{"id":573,"date":"2017-08-16T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T22:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=573"},"modified":"2017-09-10T15:57:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T21:57:13","slug":"book-how-to-survive-a-robot-uprising-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/book-how-to-survive-a-robot-uprising-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: How to Survive a Robot Uprising (2005)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HowHow to Survive a Robot Uprising
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2005
\nAuthor: Daniel H. Wilson
\nLength: 186 minutes \/ 3.1 hours<\/p>\n

As a precursor to\u00a0Robopocalypse<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion<\/em>\u00a0takes a humorous approach to educating the reader about the capabilities and limitations of today\u2019s robots. Similar in style to\u00a0Where\u2019s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising<\/em>\u00a0uses the humor of preparing for the end of the world to poke fun at the limited possibility that we\u2019d eventually be destroyed by the robots we use to make our lives comfortable today.<\/p>\n

With my background in robotics (my Master\u2019s Degree was in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Robotics and Design), I quickly realized how Daniel H. Wilson was writing this \u201cguide.\u201d Robots are powerful and useful machines, many of which can perform actions much more efficiently and accurately than humans can, thus leading to our swift and inexorable demise. However, by the same token, they also have limitations and challenges that we humans do not (or at least don\u2019t consciously think about). These robotic challenges are primarily used \u201cagainst\u201d them in this hypothetical scenario, revealing that most robots aren\u2019t as indestructible as we make them out to be in fiction.<\/p>\n

My only qualms with this book were that it was too short (I love this tongue-in-cheek writing style) and that the structure seemed kind of \u201cloose.\u201d Sure, different sections went over such topics as types of robots, and what ways these robots could be incapacitated, but the flow felt a bit like \u201cstream of consciousness\u201d writing. Granted, many of the topics cross over into each other, so it can be difficult to box them into discrete and distinct sections. Still, the narrative seems to jump all over the place as a result. Perhaps this is why Wilson decided to eventually write\u00a0Robopocalypse<\/em>, to add the structure that was missing from this \u201cpamphlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

A funny book that subtly educates the reader about robot strengths and weaknesses, I give\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising<\/em>\u00a04.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Survive a Robot Uprising Year: 2005 Author: Daniel H. Wilson Length: 186 minutes \/ 3.1 hours As a precursor to\u00a0Robopocalypse,\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion\u00a0takes a humorous approach to educating the reader about the capabilities and limitations of today\u2019s robots. Similar in style to\u00a0Where\u2019s My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,54],"tags":[322,55,438,8,471,474,437],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-book","tag-322","tag-book","tag-daniel-h-wilson","tag-review","tag-robopocalypse","tag-robots","tag-wheres-my-jetpack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}