Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Human-Robot Futures

by David Ewing Duncan

Award-winning journalist David Ewing Duncan considers 24 visions of possible human-robot futures--Incredible scenarios from Teddy Bots to Warrior Bots, and Politician Bots to Sex Bots--Grounded in real technologies and possibilities and inspired by our imagination.

What robot and AI systems are being built and imagined right now? What do they say about us, their creators? Will they usher in a fantastic new future, or destroy us? What do some of our greatest thinkers, from physicist Brian Greene and futurist Kevin Kelly to inventor Dean Kamen, geneticist George Church, and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, anticipate about our human-robot future? For even as robots and A.I. intrigue us and make us anxious about the future, our fascination with robots has always been about more than the potential of the technology-it's also about what robots tell us about being human.

Prelude: When the robots arrived --
Teddy bear bot --
The %$@! robot that swiped my job --
Sex (intimacy) bot --
Facebook bot --
Doc bot --
Hello, robot driver --
Warrior bot --
Beer bot --
It's not about the robots bot --
Politician bot --
Wearable bot --
Amazon bot --
Journalism bot --
Mars (Daemon) bot --
Risk-free bot --
Brain optimization bot --
Thriller bot --
Coffee delivery bot --
Memory bot --
Matrix bot --
Homo digitalis/homo syntheticis --
Tourist (evolution) bot --
God bot --
Immortal me bot --
Epilogue: After the robots arrived

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Artificial Intelligence, Audiobook, Short Stories

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 4, 2019

About the author

David Ewing Duncan is the author of seven books including the worldwide bestseller Calendar. He is Chief Correspondent of public radio's Biotech Nation, a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition, and a contributing editor and a columnist for Conde Nast Portfolio. He has been a contributing editor to Wired, Discover and Technology Review, and has written for Harper s, The Atlantic, Fortune, and many other publications. He is a former special correspondent and producer for ABC Nightline and a correspondent for NOVA s ScienceNOW! He has won numerous awards including the Magazine Story of the Year from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in San Francisco and is the Director of the Center of Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley. "

Reviews

[Radiantflux · Rating 4 out of 5]

95th book for 2019.

In this book, David Ewing Duncan offers a series of short essays on lots of different possible robot futures—teddy bear robots, sex robots, life without jobs robots, self-driving trucks robots, lie detecting robots, God-like robots, apocalyptic robots, helper robots etc etc.

The stories are told in a whimsical, almost Douglas Adams fashion—if you've read Stanisław Lem's robots stories you'll have a good sense of what to expect—written as stories from the future with (fictionalized) interviews with current big names in robots, AI and other relevant areas.

If you have a passing knowledge of the AI-Apocalypse literature, a lot of this won't be new, but for sheer diversity and humour this volume is hard to beat.

4-stars.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost feel I should put this on my 'sort-of-nonfiction' shelf. The narrator mentions how things are in his present & how they developed from the Early Robot Era (ERE) which is now, about 2018. Occasionally there's a bit of earlier history, but he's concentrating on cutting edge tech in general terms. No techy talk, just general observations (a little too light & general) along with a pretty liberal political slant on things. A bit too much politics, IMO. They just seem out of place, but it occasionally adds to the humor.

Overall, very well narrated by John Lee, but the book went on too long. About halfway through, it slumped due to repetition. For instance, at this light level, there's just not much between the journalism & thriller bots. The stories got wilder & old. I wish he had read more SF & pointed to stories that made his point far better than he or his did.

Table of Contents
ACTUAL HUMANS INTERVIEWED FOR THIS BOOK: lists the experts he interviewed, pretty much a different one for each chapter, but sometimes there were several.

EPIGRAPH: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
—Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
Finest kind. Any book on robots should start with something from him.

PRELUDE: WHEN THE ROBOTS ARRIVED: In the future we will all remember when the robots truly arrived. Everyone will have their story. Some will be revelatory, recalled as a rush of excitement that a robot could do... It's a very good lead in.

