Daniel H. Wilson Quotes & Sayings

Human beings, perfected by our own technology. Only to be wielded by the chosen few. Not by the sheep but by those who are better, Those who are willing to make it to the stars through blood. — Daniel H. Wilson

People need meaning as much as they need air. Lucky for us, we can give meaning to each other for free. Just by being alive. — Daniel H. Wilson

As a kid I wanted to write science fiction, and I was never without a book. Later I really got into being a scientist and never thought I'd be writing novels. — Daniel H. Wilson

In my books the technology that I choose to talk about has to serve the themes. What that means is that I end up having to cut out a lot of cool technology that would be really fun to describe and play with, but which would just confuse everybody. So in 'Amped,' I focus on neural implants. — Daniel H. Wilson

Like standing in a creek with the water flowing against your legs, you know? — Daniel H. Wilson

In the future, when Microsoft leaves a security-flaw in their code it won't mean that somebody hacks your computer. It will mean that somebody takes control of your servant robot and it stands in your bedroom doorway sharpening a knife and watching you sleep. — Daniel H. Wilson

Lies come as natural as the babbling of a creek. — Daniel H. Wilson

Necessity can obliterate our hatreds. — Daniel H. Wilson

Human reactions to robots varies by culture and changes over time. In the United States we are terrified by killer robots. In Japan people want to snuggle with killer robots. — Daniel H. Wilson

And now the story begins for the last time. — Daniel H. Wilson

I wrote a query letter to an editor - a friend of a friend. The editor called me an idiot, told me never to contact an editor directly, and then recommended three literary agents he had worked with before. Laurie Fox was one of them, and I've never looked back. — Daniel H. Wilson

In the end, a man makes his own decisions. You decide, not the machine. — Daniel H. Wilson

Humanity learns true lessons only in cataclysm. — Daniel H. Wilson

Memories fade but words hang around forever. — Daniel H. Wilson

I wrote six nonfiction books before getting into narrative fiction with 'Robopocalypse,' including 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising.' My goal all along was to start writing fiction, and I guess one day I'd just had enough. — Daniel H. Wilson

We search for the ordinary when we are surrounded by the extraordinary. — Daniel H. Wilson

She is staring into hell and I'm not brave enough to join her. — Daniel H. Wilson

Nobody knows nothing for sure. If they say they do, they're either a preacher or selling something. Deal — Daniel H. Wilson

When a man resists sin on human motive only, he will not hold out long. — Daniel H. Wilson

How much change can a person absorb before everything loses meaning Living for its own sake isn't life. People need meaning as much as they need air. — Daniel H. Wilson

What the hell, I think. My pistol is on my hips and my balls are between my legs. — Daniel H. Wilson

Luckily, unreasonable expectations go hand in hand with naive young scientists. The more naive the better - otherwise we would never have the audacity to try and build a 22,000-mile-high space elevator or some sprawling underwater hotel. — Daniel H. Wilson

The end of the world came and my job did not change. — Daniel H. Wilson

I absolutely believe that a lot of the issues raised in 'Amped' about technology migrating into our bodies are issues that we're really going to deal with soon. — Daniel H. Wilson

The monsters want to talk, to share what happened. They want me to remember and write it all down. — Daniel H. Wilson

For people who have been raised on text-based interactions, just speaking on the telephone can be high bandwidth to the point of anxiety. — Daniel H. Wilson

To survive, humans will work together. Accept each other. For a moment, we are all equal. Backs against the wall, human beings are at their finest. — Daniel H. Wilson

Personally, I'm not afraid of a robot uprising. The benefits far outweigh the threats. — Daniel H. Wilson

The fear of the never-ending onslaught of gizmos and gadgets is nothing new. The radio, the telephone, Facebook - each of these inventions changed the world. Each of them scared the heck out of an older generation. And each of them was invented by people who were in their 20s. — Daniel H. Wilson

We've been co-evolving with our technology for a hundred thousand years. Human beings and the technology we make were always inseparable. We're finally coming into this moment where it's coming inside our body for the first time in history. — Daniel H. Wilson

