“A wild ride and an excellent read….This is a book that offers insights on a subject about which all professional military personnel need to be cognizant.”
— Official Reading List of the Royal Australian Air Force
“The definitive work on a killer subject: the role of robots in war. More than 12,000 warbots have already been deployed in Iraq, yet there are no agreed frameworks for accountability when things go wrong. Singer’s riveting and terrifying account covers all sides, from historical to ethical.”
— Financial Times, Non-Fiction Book of the Year
“A leading expert on the mechanization of war, Singer is deeply knowledgeable about innovations from toy-sized robots that search cars for explosives to drones controlled by pilots half a world away. But he is not simply a cataloger of gadgets. Instead, as in his most recent book, this year’s Wired for War, he brilliantly explores the moral, ethical, political, and military costs of the unmanning of combat. As a result, he has become a pre-eminent voice in the debate over U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.”
— Foreign Policy, Top 100 Global Thinkers List
“…an important new book…”
— New York Times
“Wired for War” by P.W. Singer reads like science fiction but is instead a brilliant piece of reporting on the future of warfare, a future already unfolding in the skies over Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where unmanned drones scan the ground below and blow up people as determined by “pilots” thousands of miles away. Sci-fi is becoming battlefield reality, and Mr. Singer makes it clear that this is just the beginning. Robotic warfare raises lots of profound questions about how wars are to be fought. This is very important and fascinating book.
— The Baltimore Sun
“…though it’s a complex, serious topic, Singer’s writing is accessible and entertaining. How many books, after all, are lauded by both “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart and Joint Forces Quarterly?… Chalk up his success to his ability to see key emerging issues before most anyone else.”
— Charlotte Observer
“Great work…It’s been truly terrific for us to be able to spin off.”
— Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations
“A Tour de Force… Singer’s book is a must-read.”
— Journal of Peace Research
“…As Singer explore the issues raised by military robotics –meeting with entrepreneurs, engineers, and operators, ethicists and pundits – his enthusiasm becomes infectious. With its informal style and cultural references, and because of its topic, Wired for War is a book of its time: this is strategy for the Facebook generation.”
— Foreign Affairs
“PW Singer has written what is likely to be the definitive work on this subject for some time to come. He has a record of drawing out the underlying trends in modern warfare, with previous books on child soldiers and the increasing use of mercenaries. Wired for War will confirm his reputation: it is riveting and comprehensive, encompassing every aspect of the rise of military robotics, from the historical to the ethical.”
— The Financial Times
“A meticulous account of the latest military robots…An exhaustively researched book, enlivened by examples from popular culture”
— Associated Press
“Blew my f***ing mind…This book is awesome.”
— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
“…Singer’s well-researched, approachable compilation brings the chilling realization home that science fiction is closer to battlefield fact than most people dare to imagine.”
— Military History Quarterly
“The fun one is Wired for War, Peter Singer’s fantastic romp through the robotics revolution. Ranging from the scientific advances that are bringing us robots integrated into military units, to a future in which robots might largely fight on their own guided by a few simple principals of complexity theory, Peter also covers issues such as how robots affect the ethics of warfare, and even how they could undermine Democratic Peace theory. It’s also written like cotton candy–Peter has mastered the art of presenting serious work as readable and fun.”
— National Journal.com
“Singer ranges widely –from unmanned combat systems to a cogent history of robotics from its nineteenth century roots. His informative and lively story offers deft twists of humor and comic juxtaposition. But he reserves his darkest tones for the future, noting many experts foresee the increasing displacement of human agency by rapidly evolving machines…”
— Colloquy: Harvard Alumni Magazine
“In Wired for War, Singer pairs his encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture with a flair for understated humour…The remarkable feats that this new generation of robotics perform are so mind-stretching that readers are apt to find themselves in a constant “gee whiz” mode.”
— The Mitchell Report
“…A must read for anyone who wants to understand the future of warfare.”
— Royal Australian Navy Reading List
“This is perhaps the most important book that one can read at this point in time… This is an important book, a very well written and entertaining book, and one whose time is come.”
