Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson, the author of this book, has a doctorate in robotics from prestigious Carnegie Mellon and his writing credits include the nonfiction How to Survive A Robot Uprising and How to Build a Robot Army. That knowledge alone should activate your senses as you enter Robopocalypse, a realm where robots run free and humans flee skittering in many directions. Told with the unfolding menace of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this novel will keep you up late and your computer unplugged. (from Goodreads)

I have been reading Robert J. Sawyer’s www trilogy which is also about computers/technology becoming self aware.  It is amazing how different the takes are on the subject.  Wilson’s book makes me nervous.  I am already concerned about what our lives would be like if there was an EMB that wiped out the technology I rely on.  How much worse would it be if that technology turned on humanity?

The first chapter of the book takes place during the immediate aftermath of the war between the robots and humans.  It almost made me not read the book.  There was nothing really wrong with it, but it wasn’t what I was in the mood to read.  I put it down for a few days and when I came back to it, I realized the rest of the book was the story of the beginning of the war and its duration.  The chapters alternate between different characters, so I got a variety of perspectives.  I ended up really enjoying the book.

One thing that struck me in the first chapter is the narrator states he is transcribing the records by hand.  He is not trusting them to a digital form.  That is one thing that concerns me about our (my) reliance on computers and the cloud.  Nothing is in hard copy.  What will happen if I no longer have access to computers?  It’s a disturbing thought.