When I wrote ONE MONTH, I couldn’t originally bring myself to call it Science Fiction. Yes, it’s a story about a robot, and no, there are no humanoid robots living among us in today’s world. But perhaps there will be soon, perhaps my book is simply a novel of suspense that could take place ten years from now, when it wouldn’t be considered Science Fiction.
Discoveries in robotics are being made every day. And they’re not inventions that are of interest to a limited, robotics community. It seems like every time I flip through the New York Times Science Section I read about something new and amazing. My inspiration for this book came in part through some of the amazing robots I was reading about online and in journals. Of course, I have not yet read about autonomous humanoid robots.
My younger, wiser brother will tell me that the reason I’m not reading about them is because no one would bother making one. There are many advantages that can be gained by creating a robot, but those come from the unique nature of robots, distinct from humans. Why would anyone create a robot that was so limited? Or so complex? A robot would normally be designed for a specific task or set of tasks. So robots have been created that can do things ranging from working on an assembly line to playing the violin to picking up dog poo (really, check this out).
I have to believe my brother is right. Anyone creative and smart enough to create the programming and mechanics necessary for these complex machines would be sure to make something whose form was defined by its function – beautiful, yes (watch this TED video), but always functional.
So perhaps ONE MONTH really is a work of science fiction. Or speculative fiction (great discussion about what speculative fiction is here). A story about a robot who will never – could never – really be.
Discoveries in robotics are being made every day. And they’re not inventions that are of interest to a limited, robotics community. It seems like every time I flip through the New York Times Science Section I read about something new and amazing. My inspiration for this book came in part through some of the amazing robots I was reading about online and in journals. Of course, I have not yet read about autonomous humanoid robots.
My younger, wiser brother will tell me that the reason I’m not reading about them is because no one would bother making one. There are many advantages that can be gained by creating a robot, but those come from the unique nature of robots, distinct from humans. Why would anyone create a robot that was so limited? Or so complex? A robot would normally be designed for a specific task or set of tasks. So robots have been created that can do things ranging from working on an assembly line to playing the violin to picking up dog poo (really, check this out).
I have to believe my brother is right. Anyone creative and smart enough to create the programming and mechanics necessary for these complex machines would be sure to make something whose form was defined by its function – beautiful, yes (watch this TED video), but always functional.
So perhaps ONE MONTH really is a work of science fiction. Or speculative fiction (great discussion about what speculative fiction is here). A story about a robot who will never – could never – really be.
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