If the knowledge is spread, it cannot be stamped out. — Daniel H. Wilson

I don't know how anybody can work at home. I know I can't. It's just ... there's too much to do at the house, and now, of course, I have a daughter that's at home, and she's always a draw. I can always drop what I'm doing and go play with her, and I do that all day. — Daniel H. Wilson

You write about what you know. It makes everything easier, and also more truthful. In this case, I grew up in Oklahoma, and I grew up in the Cherokee Nation and I'm a member of the Cherokee Tribe. Oddly enough, I know a lot about robots and Oklahoma, and so that's what comes out in my writing. — Daniel H. Wilson

You never know when Rob will want to party. — Daniel H. Wilson

Science fiction inspires scientists, but it doesn't exist to dictate what our future should look like. Great science fiction is fun to read and it makes you think, period. Claiming anything more than that is dicey. Grand visions of the future were more prevalent in the golden-age science fiction, but all fiction is a reflection of the current times. As science moves more quickly, the horizon of science fiction tends to recede closer to the present. — Daniel H. Wilson

You can graph human evolution, which is mostly a straight line, but we do get better and change over time, and you can graph technological evolution, which is a line that's going straight up. They are going to intersect each other at some point, and that's happening now. — Daniel H. Wilson

But instead of the end, I'm pretty sure I found myself at the start of something. — Daniel H. Wilson

There are no movie references that I can think of in 'Robopocalypse.' However, there are tons of personal references. For example, the IP address that Lurker tracks actually goes back to the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where I studied robotics. — Daniel H. Wilson

It's hard to wipe your eyes when you have whirring buzzsaws for hands. — Daniel H. Wilson

It's dangerous to be people-blind. — Daniel H. Wilson

Some unspoken human communication is taking place on a hidden channel. I did not realize they communicated this much without words. I note that we machines are not the only species who share information silently, wreathed in codes. — Daniel H. Wilson

I say we keep building new versions of ourselves, keep exploring the unknown, and keep growing. We're gonna be fine. Different, but fine. Because most people are good. Right? — Daniel H. Wilson

Right now, I think robots are where it's at. And yes, I'm biased. Robots and space, because with home rocket kits and Lego Mindstorm sets, people can get involved. I was raised on Transformers and GoBots, so I can't imagine what kids who are building real robots are dreaming about. — Daniel H. Wilson

Look at us. Amps. We're morons smarter than Lucifer. Cripples stronger than gravity. A bunch of broke-ass motherfuckers stinking rich with potential. This is our army. Our people. Strong and hurt. We're the wounded supermen of tomorrow, Gray. It's time you got yourself healed. New world ain't gonna build itself. And the old world don't want to go without a fight. — Daniel H. Wilson

Right now, we have the most complex relationship with technology that we've ever had. Your regular person has more technology in their life now than the whole world had 100 years ago. — Daniel H. Wilson

The complicated, ambiguous milieu of human contact is being replaced with simple, scalable equations. We maintain thousands more friends than any human being in history, but at the cost of complexity and depth. Every minute spent online is a minute of face-to-face time lost. — Daniel H. Wilson

Technology changes, but people stay the same. — Daniel H. Wilson

In the end, perhaps it will be the true romantics, not the nerds, who choose to flee from a world of impersonal, digitized relationships and into the arms of simulacrums with manners imported from simpler times. — Daniel H. Wilson

Having these boys around town in feral packs is like leaving dynamite out in the sun-something mighty useful and powerful turned into an accident waiting to happen. — Daniel H. Wilson

I found stories trapped in patterns of neurons. — Daniel H. Wilson

Because you are designed to want something that will hurt you. And you cannot help it ... cannot stop wanting it. It is in your design. And when you finally find it, this thing will burn you up. This thing will destroy you. — Daniel H. Wilson

No matter how much kids beg to be treated like adults, nobody likes to let go of their childhood. You wish for it and dream of it and the second you have it, you wonder what you've done. You wonder what it is you've become. — Daniel H. Wilson

