How to Survive a Robot Uprising

Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion

By: Daniel H. Wilson

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

How do you spot a robot mimicking a human? How do you recognize and deactivate a rebel servant robot? How do you escape a murderous "smart" house, or evade a swarm of marauding robotic flies?

In this dryly hilarious survival guide, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson teaches worried humans the secrets to quashing a robot mutiny. From treating laser wounds to fooling face and speech recognition, outwitting robot logic to engaging in hand-to-pincer combat, How to Survive a Robot Uprising covers every possible doomsday scenario facing the newest endangered species: humans.

Based on extensive interviews with prominent scientists and including a thorough overview of cutting edge robot prototypes like humanoid walkers, insect, gecko, and snake robots, this one-of-a-kind audiobook makes a witty yet legitimate introduction to contemporary robotics.

©2005 Daniel H. Wilson (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Humorous and informative...this nifty little guide to surviving the inevitable robot apocalypse may have you reconsidering purchasing that 'smart' (read: insidious) refrigerator." (Publishers Weekly)

Clever but just a funny manual

So this work is on topic...but it is a manual: boring. Well maybe not boring, but slow. The work is complete and a good primer for those new to science fiction or robot apocalypse. If you need that or just a book to waste some time with a great narrative voice, then go for it. Stefan Rudnicki reads well.

Robotic future....

This is a good evasive training course for just about anybody. If you want to hide out one might find it interesting however much of it is common sense. Avoid anything electronic if you don't want to be tracked.

Humorous, Informative, Dry

The format is very dry, and the facts presented will be no surprise to a reader of SlashDot. There is a lot of geek / scifi fan humor, which is what I enjoyed the most. This would be funny as an animation because the visual image of combining every precaution and action into a single character would be hilarious.

The Geeks shall Inherit the Earth

What did you love best about How to Survive a Robot Uprising?

This book cleverly weaves real scientfic truth about Robots with common causes for Alarm bred into us by movies such as the Terminator and shows you how in very practical terms how to survive malicious robots, who want to harm you. The book is very comprehensive.

What did you like best about this story?

Its a practical way to engage with your technology loving older children if listening to this book together. I particularly loved the clever suggestions such as how to stall a malicious robot by asking it what the largest prime number is.

What about Stefan Rudnicki’s performance did you like?

The narrators voice is brilliant. Super deep, non emotive and fitting to the story at hand, while never changing tone even during potentially lethal descriptions of killer robots.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My son and I laughed for hours to during night drives.

Any additional comments?

There is some heavy technical content in the book whcih I had to explain to my 12 year old, with many references to historical robot related movies and robot stereo types.

How to survive this book

I thought this would be a witty discussion of robotics and their current and projected future developments but instead it was slow, heavy handed, and intellectually weak. Even if you know nothing about robotics this would not educate you and it certainly had no snap or wit to it. Save your money.

Could not finish this book

I have never resorted to an insulting review, but in this case it is appropriate. The best description I can find for this book is stupid. The author is all over the place, but he goes nowhere with this material. I'm not sure, but I think he thinks that he is funny, but he is not and it makes listening to this very frustrating. Save your credits.