Homer's Travels: Book: Danial H. Wilson's "Robopocalypse"

Friday, August 15, 2014

Book: Danial H. Wilson's "Robopocalypse"

After the serious nature of my last book, surviving in the slums of India, I decided to follow it with a more fluffy piece of writing so I read about the near destruction of humanity by our own machines.  Danial H. Wilson's "Robopocalypse" tells the story of a war that breaks out between humanity and a sentient computer.

The book is written like an oral history and a collection of stories looking back at events.  I hear the story telling style is similar to "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" but since I haven't read the book, I can't make a comparison.

The reader is taken, step by step, from the creation of the sentient computer, to it's escape 'into the wild', to the use of our robotic devices to attack the human race, to the eventual human winning of the war.  Along the way we learn a little about ourselves and about our dependence and trust in the technology around us.

Some people have suggested that the development of a true artificial intelligence will be even more dangerous that the invention of the atomic bomb.  Atomic energy can be controlled.  A sentient computer more intelligent than the humans that built it ... especially careless ones ... may never be within our control.  This is a work of fiction that may just make you think about what may happen when our machines start thinking for us.

The book ends with a few loose strings which means ... a sequel.  Sure enough, a few months ago "Robogenesis" was published.  I liked Robopocalypse enough that I will probably read Robogenesis eventually.


No comments:

Post a Comment