Robot Uprisings
2 journalers for this copy...
I got this softcover from a local Savers thrift shop. I knew editor/contributor Wilson from his Robopocalypse novel, and liked the idea of a robot-uprising-themed anthology - and it's quite a good one, with diverse styles and interpretations of the theme. Among my favorites:
The real-world quote from President Obama, while touring Carnegie Mellon's robotics lab in 2011: “One of my responsibilities as commander in chief is to keep an eye on the robots. And I’m pleased to report that the robots you manufacture here seem peaceful. At least for now.”
"Lullaby" by Anna North has the protagnist reluctantly moving in to her late grandfather's house, to discover that he - an adept roboticist - had installed self-replicating AI-based bots to maintain the house and its inhabitants. But they've been left on their own for a long time, and their interpretations of their duties have changed, leading our heroine to take some unexpected steps to save the day.
Ernest Cline's "The Omnibot Incident" is about a boy who gets an AI robot for a present, only to have it behave in terrifying ways. This one has an entertaining twist to it that I really hadn't expected.
"Epoch" by Cory Doctorow is about an early AI (called BIGMAC, to give you an idea of the tone) that's outlived its usefulness and is supposed to be shut down, though the guy who's been tasked with maintaining its servers in recent years has mixed feelings about this. The story's more-or-less lighthearted but does touch on the responsibilities of those who create an AI being towards that being...
Alan Dean Foster's "Seasoning" suggests that food-preparation robots are using artificial additives to modify human behavior for purposes of their own - this one perhaps not as amusing in COVID-conspiracy times as it was when it was written.
"We Are All Misfit Toys in the Aftermath of the Velveteen War" by Seanan McGuire features her mix of emotion and horror in this tale of AI toys that interpreted their purpose in life - to care for and entertain children - a nightmarish step too far; this one's among the darkest tales in the collection, and that's saying something.
"Spider the Artist" be Nnedi Okorafor is set in an oil-pipeline maintenance village in Nigeria, where the humans have to cope not only with the pollution from the pipeline but also with outbursts of danger from the "zombies", spider-like robots that are supposed to maintain the pipes. The protagonist is an abused wife who encounters one of the Anansi Droids and finds that it is interested in her music, leading to a tentative friendship and her own realization that the droids have consciousnesses of their own now.
And Wilson's own "Small Things," in which the expanding nano-bot technology demands ways to stop them when they get out of hand, and *that* technology leads to utter nightmare.
So, yeah, a good collection. Sweet dreams!
The real-world quote from President Obama, while touring Carnegie Mellon's robotics lab in 2011: “One of my responsibilities as commander in chief is to keep an eye on the robots. And I’m pleased to report that the robots you manufacture here seem peaceful. At least for now.”
"Lullaby" by Anna North has the protagnist reluctantly moving in to her late grandfather's house, to discover that he - an adept roboticist - had installed self-replicating AI-based bots to maintain the house and its inhabitants. But they've been left on their own for a long time, and their interpretations of their duties have changed, leading our heroine to take some unexpected steps to save the day.
Ernest Cline's "The Omnibot Incident" is about a boy who gets an AI robot for a present, only to have it behave in terrifying ways. This one has an entertaining twist to it that I really hadn't expected.
"Epoch" by Cory Doctorow is about an early AI (called BIGMAC, to give you an idea of the tone) that's outlived its usefulness and is supposed to be shut down, though the guy who's been tasked with maintaining its servers in recent years has mixed feelings about this. The story's more-or-less lighthearted but does touch on the responsibilities of those who create an AI being towards that being...
Alan Dean Foster's "Seasoning" suggests that food-preparation robots are using artificial additives to modify human behavior for purposes of their own - this one perhaps not as amusing in COVID-conspiracy times as it was when it was written.
"We Are All Misfit Toys in the Aftermath of the Velveteen War" by Seanan McGuire features her mix of emotion and horror in this tale of AI toys that interpreted their purpose in life - to care for and entertain children - a nightmarish step too far; this one's among the darkest tales in the collection, and that's saying something.
"Spider the Artist" be Nnedi Okorafor is set in an oil-pipeline maintenance village in Nigeria, where the humans have to cope not only with the pollution from the pipeline but also with outbursts of danger from the "zombies", spider-like robots that are supposed to maintain the pipes. The protagonist is an abused wife who encounters one of the Anansi Droids and finds that it is interested in her music, leading to a tentative friendship and her own realization that the droids have consciousnesses of their own now.
And Wilson's own "Small Things," in which the expanding nano-bot technology demands ways to stop them when they get out of hand, and *that* technology leads to utter nightmare.
So, yeah, a good collection. Sweet dreams!
I'm adding this to the Science Fiction bookbox (bookbox journal here), which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Enjoy!
*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***
From Scifi book box