TEDDY BEAR BOT: How kids could get their minds warped by learning robots controlled by whoever. Interesting idea. Kids really do love their dolls & he gives credit to Speilberg for the idea.

THE %$@! ROBOT THAT SWIPED MY JOB: A fun bit of sarcasm about the CEO bots dispossessing the big boys like Bezos while making a case for robots eventually taking over all jobs without creating more.

SEX (INTIMACY) BOT: Harmony is one of the sex dolls mentioned, of course. Their AI is often in the news & that's the major factor here. (A 28,000 year old dildo was recently found & dolls have also been around forever.) This section is more about the kinks (virtually screwing a manta ray) & intimacy/lonliness issues. We're further along the path than I'd realized, but I was disappointed that he never mentioned the uncanny valley.

FACEBOOK BOT: He, correctly, gives Mark Z. hell & lists all the stuff wrong with social media.

DOC BOT: We desperately need a fusion of man & machine in this area. There is simply too much data for a human, but too much nuance for a machine with the bean counters & insurance companies degrading care.

HELLO, ROBOT DRIVER: Pretty much the usual line here. Robot cars will be safer, but he missed a LOT of issues even when he eventually came to the conclusion that man & machine is the best bet. He ignores the same problem everyone else does: If the robot does the job right most of the time, our laziness, attention span, & pattern recognition will all kick in to say we don't need to do anything, so we'll be completely unprepared when we are needed. We've evolved that way & that's how all the horrific accidents are happening now.

WARRIOR BOT: War will become a zero sum game (as in War Games (1983))? Let's hope. As he points out, it's hell in the middle as MAD proved.

BEER BOT: Seriously? Yes. He doesn't get into it far enough, but the ramifications are unsettling.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE ROBOTS BOT: ...Kamen initiated called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics, a project designed to teach high school–age kids to learn how to get along by working together to build robots. A neat idea that teaches kids that tech is a common language & there's no need for tribalism.

POLITICIAN BOT: Funny slam on Trump, but also some interesting points about 'true democracy' including a reference to a Black Mirror episode. (The Orville had one on this point, too.)

WEARABLE BOT: What if our clothes could expand our senses such as letting us 'see' via touch into more of the electromagnetic spectrum? Interesting idea, but not enough about attention overload.

AMAZON BOT: A short bit & not memorable.

JOURNALISM BOT: We have them already, but what we need are those that can alert us to lies - fact checks.

MARS (DAEMON) BOT: Kind of like those in The Golden Compass. Long, silly story, though.

RISK-FREE BOT: Constantly calculate your odds of getting hurt. Yuck!

BRAIN OPTIMIZATION BOT: Healthier living through constant cognitive therapy rather than drugs. Sounds awful, but better than the drugs. Still, this is pretty much a repeat of the Doc bot.

THRILLER BOT: Pretty much the same points as in journalism, but a long, silly story featuring well known mystery-thriller authors.

COFFEE DELIVERY BOT: just dumb & a waste of time.

MEMORY BOT: If a bot kept our memories, which ones? What would it do to us to remember just good ones? He didn't get into the clarity of memories at all & wasted a lot of time on a dumb story.

MATRIX BOT: Pretty much what it sounds like. He missed some great SF stories that would have made the point much better than the dumb one he made up. For instance, we're reading The Machine Stops in the Evolution of SF group this month.

HOMO DIGITALIS/HOMO SYNTHETICIS: Make our bodies better or give them up & live in a machine? Would we still be human. Again, SF has explored this & he missed some great opportunities like We Are Legion, the first of the Bobiverse trilogy or All Systems Red, just to name two of the latest in a long line.

TOURIST (EVOLUTION) BOT: Using DNA to trace back & recreate scenes from earlier evolution didn't really make sense. There's a lot more than DNA needed, but he didn't touch on that at all.

