People of Metal

People of Metal is science fiction with science firmly intact. Readers of this genre in all its fullness will appreciate this approach. What Robert Snyder accomplishes with including a scientific basis is not lost in the least as we encounter characters and conflict. Nicely done.

This one does not easily fall into any category of science ficti0n. I starts with very undeveloped conversation and only slightly improves at the end. This story is one view of how the expansion of AI will impact humans. The author is very generous, according to some theorists, on the timeline for the takeover of the planet from biological humans. Snyder does not dwell much on the impact to the workforce of thinking robots early on. The majority of the book speaks to the saving of the remnants of humanity found in Africa and the ultimate goal of sending humanity to the stars, a la Steven Hawking.

This was an ambitious telling and the writing skill of the author is high, I read the description carefully, was excited about the concept, and really wanted to like this book. Actually, I wanted to love it as it seemed to follow the path that Weinbaum, Heinlein and Asimov blazed. But the book fell short, Maybe it fell long. It is a lengthy book and I felt it could have been divided into two or three novels, and the characters and plot could've been fleshed out. The beginning is a confusing blur of times, events, and characters which lead up to the main point and characters of the story, but I quickly began to flag and stopped trying to connect the dots. By the time the real focus of the story arrived, I had lost interest and didn't trust the author not to cast the characters aside just about the time I was getting to know them a little. As it is, I feel the book reads like an extremely long conversation between a couple of scientists and a sociologist about what could happen if a human mind could be embraced within a robotic body. The book has some fascinating ideas and conjectures, but little passion. Nobody seems to feel anything, but look out over history dispassionately manipulating and experimenting. To switch metaphors, it's like a brilliant, but long chess game. Personally, I feel there is much potential here and I'd enjoy giving a rewrite and/or a division into sequels another try. BTW, the cover art is terrific and one of the things that drew me to the book.

It certainly make a pleasant surprise to see robots revisited, and explored as comprehensively as Asimov used to on his various opuses on robots!
The action takes place over several centuries, as robots are first refined until they become experts at games and tennis, then are the reason for a second arms race to create the most lethal war machines, between the US and China. Eventually, the robots become used as servants to allow biological humans to live a life of ease and luxury. Finally, the minds of individual humans can be uploaded into robot bodies, though the book remains reticent over whether that consciousness really does mean virtual immortality for that original unit of consciousness.
All these developments are noted via a series of conversations over the years that take place between presidents, scientists, members of state and so on. The realpolitik of leaked information, treaties and financial deals expresses a certain cynical realism of how human nature 'works'.
Finally, however, the stage is reached where humans have everything. Now is the time for speculation of what will transpire where no biological human need ever work or do anything for themselves again. But is a Utopic world what humans truly need, or desire?
Either way, humans get the chance to start again, in a different context, guided by metal human beings. Will they be able to avoid the pitfalls of historical failures too? If so, to what will humans aspire to then?
This book is an entertaining read, as it charts our longer-term evolution and future - towards the stars.
Working with such a long time perspective, the characters within it to for the most part, seem so what forgettable, do it can be hard to remember who says what. Because it works mainly through conversations made at different times, there is little in the way of evocative language. However, it certainly does explore well enough what creating sentient robots might mean for the evolution of our species in the long term.