Imagining the Future: One Story at a Time

<p>What happens when a kid who devours science fiction novels grows up to earn a PhD in robotics — and then writes the books he once dreamed of? </p><p>Daniel H. Wilson, a Cherokee citizen and Carnegie Mellon University alumnus, has spent his career moving between two worlds: building intelligent machines and imagining what they might become.</p><p>Wilson earned his master&#39;s in machine learning and PhD in robotics at CMU, drawn by the university&#39;s curiosity-driven culture. He wrote his first book, <em>How to Survive a Robot Uprising</em>, while still a grad student — defending his thesis one day and leaving on a book tour the next. That launched a career that includes the bestselling <em>Robopocalypse</em> (optioned by Steven Spielberg), <em>The Andromeda Evolution</em> (the authorized sequel to Michael Crichton&#39;s classic), and his newest novel, <em>Hole in the Sky</em>, a first-contact story grounded in his Cherokee heritage and the ancient mound-building civilization of Spiro, Oklahoma.</p><p>In this episode, Wilson traces his path from a used bookstore in North Tulsa to writing best-selling novels and screenplays, reflects on his unusual stint as an Air Force &quot;threat forecaster,&quot; and explains why he sees today&#39;s AI landscape as both exciting and alarming. He also unpacks a powerful idea from <em>Hole in the Sky</em>: that indigenous technologies — dismissed by colonizers as primitive — were in fact sophisticated systems built for balance rather than exponential growth, and what that contrast might teach us about building technology today.</p><p>It&#39;s a wide-ranging conversation about science fiction as an early-warning system, the difference between technology that exploits us and technology that could make us better, and what it means to keep imagining the future responsibly.</p><p>Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.  For more, info visit: <a href="http://cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast"><u>cmu.edu/whatsnextpodcast</u></a>.</p><p><strong>Explore more</strong><a href="http://cmu.edu/125"> </a></p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.danielhwilson.com/"><u>Daniel H. Wilson website</u></a></p></li></ul>