GOD BOT: is really more about evolution, the ability to enhance ourselves to where we instinctively know quantum mechanics the way we intuitively know Newtonian physics. IOW, we might not know the equation, but we instinctively handle mass & energy in the Newtonian range handily. We struggle to & really don't understand higher level physics, though.

IMMORTAL ME BOT: What happens when we've been there & done that for millions of years. Kind of silly.

EPILOGUE: AFTER THE ROBOTS ARRIVED: Now it’s up to you to be at least as smart as your phone or your toaster, and to do the right thing, okay?

[Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different and interesting

[Tim Dugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful ... what are robots, really?

Funny ... some Douglas-Adams-like humor

But toward the end kind of drags on

Audio book read by John Lee which is great

[Jordan Lombard]

This book is really hard to define. It's shelved in nonfiction, but really, it seems to be mostly fiction. It's difficult to determine what's nonfiction and what's fiction in this. I was hoping for something a little more concrete in fact and future thinking, but this isn't exactly it, even though it kind of is.

I think what I didn't like was that it wasn't written from the point of view of scientific experts but from people and robots of the future looking back?

In short, this just didn't work for me. And I was reading this for a creative writing endeavor too, which makes it even more odd that this didn't work out.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Especular cenários de antecipação é uma técnica clássica para perceber como as forças do momento presente poderão moldar o nosso futuro. Este livro é uma aplicação direta disso. Parte de entrevistas a experts em robótica, inteligência artificial e transhumanismo para traçar cenários hipotéticos. A base de investigação é sólida. O problema está nos cenários em si. Duncan decide seguir um caminho algo histriónico, mais baseado em jargão pseudo-futurista do que transposição sólida do que aprendeu para cenários especulativos. Tentando trazer algo de novo à discussão sobre robótica, falha, porque está mais interessado em deslumbrar o leitor com frases de futurismo simplista do que, realmente, traçar cenários.

[Tamara A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is advertised or categorized as non fiction. This is actually science fiction or science fantasy. I struggled to get through this. There are actual incidents included in here with the facts of the story retold in a really twisted way. The author also tries very hard to put democrats in the very best light possible, again with a lot of twisting of the truth into complete fiction.

He paints President Trump as a malfunctioning and seriously hacked robot in order to explain his sometimes bizarre actions and words. That's actually kind of funny.

However he then went on to say that John Kerry "won" the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War. First off you do not "win" the Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor is not a competition to be won or lost. All military medals are awarded for actions performed. Yes, this is a special pet peive of mine that the author stumbled upon. Second the highest award that John Kerry received was the Silver Star Medal, not even close the the Medal of Honor.

I did not like this book at all and would really like to give this negative stars.

[Carlos · Rating 1 out of 5]

A curious mix of non-fiction kernels and fictional speculation of what several researchers today think is possible in the fields of robotics/AI. Duncan’s structure was equally unique with several jumps forward and backward in its imaginary future timeline to arrange the book thematically. While not wholly displeasing, I found myself growing skeptical of the ever more elaborate speculations, something one of the researchers acknowledged as “speculation-squared”. While somewhat informative, the structure and choice of style were not my cup of tea and allowed the entire work to be easily dismissed as tenuously-grounded poorly-written science-fiction.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I'm being generous with 2 stars. As others have pointed out, categorizing this book as non-fiction is a stretch. While the parts of it that are concerned with actual current science were interesting, the science fiction futuristic robot world parts of it left me cold. At least it only cost me a dollar at the the Dollar Tree.

[Martti · Rating 3 out of 5]

24 visions of the future are 24 tales or different aspects of the robot/AI entities, like cuddly bear toys, sexbots, bots that are going to take your jobs away, military combatants, politician Trump-bot, Golden Compass like daemon-bot companion, about drones delivering everything (coffee), etc.

