A sweetly nostalgic and enlightening exploration of futures past, present, and still to come. Generation Robot covers a century of science fiction, fact and, speculation - from the 1950 publication of Isaac Asimov's seminal robot masterpiece, I, Robot, to the 2050 Singularity when artificial and human intelligence are predicted to merge. Beginning with a childhood informed by pop-culture robots in movies, in comic books, and on TV in the 1960s to adulthood, where the possibilities of self-driving cars and virtual reality are daily conversation, Terri Favro offers a unique perspective on how our relationship with robotics and futuristic technologies has shifted over time. Peppered with pop-culture fun-facts about Superman's kryptonite, the human-machine relationships in the cult TV show Firefly, and the sexual and moral implications of the film Ex Machina, Generation Robot explores how the techno-triumphs and resulting anxieties of reality bleed into the fantasies of our collective culture. Clever and accessible, Generation Robot isn't just for the serious, scientific reader - it's for everyone interested in robotics and technology since their science-fiction origins. By looking back at the future she once imagined, analysing the plugged-in present, and speculating on what is on the horizon, Terri Favro allows readers the chance to consider what was, what is, and what could be. This is a captivating book that looks at the pop-culture of our society to explain how the world works - now and tomorrow.

Author Biography

Terri Favro, winner of the CBC Creative Non-fiction Prize for her essay "Icarus," is the author of the novels Sputnik's Children, Once Upon A Time In West Toronto, and The Proxy Bride, and the co-creator of a series of comic books published by Grey Borders Books. She has written marketing copy for IBM, Apple, Blackberry and LEGO, among others. She lives in Toronto.