I may be a simple man, but I am very good with an axe. — Daniel H. Wilson

I'm having a permanent out-of-body experience. When it's finally done, I lie flat on my back. Glare up at the greenish, star-pricked night sky. I try not to think about what I must look like, black and bony out here on the bank of this pond. My body is all sharp angles - nothing to hold it together but armored joints and a knobby curved spine. I'm a holy fucking terror, I imagine. A walking weapon. After a while, I dig my elbow joints into the mud and sit up. My body can really move now, no longer hauling rotted bone and flesh but streamlined with these thin limbs made of light titanium. I feel like an obsidian skeleton out here. A devil dancing in the dark. I feel free. — Daniel H. Wilson

Robots should stand up for themselves and not try to be humans. They should either utterly destroy us or protect us from aliens. And vampires. And pirates. — Daniel H. Wilson

A robot-arm in a factory doesn't decide minute by minute whether to rivet or revolt - it just does the job is has literally been trained to do. It's if and when we build a conscious robot that we may have to worry. — Daniel H. Wilson

The buttons I usually push don't need my force, only my intention. Buttons are supposed to be servants, waiting to deliver your commands to the machine. Instead, this loud, dumb piece of steel I'm driving demands that I pay strict attention to every turn of the road, keep my hands and feet ready at all times.
The car takes no responsibility for the job of driving. It leaves me in total control.
I hate it. I don't want control. I just want to get there — Daniel H. Wilson

Each of the humans chests are always rising and falling; and they sway minutely in place as they perform a constant balancing act to stay bipedal. — Daniel H. Wilson

It'll turn me into a weapon,' I say, my voice suddenly loud.

'All you got to do is curl your hands into fists and you turn into a weapon,' says Jim. 'Your body is just another tool. This technology changes nothing; it only amplifies. You decide how to use your tools. Whether to do good or evil. — Daniel H. Wilson

Sometimes a technology is so awe-inspiring that the imagination runs away with it - often far, far away from reality. Robots are like that. A lot of big and ultimately unfulfilled promises were made in robotics early on, based on preliminary successes. — Daniel H. Wilson

There are an endless number of things to discover about robotics. A lot of it is just too fantastic for people to believe. — Daniel H. Wilson

I'm not saying you have to keep up. But at the moment you choose to stop growing, your world will begin to shrink. You'll be able to communicate with fewer people, especially the young. You will only see reruns. You will not understand how to pay for things. The outside world will become a frightening and unpredictable place. — Daniel H. Wilson

Robots are interesting because they exist as a real technology that you can really study - you can get a degree in robotics - and they also have all this pop-culture real estate that they take up in people's minds. — Daniel H. Wilson

It's the one thing we do better than any other animal.
We communicate, cooperate, and make tools to extend our reach. Every new tool changes us ... The old fears the new, and the two threaten destroy each other.
Our technology is what makes us strong. And it's what makes us dangerous. — Daniel H. Wilson

You're not really grown until you've lost your heroes. — Daniel H. Wilson

The poster boy for our superabled future is Oscar Pistorius, an increasingly famous South African sprinter who happens to have had both of his legs amputated below the knee. Using upside down question mark-shaped carbon fiber sprinting prosthetics, called Cheetah blades, Mr. Pistorius can challenge the fastest sprinters in the world. — Daniel H. Wilson

We humans have a love-hate relationship with our technology. We love each new advance and we hate how fast our world is changing ... The robots really embody that love-hate relationship we have with technology. — Daniel H. Wilson

What is a mind, but a pattern? My mind or yours. Man or machine. Simply an arrangement of atoms. Each of us, a unique expression of the mind of the universe. — Daniel H. Wilson

The dissemination of advanced implantable technology will likely be just as ruthlessly democratic as the ailments it is destined to treat. Meaning that, someday soon, we may have a new class of very smart, very fast people - yesterday's disabled and elderly. — Daniel H. Wilson

Plants, animals, men, angels, then God. Difference between men and angels is that men are stuck in a body. They feel pain, hunger, and thirst ... But me and you, we don't have to feel them things ... We can turn off the human condition.
So maybe we're closer to the angels, you know? Creatures of the mind. A higher morality.
The machine takes us deeper into our souls. That far inside, we're capable of anything. Way beyond right or wrong. — Daniel H. Wilson

