Synopses & Reviews
The brainchild of Industrial Light and Magic animatronics whiz Marc Thorpe, the "sport" of robot fighting was born in San Francisco in 1994. Almost overnight, the idea of specially designed robots whaling on each other graduated from bizarre pastime to underground sensation, attracting legions of Silicon Valley geeks smitten with the technical expertise and demented sci-fi inspiration of the spectacle. Comedy Central aired its first Battlebots episode in 2000, and America was hooked. High schools developed robot-building workshops, NBC engineers are fashioning a killer robot for super-fan Jay Leno, and even the United States Air Force is getting in on the action.
With uncommon access and insight, Brad Stone also addresses the dark side of the phenomenon, including the implications of fully automated, thousand-ton robots armed with military grade weaponry assaulting each other in the desert. On the other hand, robot combat just might constitute the first great sporting revolution of the new millennium. A blend of serious reportage and ain't-it-cool impressionism, Gearheads is an engrossing and funny examination of this peculiar subculture. Gentlemen, start your robots.
Review
"Stone smartly avoids too much mechanical mumbo jumbo and swerves through the legal battles that bedeviled the sport, treating readers to portraits of the wacky, passionate tinkerers holding the remote controls. Humans, it turns out, are still more interesting than robots." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"The explosive emotional turmoil of the legal disputes turned out to be just as violent as the robot battles themselves, resulting in a lively story of what can happen when a gutsy team of mechanical junkies and creators meet head to head with business, greed and the legal system." SV Metro
Review
"Newsweek's Silicon Valley correspondent Brad Stone introduces a colorful cast of innovators, litigators and agitators, all fighting for their piece of a once-lucrative pie... This cultural history of robotic sports entertainment... doubles as a cautionary tale to any artist breaking into the big, bad world of business." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"...Newsweek journalist Stone's original and surprisingly engaging account of the rise of 'robotic sport' depicts a world hardly anyone not passionate about these gladiatorial gear fests would have ever suspected. And yet all the elements of a taut thriller...are here." Publisher's Weekly
Review
"In lots of ways, Stone's report may be emblematic of our civilization
. of even more interest are the people he candidly describes, from the young enthusiast who had to be placed in a psych ward to the Bruce Wayne-like rich guy who tried to save the day. An out-of-the-ordinary account of pop culture. " Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In the early nineties, a visionary special-effects guru named Marc Thorpe conjured a field of dreams different from any the world had seen before: It would be framed by unbreakable plastic instead of cornstalks; populated not by ghostly ballplayers but by remote-controlled robots, armed to the steely teeth, fighting in a booby-trapped ring. If you built it, they'd come all right.... andlt;BRandgt; In andlt;Iandgt;Gearheads, Newsweekandlt;/Iandgt; technology correspondent Brad Stone examines the history of robotic sports, from their cultish early years at universities and sci-fi conventions to today's televised extravaganzas -- and the turmoil that threatened the whole enterprise almost from the beginning. andlt;BRandgt; By turns a lively historical narrative, a legal thriller, and an exploration of a cultural and technological phenomenon, andlt;Iandgt;Gearheadsandlt;/Iandgt; is a funny and fascinating look at the sport of the future today.
About the Author
Brad Stone has been writing for
Newsweek since 1995. As a general assignment correspondent for the magazine, he covered the famous 1998 Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa homerun chase, the infamous serial killer nurse case in Indiana, and the jury deliberations in the Timothy McVeigh trial.
Since 1998, as the magazine's Silicon Valley correspondent, Stone has owned one of the best perches in the nation from which to cover the boom, bust, and subsequent rebirth of the high-tech economy. He has covered the Microsoft anti-trust trial, the Napster saga, the contentious HP merger with Compaq, and the proliferation of digital consumer devices.
In spring of 2000, Stone reported in Newsweek on a new kind of entrepreneurial activity whose focal point was north, not south, of San Francisco: the increasingly visible sport of robotic combat. His investigation into the Bay Area origins of the enthusiastic community of robot builders and artists led to the writing of Gearheads.
Stone has also written for Wired, More, and the defunct high-tech magazine Industry Standard, among other publications. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, attorney Jennifer Granick, their cat, Mr. Boodles, and a variety of expensive and largely unnecessary robotic appliances and toys.
Table of Contents
Age of robot wars -- Purist -- Beginnings -- Robot wars years -- Courtrooms and other arena of violent combat -- Attack of the human money bots -- Ice age -- Thorpus delicti -- Exalted stage -- Square of 2.70 -- Marc Thorpe vs. robot wars -- Final showdown.