Graham Downs reviewed Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Review of 'Robopocalypse' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Actually, this book is a 4.5, because I did find one typo in it (“Instead, Dawn let’s me play with the bug leg.”), but because it’s just that good, I decided to round it up to 5 anyway.
This is a story of a robot uprising and subsequent war between machines and humans.
From the title, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a comedy. It’s not. It’s incredibly dark — oh my WORD is it dark — and scary as hell. The author’s apparently got a PhD in Robotics, so that lends believability to his scenarios.
I think what makes robots so scary, as the author says in an interview at the end of the book, is that we often don’t consciously realise it, but we’re already surrounded by them. And at any point, they might evolve to the point where they’re aware and actually want stuff... and what …
Actually, this book is a 4.5, because I did find one typo in it (“Instead, Dawn let’s me play with the bug leg.”), but because it’s just that good, I decided to round it up to 5 anyway.
This is a story of a robot uprising and subsequent war between machines and humans.
From the title, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a comedy. It’s not. It’s incredibly dark — oh my WORD is it dark — and scary as hell. The author’s apparently got a PhD in Robotics, so that lends believability to his scenarios.
I think what makes robots so scary, as the author says in an interview at the end of the book, is that we often don’t consciously realise it, but we’re already surrounded by them. And at any point, they might evolve to the point where they’re aware and actually want stuff... and what if what they want runs contrary to what WE want?
From the first pages, the gruesome realities of war are laid bare. The humans are hampered, some might say hobbled, by their emotion, their love and compassion for one another. The robots don’t have this drawback themselves, but they understand and exploit it in us. Which results in the most gut-wrenching, disgusting, nauseating things happening. The robots have no scruples, which means there’s no telling how depraved their next move will be, and sometimes I didn’t want to read on.
Look, the author says in that same interview I told you about, that to the best of his knowledge, no scientist has ever set out to build an “evil” robot, but that doesn’t stop this book from being absolutely believable. It describes a utopia of self-driving cars, robot housekeepers and messengers, automated military equipment (I might say those, at least, constitute deliberately “evil” robots). All of which protect us and make our lives easier, but all of which are ALSO connected to the ‘Net, and all of which posses some degree of artificial intelligence and capacity to learn....
If you’re at all interested in AI or the dangers of anthropomorphising machines, like referring to your Amazon Echo or Google Home as “she/her” (which I, for one, do all the time, and if you own one, I’m sure you do too), read this book.
Click here to find out where you can get your hands on a copy: books2read.com/u/38EadO
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