top of page

Texas Robot SciFi books and authors




Texas Independence Day is a great excuse to explore (or revisit) Texas robot scifi. Read for the great stories, learn about mental models, machine learning, emotions, computer architectures, domestic robotics, dexterous manipulation,and bounded rationality. And who said robotics has to be a slog? Most of the books are comedies!




Beyond Texas authors, there are some great books that involve Texans and Texas:

There's the one about this nice Jewish boy from Houston (Brent Spiner's description of himself, not mine) playing the role of Lt Cmdr Data on this new series, Star Trek: The Next Generation-- Brent Spiner's only lightly fictionalized account of his third year on the set, Fan Fiction, is pretty fun too.


Texas does figure prominently in Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson; it's not a robot scifi book per se but there are lots of drones flitting about.


The Strange is set on a counterfactual Mars in the city of, wait for it, New Galveston. Space exploration was financed by Texans during the Civil War. Robots, called Machines, are an important part of life and an important part of the plot. It is a great illustration of bounded rationality as I note in Science Robotics.


Each of the links has where you can buy the books. And don't forget to buy my books too- either the textbooks or the Robotics Through Science Fiction series!


Poster of robot scifi book covers by Texas authors or involving Texas

Comments


bottom of page