— Winston Salem Journal
“Independent military analysis plays the important role in American society of providing voters and policy makers with critical assessments
that frequently challenge the official party line. In the past decade, however, the field has become overcrowded, with too many retired generals simply regurgitating official talking points on cable news networks. Amidst this fog of war, P.W. Singer’s omnivorous curiosity offers an occasionally chilling breath of fresh air.”
— Military Review
“…a book destined to become a touchstone in the evolving debate over how America’s military can best prepare for the wars of today and tomorrow. Penetrating in analysis and convincing in argumentation, Wired for War is already a classic…”
— Joint Forces Quarterly
“If you shrug off Terminator and Battlestar Galactica as never-gonna-happen impossibilities, PW Singer has news for you. His spine-tingling book, Wired For War, carefully explains the robotics revolution that’s gripped our military since 9/11.”
— Gizmodo.com
“…Carefully researched and cleverly written…This book is a must-read for fans of technology and for students of war.”
— Naval War College Review
“P.W. Singer’s Wired for War will give you an intriguing glimpse into the present state of mechanized warfare. This is where scifi meets reality.”
— IO-9
“It is a must-read for military professionals.”
— Proceedings: US Naval Institute
“War by remote control is here and is brilliantly depicted in Peter W. Singer’s latest best-seller, “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.”…Singer’s book is a fascinating, well-researched, page-turning account of where technologies are taking us next in the wars of the future.”
— The Washington Times
“P.W. Singer’s latest book, Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, is exciting, fascinating and frightening.”
— H+ Magazine
“…A comprehensive look at how robots have become integral to the modern military.”
— Japan Times
“A Compelling Work”
— General Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force
“…like a child in a candy store who can tell you every ingredient in each piece of candy and how they taste but also knows of illnesses such as diabetes or obesity that could potentially occur if one eats too much.”
— Robotics.com
“In his new paradigm-shifter of a book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (Penguin, January), P.W. Singer musters an arsenal of evidence—ranging from overseas battlegrounds to factories busily filling lucrative Pentagon contracts to the most bleeding-edge research workshops—to make one searing point: that human society is hurtling toward one of those great hinges of history, and we are wholly unprepared for its implications.”
–- In These Times
“In a wide-ranging study that moves seamlessly from science fiction and pop culture to engineering and entrepreneurship, Singer immerses the reader in a world in which robots are revolutionizing our military and changing the nature of conflict in the 21st century.”
— Foreign Policy In Focus
“…Informative and useful to interested parties of all ideological inclinations…Wired for War is a portrait of highly competent military embedded within a prosperous society adapting to a difficult situation through technological innovation. But it’s also a depiction of a country that has lost its way and an alarming military-industrial complex that isn’t helping us find our way back.”
— American Conservative
“Now, an important and influential book, Wired for War, puts all of this together and explains not only what we see in today’s headlines, but where it’s all leading. It’s nothing short of a civilization game changer…In his book, Dr. Singer has picked up the strands of known information from the military, the laboratories, the private companies currently producing robotics, and military people in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the distant cubicles where the wars are also being fought. He’s blended all of this into a highly readable, non-technical, thoroughly convincing picture of today’s realities—along with a UAV-like over the horizon image of what’s ahead for the future of warfare.”
— U.S. Politics Today
Wired for War is an enlightening, measured, sometimes scary, always deeply engrossing book that not only takes readers into the present and future of robotics, but also delves deeply into the philosophical questions that arise as a result. What does it mean when a 20-year-old soldier sitting in a control room in Virginia can obliterate a village in Afghanistan by remote control—as though playing a videogame—and then clock out and drive home to have dinner with his family in the suburbs? Read Wired for War to find out.
-– The Daily Beast
“I really enjoyed it. Very informative, and pragmatical!”
— Sebastian Thrun, Director of the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Lab; Winner, DARPA Grand Challenge Robotic Car Race
“A riveting, important book…It is the only book in my reading experience that quotes Immanuel Kant and Biggie Smalls with equal enthusiasm. The resulting book is an intoxicating, encyclopedic trip – made intensely readable by all the colorful characters Singer salts along this story…Nobody reading “Wired for War” will think about combat and warriors in the same way again. I will be shelving my copy next to two other books that remade my world view: Tracy Kidder’s “The Soul of the New Machine” and Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel.”
