| "If you were going to have a fearsome robot foe, obviously robot Nazis would be great, but I’d love to see, like, a robot Napoleon take on a robot Hitler," says Dr. Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising and, more recently, Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived (Bloomsbury USA, 192 pp.).
"But the forces of good have to win in the end," he continues. "So robot Gandhi would just drop out of the sky and destroy them both. But I guess he wouldn’t have rocket fists or anything, so he’d have to think of something else."
No, Wilson’s doctorate isn’t in the mad sciences. Above all else, it’s Wilson’s sense of humour that defines his writing, even despite his vast experience in the world of technology. In 2005, he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a PhD in robotics and a master;s degree in data mining. While he was writing his doctorate thesis, he also penned Robot Uprising, which won Wired magazine’s Rave Award the following year, and is now used as a textbook for a robotics course at the U.S. Naval Academy. Jetpack, his most recent literary foray, is infected with the same biting wit, thoughtful research and childlike sense of wonder toward technology that made Robot Uprising such a success.
"That is the theme of the book: optimism about science," says Wilson. "Everybody always wants to blame a scientist. They’re all like, ‘Man, scientists think they’re so smart, but where’s my… whatever?’ And I’m like, ‘Fuck you, look at this! If we didn’t really have all this stuff, would I be able to fill up a book with it?’’"
Jetpack is presented as a collection of short, funny articles about existing scientific wonders you maybe haven’t heard about, some that are cool but impossible and others that were possible, but barely made it out the world’s collective imagination for one reason or another. With everything from ray guns to universal translators documented, Jetpack reads as a definitive brochure to the technological utopia science fiction promised us, but was aborted before its full realization.
"Most of the stuff that we dreamed about has arrived in some form, though not necessarily the form that we expected," says Wilson. "The only technologies I found that truly weren’t coming down the line were the ones that no one really wanted. We said we wanted them, but we lied. Like Smell-O-Vision. No one really wanted Smell-O-Vision, but it’s still part of the mythos, so I included that. It’s a funny reminder."
More than just a 29-year-old man-boy dreaming of a world where wars are fought with lightning blasters and everyone rides robotic mountain lions to work, Wilson has also contributed to the emergence with his far-off future-tech paradise. His doctorate thesis, entitled "Assistive Intelligent Environments for Automatic Health Monitoring," involved wiring a house with a network of simple sensors, then using a learning computer to monitor the functional decline of its (presumably elderly) residents. The sensors "watch" the resident – identifying them without the use of biometrics by using simple, sustained pattern recognition – then reporting aberrant data back to the medical professionals caring for them.
"That was the thing with Robot Uprising," says Wilson. "It was just me getting pissed off about robots always killing people (in pop culture). Who’s writing Hollywood movies about robots killing people? Not scientists! Scientists are busy making robots that are going to take care of your grandmother."
Wilson’s thesis was developed as a tool to assist people like his mother and grandmother, who are both case managers for seniors in declining health. Like the glossy-eyed inner eight-year-old that inspired his books, even a complicated, serious project like this is rooted within Wilson’s childhood.
"(As a kid), I only had, like, one Transformer and it turned into a gun," says Wilson. "I think that’s why I’m basically such a huge badass. I mean, I was a kid and someone handed me not just a gun, but a gun that turned into a robot. Non-robot guns just don’t have the same fascination." |
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