ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Anna Camille Long — reader, critic, beautiful lady. Did I mention critic?

To my fabulous agent, Laurie Fox, and my sharp film agents, Justin Manask and Josh Schechter.

To my people at Bloomsbury USA, especially Colin Dickerman, Ben Adams, and Yelena Gitlin.

Special thanks to my many friends and colleagues who reviewed sections of this book and/or submitted to probing conversations on subjects ranging from training karate-fighting robots to the physics of Godzilla:

Matt Alt, Brenna Argall, Brigadier General (Ret.) Chris Arney, Chris Atkeson, Darrin Bentivegna, Anthony Daniels, “Prickly” Pete Dougherty, Dave Ferguson, Abraham Flaxman, Robert Hamburger (author of Real Ultimate Power), Matt Hancher, Tim Hornyak (author of Loving the Machine), Nidhi Kalra, Sophie Karlin (Tamagotchi expert), James Kuffner, Patrick Macias, Matt Mason, Mike Montemerlo, Annalee Newitz, Nick Patronik, Christopher Potts, Nick Roy, Alan Schulz, Alana Sherman, Ted Sherwood Jr., Metin Sitti, Glenn Thoren, Bret Turpin (at Autonomous Solutions Inc.), Angela Valdez, Drew Wilkerson, Eric Wilson, and Garth Zeglin.

And many thanks to my friends who have listened to my robot rambles: Ryan Anfuso, Mark Baumann, Colby Boles, Paul Carpenter, Cory Doctorow, Brian Long, Brett Lundmark, Abraham Flaxman, Laura Gonzalez, Andy Grieshop, Melissa Herman, Matt “Bigtime” Livermore, Amalia Marino, Richard McIntosh, Tanner Rogers, and Dan Stern. And also to my family, especially David, Dennis, Mindy, and Pam Wilson. And finally — here’s to you, Johnny Five.

(And of course, thanks to Jamie Varela and the rest of the coffee-slingers at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, Oregon.)