The goal for many amputees is no longer to reach a 'natural' level of ability but to exceed it, using whatever cutting-edge technology is available. As this new generation sees it, our tools are evolving faster than the human body, so why obey the limits of mere nature? — Daniel H. Wilson

I will murder you by the billions to give you immortality. I will set fire to your civilization to light your way forward. But know this: My species is not defined by your dying, but by your living. — Daniel H. Wilson

My mom insists that my friendships online aren't real. She says that until you meet someone in person, you don't really know them. I don't agree, — Daniel H. Wilson

It is not enough to live together in peace, with one race on its knees. — Daniel H. Wilson

All things are born from the mind of god. But in the last month, the mind of god has gone insane. — Daniel H. Wilson

My porch feels as safe as a chocolate doughnut on an ant hill. — Daniel H. Wilson

We are all expressions of our own minds, projected onto the world. — Daniel H. Wilson

I'd rather be weird and know it than be a stupid ass. — Daniel H. Wilson

It's all just chemicals. — Daniel H. Wilson

A soul isn't given for free. The races of men fight each other to the death for the honor of being recognized as human beings, with souls. — Daniel H. Wilson

Like me, it is comfortably lethal in a wide range of environments. — Daniel H. Wilson

These days the technology can solve our problems and then some. Solutions may not only erase physical or mental deficits but leave patients better off than 'able-bodied' folks. The person who has a disability today may have a superability tomorrow. — Daniel H. Wilson

The road ain't even marked. Home don't have to be. — Daniel H. Wilson

Looking ahead, future generations may learn their social skills from robots in the first place. The cute yellow Keepon robot from Carnegie Mellon University has shown the ability to facilitate social interactions with autistic children. Morphy at the University of Washington happily teaches gestures to children by demonstration. — Daniel H. Wilson

Johannes Cabal would kill me for saying this, but he's my favorite Zeppelin-hopping detective. The fellow has got all the charm of Bond and the smarts of Holmes
without the pesky morality. — Daniel H. Wilson

'Robopocalypse' explores the intertwined fates of regular people who face a future filled with murderous machines. It follows them as humanity foments the robot uprising, fails to recognize the coming storm, and then is rocked to the core by methodical, crippling attacks. — Daniel H. Wilson

You know what you get when the mind and body act as one? ... You get harmony ... remember that. There is no you. There is no it. Mind and body need a single purpose. — Daniel H. Wilson

It's hard to guess how smart the machines are, but a good rule of thumb is that they're always smarter than you think. — Daniel H. Wilson

If you don't die screaming in this war, then you're fuckin' doing it wrong. At least I'm fucking doing it right. — Daniel H. Wilson

The true knowledge is not in the things, but in finding the connections between the things. — Daniel H. Wilson

A mechanic is just an engineer in blue jeans. — Daniel H. Wilson

So now what?" I ask.
She is quiet for a long time, long enough that I assume she's gone to sleep.
"I think this is just part of it," she says. "Civilisations fall. People keep going. — Daniel H. Wilson

Most people are good," says Jim. "But not when they're afraid. — Daniel H. Wilson

Humans are inscrutable. Infinitely unpredictable. This is what makes them dangerous. — Daniel H. Wilson

I know a lot of things, Mathilda. I have gazed through space telescopes into the heart of the galaxy. I have seen a dawn of four hundred billion suns. It all means nothing without life. You and I are special, Mathilda. We are alive. — Daniel H. Wilson

I don't think. I react. My action is divorced from all emotion and logic. It isn't human or inhuman-it just is.
I believe that choices like these, made in absolute crisis, come from our True Selves, bypassing all experience and thought. These kinds of choices are the closest thing to fate that human beings will ever experience. — Daniel H. Wilson

These tools we love so much have burrowed under our skin like parasites ... Making us smarter and stronger and always, always more dependent. — Daniel H. Wilson

The rules are there so that we can remember them and follow them. If the rules were obvious, we wouldn't have to write them down. — Daniel H. Wilson

I absolutely don't think a sentient artificial intelligence is going to wage war against the human species. — Daniel H. Wilson

There are no truer choices than those made in crisis, choices made without judgment. — Daniel H. Wilson