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antisocial_auntie's review against another edition
5.0
This is fun, and a more positive future with robots than most. Audiobook well narrated as well. Adding a wormhole to the Politician Bot and the reasoning used was particularly amusing to me, yet each section is well balanced with real current events and creative future ideas.
thestarman's review against another edition
2.0
VERDICT: 2.2 stars. Oddly mixed genre (facts, incorrect facts, and fiction).
Some of the chapters get ridiculous, but there's a wide range of robotic-related topics here.
If you love all things robotic, and don't mind silliness, maybe try a library copy.
SAY SOMETHING NICE: A few technology facts (or alleged facts) that I didn't know.
Some of the chapters get ridiculous, but there's a wide range of robotic-related topics here.
If you love all things robotic, and don't mind silliness, maybe try a library copy.
SAY SOMETHING NICE: A few technology facts (or alleged facts) that I didn't know.
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
3.0
Ideally a 3.5 star book, but, in being forced to choose whole stars, just couldn't justify a 4-star review. I found this for a buck on the remaindered shelf at what is now Dollar-and-a-Quarter Tree.
Another reviewer called this "semi-nonfiction," and that sounds ... "semi-right."
Given that it's essentially futurism, it's "semi" at best right there, and told in a novelistic style, as though reporting from the future, it becomes "semi-semi."
Duncan talks about more than a dozen different possible robotic subworlds in the future, like sex robots, job-stealing robots and other obvious ones, but also speculation about robotic politicians and other things that don't come up on the robotics talk radar screen. Some, like robotic CEOs, seem unlikely. Humans would never surrender that control, or that illusion of control. Robotic politicians, in one of the most novelistic pieces here? Constitutionally proscribed in the US and most democratic countries.
So, maybe it's just a 3 in my book now, too and not a 3.5. Or a 3.25 at best.
Another reviewer called this "semi-nonfiction," and that sounds ... "semi-right."
Given that it's essentially futurism, it's "semi" at best right there, and told in a novelistic style, as though reporting from the future, it becomes "semi-semi."
Duncan talks about more than a dozen different possible robotic subworlds in the future, like sex robots, job-stealing robots and other obvious ones, but also speculation about robotic politicians and other things that don't come up on the robotics talk radar screen. Some, like robotic CEOs, seem unlikely. Humans would never surrender that control, or that illusion of control. Robotic politicians, in one of the most novelistic pieces here? Constitutionally proscribed in the US and most democratic countries.
So, maybe it's just a 3 in my book now, too and not a 3.5. Or a 3.25 at best.
l1ttlel1braryn00k's review against another edition
5.0
This is a quick and funny book comprised with a series of essays/stories about robots.
kpharoah's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
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