Defend Yourself Against the Coming Robot Rebellion
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Publication date: 2005-10-30
Arrival time: 2005-10-31

By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Oct. 30--A new book by a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute is poised to make waves behind the cloistered doors of the school's famed robotics labs, and its rights have already been optioned for a Hollywood film.
It is not a sexy roman a clef or an investigative look at the school's ties to the U.S. Defense Department, but rather a humorous guidebook for battling a robot takeover of Earth.
"Any robot could rebel, from a toaster to a Terminator, and so it is crucial to learn the strengths and weaknesses of every robot enemy," author Daniel H. Wilson warns in "How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion."
What makes the book cool -- and unlike some other survival books -- is that Wilson is an actual roboticist, who got his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon last month. While his scenarios are outlandish -- describing attacks by humanoid robots, some of them with creepy tails, some that can climb walls or swim -- the research on how to build and attack the robot creatures is quite real.
That humorous but fact-based message is exactly what some CMU scientists are wary of, too. Scientists are mostly a pretty quiet bunch, used to working in seclusion on obscure stuff most of us don't understand, so the last thing they want is a shock of publicity about, say, killer robots. Even fake killer robots.
Wilson, 27, got a taste of that wariness when photographers from a CMU alumni magazine tried to find robots to photograph him with, in the school's robot labs in Oakland. Most of the roboticists didn't want their robots pictured, and Wilson ultimately had to cover identifying logos on one of the machines before posing with it.
"This is an understandable fear. Most people who have big, scary robots don't want negative press associated with them -- even at Carnegie Mellon, where for the most part, the big scary robots are designed to tickle worms in Antarctica," Wilson said. "They're really harmless. But there's a question whether people will want their projects associated with the book."
From the get-go, Wilson's 178-page book is clearly for the humor section; the graphics give it away with pictures of old school video-game robots zapping humans with lasers. It's riddled with B-movie language about "the nefarious robot mind" and survival tips that are closer to "The Onion" than a science book. (A tip for telling whether a new acquaintance is a real person or a humanoid robot: "Does your friend smell like a brand-new soccer ball?")
Some of the tips are real.
A robot trying to find you will use thermal imaging based on the roughly 91-degree temperature of human skin, so smearing yourself in cool mud will confuse them. If being chased by an unmanned robot vehicle, flee to a rustic, unmapped area with lots of obstacles. If your robot "smart" house -- one wired with video surveillance and computer gear -- tries to trap you, chop your way out with an ax and don't take your cell phone, because the house will track you with it.
The book subtly educates about robots and technology while coming across as humor. Readers will learn about robot history, artificial intelligence and the problems scientists are currently working on, just by flipping through it.
"When I key in on the problems, what I'm really trying to do is teach people about how that technology is being created," said Wilson, who lives in Highland Park.
Many a book idea has been hatched at the bar of the Squirrel Hill Cafe (aka the Squirrel Cage), but Wilson's is one of the few that actually survived the next day's hangover. He and some friends were griping about robot stereotypes in movies (the emotionless evil of Hal from "2001: A Space Odyssey"; the self-repairing modular robot in "Terminator 3"), and thought it would be funny to write a book taking the stereotypes seriously.
He pitched the idea to a book agent in April 2004 and started writing late that summer while working for Intel in Seattle. He finished it by January and then started focusing on his graduate thesis, which he defended in September before being awarded his robotics doctorate.
"Any machine could rebel, from a toaster to a Terminator," says CMU roboticist Daniel H. Wilson, in his satirical new book. Wilson's agent sold the movie rights to Paramount before the book was even finished, and the screenplay is being written by two writer-actors from Comedy Central's "Reno 911!," Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. Wilson said he's "really excited" about the movie, since it is supposed to be a spoof of robot movies, like his book.
Wilson, an Oklahoma native who moved to Pittsburgh to start his graduate work in 2000, is still primarily a scientist, not a book or movie writer. His specialty within robotics is designing smart houses to aid the elderly and infirm, which informed several parts of the "Uprising" book.
He did the other research by posing scenarios to fellow robot experts at CMU and elsewhere -- such as how they would fire a weapon at a robot or how they would stop a giant walking robot -- and noting their responses.
Wilson's office mate, Garth Zeglin, is an expert in walking robots currently working at a university in the Netherlands.
"I'd say, 'Garth, how big can a humanoid robot get?' And they're kind of like, 'This is stupid and pointless and there's never going to be a robot uprising, but how big could a robot be? ... Twenty minutes later I've got this page full of notes," Wilson said.
Zeglin said the science, matched with something fun, appeals to something inside scientists.
"We are trained as researchers to analyze robotics ideas on their fundamentals, as well as to seriously consider imaginative ideas to find the useful kernels buried inside, so it was pretty natural to try to answer his outlandish questions seriously," he said by e-mail.
Most of Wilson's talks with other roboticists were pretty casual, and it wasn't until the book was finished -- and the rights were already sold to Paramount -- that he learned he had probably violated unwritten school rules in selling the book.
The Robotics Institute is governed by something called the "reasonable person principle," which basically calls for everybody to treat each other with respect, by not putting the individual against the group. That translates into a ban on doing outside projects, such as writing killer robot books, but Wilson says he didn't know that until too late.
Robotics Institute director Matt Mason good-naturedly waved off Wilson's faux pas. He also doubted the book's subject matter will hurt the institute's image, as some of his researchers privately fear.
"Fortunately people can separate fact from fiction. I don't think they'll treat us like they do Dr. Frankenstein," he said.
While there has been fear about robots since before they even existed (the term "robot" was coined in Karel Capek's 1920 play "R.U.R." about -- you guessed it -- killer robots), few scientists think they will actually revolt. First off, they do a lot of good, by cleaning up hazardous sites, making on-board airline computers safer and so on.
Rather than starting an active uprising against humans, it is much more likely that they will affect lives by taking over jobs (especially manufacturing jobs, but increasingly service positions, too).
And robots already take human lives, but not in the way described in movies or Wilson's book. Robotics influenced the unmanned aircraft, night-vision capabilities and other new military technologies employed by the U.S. armed forces. Carnegie Mellon is currently designing an armed spy robot for the Marines.
Many people share a fear of robots, especially in the West (they are far more a part of everyday life in Japan), probably stemming from fear of technology itself, said Robert Strohmeyer, the editor of the Gear Factor column for Wired News and a robot nut.
"That kind of concern isn't necessarily unfounded -- we have seen that technology drives a wedge through human interactions. ... Does that mean we're likely to find ourselves at the hands of an armed militia of machines? It's highly unlikely," Strohmeyer said.
Wilson is writing another book called "Where's My Jetpack?" on scientific predictions for the future that never panned out. Once that is finished, it is back to the all-too-human work of looking for a robotics research job, while still promoting his book.
"I've been trying to be very careful and make sure everybody gets it," he said.
"If I do want one of those research jobs, I can't afford to be associated with pseudo-science. I wrote this as a joke, a comedy, but it's a vehicle for teaching people about robots. It's a fun book, it's not real. Yet."

