Daniel H. Wilson on the Singularity: We Can’t Win Against Technology – We Are Technology!

Daniel H. Wilson earned a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of The New York Times best selling science fiction novel Robopocalypse and a columnist and contributing editor for Popular Mechanics magazine. He has also written: How To Survive a Robot Uprising, How to Build a Robot Army, A Boy and His Bot and Where’s My Jetpack?. Robopocalypse is not only one of Amazon’s top books for 2011 but, most notably, Steven Spielberg is directing a film based on the novel, scheduled for release in April of 2014. Most recently Daniel published a book called Amped dealing with issues of human enhancement. By now you will not be surprised that I was very happy to get Dr. Wilson on Singularity 1 on 1. During our discussion we cover a wide variety of topics such as: being a scientist versus being a writer; making fun of Hollywood, then, going over to the dark side and becoming part of it; technological progress or lack thereof for the past 40 years; Robopocalypse – the book and the Spielberg movie; why superhuman AI will not be preoccupied with exterminating humanity; being a writer and telling a story that people can relate to; tips on writing visually powerful content; Robogenesis – the sequel to Robopocalypse; Amped and what happens when technology becomes part of our bodies; whether technology makes us more powerful or more vulnerable. I have to say that I enjoyed talking to Daniel H. Wilson as much as I enjoy his books. Hope you do too.