Some more serious then others, mostly Douglas Adams like tongue-in-cheek wacky stories. Well, at least they look wacky now, but still pretty good works of speculative fiction. As I understand written as a result of interviews with some visionaries and scientists. All rolled up into a space-time bending ouroboros of a narrative, that doesn't amount to much. Kinda hodgepodge of fiction and non-fiction, leaving me with a bunch of half-baked speculations on the future.

I understand the stories are supposed to illustrate the specific aspect of a robot under discussion in that chapter, but many stories are kinda half-baked and maybe sticking onto good known references like Matrix, Terminator, Dan Simmons Hyperion, Charles Stross Accelerando, etc. would have served the point better. Like in the case of Wargames no-win scenario when military AIs take over, The Golden Compass daemon companion as a personal assistant talking you out of senseless danger, or C-3PO "never tell me the odds", Westworld killable and intimacy bots.

Many of the aspects separately taken could be developed into books or research topics by themselves. On the other hand they probably already are research topics, as many actual products and scientists are referenced. Which leads me wanting to dive deeper into every topic separately and adds even more to the feeling this book annoyingly only just scratched the surface.

And example of other interesting topic covered is writer/musician/artist replacing bot, on par with 90% human efficiency. Good enough for most cases. But I would argue humans+automation would be the future combo. Not being replaced by automated novel writers.

Also talking about bots replacing CEOs or basically everybody in a company. Really? Company is owned by people, among them the CEO. Probably filling her pocketses with stocketses. This means that you need to give ownership to bots and I don't believe this would be realistic in the near future.

Basically it's the same with every topic - you could easily shoot them full of holes. Or just think/discuss them even further. So the stories are not exactly complete analyses, rather short intros. Which again, to me, is more annoying than not. But you gotta give it to David Ewing Duncan, he makes you wonder and speculate.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but I think it turned out to be something altogether different than what I anticipated. I originally thought it would be an edited volume of short stories by a variety authors, each of which offer a unique take on an alternate future involving a different kind of robotic application. Instead, what I read was a very preliminary, near-future assessment (in retrospect) about the role of robots in human society penned by a science writer who has consulted a few experts and investors in the tech world. This approach made the book less thrilling sci-fi smorgasbord and more airport read for C-suite types looking for a taste of futurism. The writing itself was neither particularly good nor compelling enough to push the reader through the text, which at times felt monotonous rather than inspired. To wit, the author repeatedly committed one of my absolute pet peeves as a writer- incomplete sentences (i.e. all those beginning with the word "which"). Overall I found the prose dull and maddening (I am incredulous at the suggestion by Time magazine that this constituted a "riveting read").

However, two chapters in particular stand out as truly insightful- Coffee Delivery Bot and Homo Digitalis/Homo Syntheticis. The former did a great job weaving myriad emerging technologies together to paint a picture of what household life might be like in the near-future and the latter offered a fantastically deliberative conversation among expert interviewees about the promises and perils of human digitalization and human enhancement.

While some of the topics in this book are already outdated 5 years later, others remain futuristic enough to ensnare your imagination. Sci-fi masterpiece it is not, but Talking to Robots manages to provoke enough high-level ethical, political, and social questions to warrant a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the future and technology, especially robots.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered where all this talk of robots, artificial intelligence, and machine learning will take us? David Duncan gives plausible insights into what the future might hold. Written as a very readable, conversation with a person from the future, each chapter takes a concept and describes what it has become and where it started. The eyebrow-raising, almost scary part of each chapter is that the early seeds of these possible futures all exist in the here and now. Mr. Duncan cites real interviews, with real people, working on the technology that he projects into the future. Matrix Bot is the only section I had a quibble with. In it, he describes all of humanity being lured into a group virtual reality and when we wake up, the robots have fixed all the social, physical and environmental problems mankind was facing. He hints at a possible glitch to this all-too-rosy image, which redeems it for me. Interesting and thought-provoking, I almost want to keep this book handy to see how good the author's imaginings are. I'm guessing he's got some of these spot-on.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Gary Brecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plucked from the non-fiction section of my local library, I soon discovered that this book’s narrator (not to be confused with the author) is fictional, who is relating to us, readers of the present, just how our future will be shaped by robots. The non-fiction part of this narrative are the numerous references to contemporary techs, philosophers, scientists etc. who love to speculate how technology will evolve and how humans and robots may co-exist, if not actually become one. This may sound pretty blah to some, but it definitely has moments for some serious reflection. However, the tales from the future are not without some exceptional moments of levity…especially in the chapter entitled “Politician Bot.” That chapter alone makes it worth the read.

