invitation to collaborate.
My most recent post is shown below, see all essays here.
What would it mean to live well with robots?
In this live essay I add some more details and reflections on a panel discussion, hosted by Edinburgh Futures Institute, among five experts on what it means to ‘live well’ with robots. The conversation explored the technical, moral, social and economic dimensions of the oft-promised ‘robot revolution’. Watch the panel discussion here. Propositions - TL:DR The robotics revolution is already here, it's invisible because it happens in mundane contexts, and we miss it by focusing on embodied physical forms rather than recognising that there are autonomous systems around us already. Robots are embodied systems that couple artificial intelligence with physical intelligence as integrated wholes; enabling safe interaction through soft robotics makes failures manageable rather than catastrophic. Humanoid robots are lazy design work that distracts from real utility; we must focus on what jobs robots should perform rather than distracting ourselves with questions about consciousness or intimate...