My Favorite Five Books About Robots EVAR!

An interview just went up on The Browser today, in which I discuss my five favorite books about robots and robotics. It was a great interview and I got to talk about a lot of my favorite things, from science fiction to science fact.

Because after you read a book like this, you look at any problem that is out there, and you think to yourself, ‘Oh I can build a machine that can figure this out better than a human, with better accuracy, and more quickly.’ They say that once you have a hammer everything begins to look like a nail. That’s absolutely true, and Machine Learning is one hell of a hammer.

Click here to give it a read!

I'm Confused and Excited About This!

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, a book that I co-authored with Dr. Anna C. Long -- THE MAD SCIENTIST HALL OF FAME -- was recently translated into French and released with a brand-new (very cool) cover by the Calmann-Levy publishing house.

Now, it seems that the book has been put on a short list of potential nominees for a French prize for fantasy/sci-fi, called the "Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire." Doesn't that sound impressive? Everything sounds better in French.

Unfortunately, I can't speak or read the language very well (and Google Translate is worse at it than I am). But from what I can gather, there will be another round of cuts and then a final prize announced in March.

Compliments of Google Translate...

GPI, or Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire, is the oldest French prices still in business - since 1974 - and the most prestigious devoted to "Literature of the Imagination." The term "imaginary" covers all of these "wrong kinds" that are science fiction, fantasy, as well as various fusions of these genres and still "transfictions" where, for example, some elements insidiously slip in a literature known as "general."

We're honored just to be pre-nominated. :)

Tulsa World

The Tulsa World newspaper (in my hometown) printed a great breakdown of what I've been up to (and will be up to this year), as well as a summary of A BOY AND HIS BOT. Nice!

The day before Wilson sold "Robopocalypse" to his publisher, his manager called from Los Angeles and said, much to Wilson's surprise, "Hey Daniel, we have an offer from Dreamworks for this book."

Click here to read the article.

A BOY AND HIS BOT

...is released today!

Written for ages nine to twelve, my first middle reader novel explores the fate of a boy who stumbles upon an experimental world built and abandoned by an ancient human civilization. Traveling with a speck sized robot named Peep and a ten-foot-tall atomic slaughterbot named Gary, young Code Lightfall must find a way out of Mekhos, and a way to save the lives of his friends.

The first review is in, over at the Michael Belfiore Blog.

"Drawing from his background as a CMU-trained robotics expert, Wilson creates a world every bit as amazing as Harry Potter’s. Actually, even more amazing, as it doesn’t depend on magic; it all could, conceivably, come true, and therein lies the real magic."

Please check it out!

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