Theme in Robopocalypse

This may be the longest time I've taken to finish such a relatively short (350 page)  novel, but here it is again: this time I'm looking at theme in Robopocalypse. I was surprised by the end of the book, and there was an unexpected twist that led to the expected victory. The plot was suddenly brought together by an array of sources, and the main characters group is able to form an alliance in an entity that noboy would expect. This made me give it a good rating on goodreads... and caused me to think about its theme.

The theme of the novel is both explicitly stated and implied by the author, and is constantly developing until the very end of the novel. You get a taste of the theme in the very first chapter, in which Cormac Wallace states,"We are a better species for having fought this war." What he means by this is not only that people learned many lessons after fighting their own creations, but in a broader sense that people need to stand up for what they believe in, especially even in high pressure situations. From the war that ensues throughout the story, we can learn that when people are not mindful of their acts, they can unknowingly opress groups of society that feel they need to retaliate. Although the Dr. Nicholas Wasserman, who created the self aware robot Archos, was minutely aware of its implications, he was careless and let the technology spread to machines and robots of all kinds, from household appliances to military machines. Society too, in the novel, does not realize that by depending on their robot helpers for everything they do, they have given this group of beings a reason to be angy and to retaliate. These robots feel that their self awareness puts them on par with humans, and do not want to be treated like ordinary machines.

Towards the middle of the novel, a second theme emerges. Each seperate group of people thinks that they are only trying to survive, and will not be able to help humanity, but ends up contributing in a large way. This shows that although actions can seem small, when they compound they can result in change on a massive scale. A quote that supports this, from page 132 is "The Osage Nation never turned away a single human survivor... As a result, Gray Horse grew into a bastion of human resistance" Although this small community in the book starts out with only a few badly equipped people, by taking small steps to find other survivors, it is able to grow into a large power in the emerging plot.

If you do decide to read this novel, you will realize that Daniel H. Wilson has put a lot of thought into not only the scientific aspects of the story, but also the literary and philosophical aspects of it.