[Julian Borrowdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speculative first person narrative account of the future with robots. Told from a far future vantage point, looking back to the history if the late 20th to 20 teens of the 21st, it tells the story of how we learned how to live with the robots and bio-enhancements. More whimsical and cutesy than prophetic, it nonstheless tackles the big problems of meaning, work, fulfillment and ennui and the practice problem of guarding against the danger of AI and robots. No technical jargon, science only go advance the story. Most of the predictions I find unlikely, besides where current trends felt already leadjng us. I found other a fun easy read (or rather digital audiobook listen from my local library, Yay local libraries!).

[Matt McKay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a light read. Maybe too light and yet has too much filler... which is confusing. Expect a story about a fascinating future of bots, AI and humans told by a vaguely patronizing nihilist. Maybe I was reading too much into that, but, damn, some of his futures were so bleak. Anyway, you might like it if you're looking for a quick read, but don't expect to put down the book and feel excited about the future because, apparently, we'll all be stripped of any meaning at the end of the universe.

[Bennor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it really hard to get past the way this is written (in "future past tense"), as though each chapter has been written many years in the future looking back.

The most interesting parts are the stories, interviews and information about robotics, AI, etc in our present time.

The future stuff has some really interesting ideas, but very little that I hadn't already imagined or seen before in other futurist or sci-fi books.

[StarMan · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Little_Ember · Rating 2 out of 5]

What are you trying to say? What is your research? What is the narrative? Have all of this sorted before you write a book on robots and the philosophical quandaries or revelations you may have with them. Why did you write this? Why did I waste my 7 euro on this at the charity store? So many questions.

[Jim Paulson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favourite, I struggled to finish it.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on the concept of writing this as a letter from the future. It made some of the concepts seem less realistic, even when I knew they weren't as futuristic as described.

[Chloe A-L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just under thought shitty science fiction masquerading as journalism. It’s not even FUN.

[DeWayne Dorsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a weird mix of alternative future, mixed with examples of things that haven't happened. It took a second to get used , but was a pretty interesting read.

[Nik Korba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't love the writing style, but was challenged by some intriguing concepts. Thanks!

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is... strange.
It’s supposedly half sci fi/futuristic and half based on real science.
But it’s hard to tell which is which at times because the author doesn’t tell you.

Most chapters say ‘when I interviewed so and so in 2018’. Always the same year. Did the author actually interview them the same year or did he just stumble on their research or TED talks?

Is it interesting ? Sure. Most of it is because it’s written in a very light style. Sometimes you wish he’d explain a bit more... or even an image of the product. Nope. It’s just many little vignettes.

And you do get again the trying trope of ‘let’s live forever!’ As in all futurism books. Some chapters are interesting because the upcoming technology sounds fascinating. Other ideas are just a bit outlandish and strange. (See: the tech wear piece)

If you’re a sci-fi nerd that wants a really light book that’s kinda science-y you might like this one.

[Agnès · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read until page 232 and I've decided I got enough. There are 2 good stories so far, the others have potential to be good but after reading several of them, it all gets too repetitive, full of the same mentions (O'Reilly and Meredith Grey) and useless references to other chapters in the same book.
I was expecting better from it and I should've stopped 100 pages ago.