Robotic science fiction books of 2021

2021 produced 4 new scifi books with good laborious science underpinning their description of robots and three the place there was much less science however numerous fascinating concepts about robots. Not solely are these books gratifying on their very own, fiction can function teachable moments in robots and STEM and encourage a robot-obsessed teen to learn extra and enhance their studying comprehension.

• Termination Shock
• Machinehood
• Silly Machine
• Day Zero
• Fugitive Telemetry
• Fan Fiction
• A Psalm for the Wild-Constructed

Let’s begin with the scifi e-book I most continuously really useful to associates to learn in 2021: Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. It’s not a robotic e-book per se however robots and automation are realistically interspersed via it- and the e-book is certainly one of Stephenson’s finest, pulling collectively LOTS of know-how, subplots, and themes just like what he did in Diamond Age. One of many know-how threads is how drones are ubiquitous all through the e-book, with small drones getting used singly or in swarms for surveillance and social media and larger drones used for supply, human transport, and, effectively, mayhem. Nominally the e-book is about local weather change and the way a bunch of people led by a wealthy Texan plan to chop via the COP26 conferences blather and get on with geoengineering the atmosphere. Besides cash and geoengineering is the straightforward half… It’s a dramedy of a e-book and manages to by no means lecture or push political agendas, as an alternative it’s laborious science wrapped with memorable characters, a compelling plot, and a humorousness, with an “oh my!” twist on the finish.

A good way to consider how drones have gotten subtly built-in as instruments into navy, safety, and journalism. And that on the finish of the day, regardless of the large funding in anti-drone know-how, a shotgun with fowl shot could also be our greatest protection for small drones. Take a look at the RTSF subjects web page for extra hyperlinks to the science.

In contrast to Termination Shock, robots and AI *are* the topic of S.B. Divya’s Machinehood. It’s a thorny e-book with a piercingly sharp commentary on the gig economic system, local weather change, automation, and ethics. A rogue neo-Buddhist decides that clever machines deserve authorized rights and protections, just like animals, which she calls the Machinehood Manifesto. Then she leads a terrorist cell to drive governments to include machinehood protections into their authorized framework. A SpecialOps operator is tasked to take her down, which she does with the assistance of her sister-in-law. A lot of motion, numerous concepts, numerous realism and stuffed with thought upsetting jabs. The e-book echoes real-world arguments because the 1980’s about treating robots as animals from a authorized perspective.

It’s a great, very helpful introduction to points in robotic ethics and autonomy and the very actual idea of treating robots like animals- which is roofed within the non-fiction e-book The New Breed by Kate Darling. You’ll be able to learn extra about that in my latest Science Robotics article.

Silly Machine by Mark Niemann-Ross is a comedy with an fascinating and well timed plot about autonomous vehicles, cyber hackers, and social justice warriors in Portland. It could be tempting to hack an autonomous automobile to drive an annoying semi-full time, I-protest-everything activist off a bridge, wouldn’t it? Plus there’s a good Ubik-like sensible home subplot. Not as well-written, plotted, and memorable as Termination Shock and Machinehood, however a fast, straightforward learn.

The concept autonomous vehicles can be each ubiquitous and hackable makes it a pleasant teachable second about cybersecurity. A latest scifi e-book that explains extra in regards to the workings of autonomous driving is David Walton’s There Legal guidelines Deadly. You’ll be able to learn my Science Robotics article on autonomous vehicles in scifi right here.

Like Machinehood, Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill is about a close to future. It’s the prequel to Sea of Rust, certainly one of my all time favourite robotic scifi books. Sea of Rust is an evocative story about what occurs after the robotic revolution and the way the robots themselves descend right into a type of Mad Max hell. Day Zero isn’t as hanging as Sea of Rust, however very gratifying as a prequel. For those who cherished Spielberg’s AI: Synthetic Intelligence, you then’ll doubly love Day Zero as a result of it’s advised from the POV of Pounce, the Teddy-like robotic, who protects his boy Ezra throughout the robotic revolution. You don’t must learn Sea of Rust first, Day Zero is a stand alone, however I like to recommend you do. I hope there are extra books within the Sea of Rust collection.!

By way of robotics, Day Zero is an effective introduction to nursebots, healthcare robots, and home help robots. You’ll be able to study extra in regards to the science of nannybots on the Science Robotics article and home robotics, typically referred to as domotics at Science Robotics right here.

In fact, there was a number of different robotic science fiction in 2021, simply with much less science. Listed here are three books so that you can take into account which have some robots in with actual world science.

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells is certainly one of my prime “you’ve obtained to learn!” The most recent addition, Fugitive Telemetry, continues the pleasant Bildungsroman of the galaxy’s snarkiest robotic. ROFL as all the time, it maintains the same old intelligent plotting and motion that makes the Murderbot Diaries a favourite of each the Hugos and Nebulas awards. And Murderbot, just like the people in Termination Shock, has a swarm of drones and is aware of learn how to use them. Oh, SecUnit, I really like you!

And I really like the collection as manner of illustrating real-world issues in software program engineering and cybersecurity for robotics. Take a look at the discussions of software program engineering within the first e-book and the Web of Issues within the fourth.

It’s laborious to not like Lieutenant Commander Information on Star Trek and Picard, proper? Effectively, it’s laborious to not like Brent Spiner, the good Jewish boy from Houston who grew as much as write a humorous, self-mocking semi-fictional autobiography in addition to star in a success TV collection. He calls his e-book, Fan Fiction, a “mem-noir” the place an actor, conveniently named Brent Spiner, on the third season of a modest hit conveniently referred to as “ST:TNG” is being stalked by a somebody presupposed to be Lal, Information’s short-lived robotic daughter. The hapless actor finds it’s as if he’s dwelling in a Raymond Chandler novel. Brent displays on his life and the way he obtained so far in his profession as he tries to go about taking pictures episodes, going to events on the Roddenberrys, signing autographs at cons, and hanging out with Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, and Jonathan Frakes. But Spiner comes throughout as a daily man, grounded and grateful- and amused- at “making it” in Hollywood. It makes me lengthy for a comply with up- what was life for that actor after the years of grueling 16 hour days on set and the rising fame?

OK, there may be not a lot there by way of teachable moments about robots, however it’s nonetheless enjoyable.

A Psalm for the Wild-Constructed by Becky Chambers, the reigning consolation lit scifi author (and that’s an excellent factor!), is a sentimental Photo voltaic-punk e-book. The e-book doesn’t have a number of motion however may very well be good for center schoolers (although some f-bombs are dropped) or a read-aloud to youthful youngsters. Or one thing to simply to get pleasure from as an alternative of listening to Lake Woebegone tales or re-reading Cadfael books. The premise is that in a future world, robots spontaneously gained sentience after which left human occupied terrorizes to discover being a robotic. Now they’re again, self-actualized, and able to discover humanity by asking “what do people want?”

Doesn’t sound like there’s a lot about actual robots, does it? And but, it has some of the cogent explanations of company, of what makes one thing greater than a machine, which is a elementary idea in synthetic intelligence and in how autonomy is totally different than automation.

Hopefully this checklist of books offers you one thing to learn and, extra importantly, one thing to consider in 2022!

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