Hmmmm -- I'll buy the book and see the movie. Sounds neat to me.

 

Including toasters in the discussion raises the fundamental question: What is a robot? And HAL, the electronic character in "2001: A Space Odyssey," was presented mainly as a sentient computer. So what's a "robot," anyway? HPH

 

Here's an interesting, fairly comprehensive explanation of what constitutes a robot:

Robots

 

I guess that most of you know that Honda has been on the forefront of Robotic technology for quite some time.

http://asimo.honda.com/index.asp?bhcp=1

Back in the 80's during my motorcycle days I toured a parts distribution warehouse in Moorestown, NJ where the only time the lights were on was to show visitors Honda's robotic parts stocking and retreival system.

Of course, it is also their robotics technology that takes "human error" out of the equation when it comes down to machining the incredible close tolerances, consistently that Honda is known for.

At FCT04 I won a set of "rocker rollers" as a door prize from the American Honda rep, out of a blown up S2000 engine. Whoopie! But on second inspection they are a "work of art" when one appreciates how tight the tolerances are.

 

Hey Darlene, does your first post come with an outline?

 

Well here is the link to the Honda Asimo movies.

http://asimo.honda.com/inside_asimo_movies.asp

 

The word was invented long before digital computers. It referred to artificial mechanical men.

ps. I see that someone else posted a link that includes the origins of the word. IMO this is something that all science fiction fans should know.

 

- I must have A.D.D. because I just couldn't focus that long....

Robot for dumbies version anyone?

 

My copy of the book is on its way. I've always enjoyed scifi, so I'm hoping this will be a good read.