— The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A marvelous book…Something for everyone: the military historian, the strategist, the techno geek, the foreign policy expert, and the philosopher. It is also written in livelier style than usually seen in scholarly tomes, filled with pop culture references and more influence by the magazine “Wired” than “Foreign Affairs”.
— The New Atlanticist
“A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Peter W. Singer, 34, collected scores of examples and anecdotes about the most fundamental change in the conduct of war since the invention of gunpowder. From robotic scientists to the science fiction writers who inspire them to 19-year-old drone pilots and the insurgents who try to cope with this revolution in warfare, Singer’s latest is brilliantly crafted and takes us from tiny robots the size of flies that act as special forces to the ethics of robotic warfare. What happens when science fiction becomes battlefield reality? Singer takes us there — and beyond.”
— United Press International
“P.W. Singer’s WIRED FOR WAR is a rare chance to glimpse history before it happens. If you’re an armchair warrior–and your armchair happens to be a time machine–this book will enthrall.”
— Greg Bear, Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author ofDarwin’s Radio, Forge of God, and Blood Music
“An excellent book” — The Daily Times (Pakistan)
“Heed Singer’s suggestion of a serious dialogue before the robots walk among us.”
— The Brooklyn Rail
“A superb book…If you read Wired for War you’ll actually get a sense for the complexities that we are creating. We’re not making a simpler world with these robots I don’t think at all, I think we’re making a more complex world, and that is something I got from this great book.
— General James Mattis, USMC, NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation and the Commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command
“Peter W. Singer is not your typical “military expert.” At 33 years old, he is the director of the Brookings Institution’s 21st Century Defense Initiative and the youngest senior fellow in the think tank’s 90-year history. In 2003, his book Corporate Warriors chronicled the rise of the privatized military industry; Children at War, released in 2005, examined the tragic phenomenon of child soldiers. He also served as the coordinator of President Barack Obama’s defense policy task force during Obama’s campaign—a role he took on after consulting for The West Wing. In his new book, Wired for War, Singer takes an in-depth and at times frightening look at the growing use of robotics by the military—a development that he argues will be looked on as “something revolutionary in war, maybe even in human history.”
— Mother Jones
“In his latest work, Wired for War, Singer confesses his passion for science fiction as he introduces us to a glimpse of things to come–the new technologies that will shape wars of the future. His new book addresses some ominous and little-discussed questions about the military, technology, and machinery.”
— Harper’s
“P.W. Singer has fashioned a definitive text on the future of war around the subject of robots. In no previous book have I gotten such an intrinsic sense of what the military future will be.”
— Robert Kaplan, author of Imperial Grunts
“Wired for War is a wild ride. Drawing from sources spanning popular culture and hard science, Singer reveals how the relationship between man and robot is changing the nature of warfare. He details technology that has, until now, been the stuff of science fiction: lethal machines that can walk on water or hover outside windows, machines joined in networks or thinking for themselves. Singer’s appreciation for the human minds behind these machines is real, but so is his warning that the implications of this revolution are poorly understood.”
— Howard Gordon, writer and executive producer of 24, The X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
“Singer’s book is as important (very) as it is readable (highly), as much a fascinating account of new technology as it is a challenging appraisal of the strategic, political and ethical questions that we must now face. This book needs to be widely read –not just within the defense community but by anyone interested in the most fundamental questions of how our and other societies will look at war itself.”
— Anthony Lake, 18th U.S. National Security Advisor
“Will wars someday be fought by Terminator-like machines? In this provocative and entertaining new book, one of our brightest young strategic thinkers suggests the answer may well be “yes.” Singer’s sprightly survey of robotics technology takes the reader from battlefields and cutting-edge research labs to the dreams of science fiction writers. In the process, he forces us to grapple with the strategic and ethical implications of the “new new thing” in war.”
— Max Boot, author of The Savage Wars of Peace and War Made New
“Lively, penetrating, and wise … A warmly human (even humorous) account of robotics and other military technologies that focuses where it should: on us.”
— Richard Danzig, 71st Secretary of the Navy
“Weaving together immaculate academic research with a fan boy’s lexicon of popular culture, Wired for War looks at the people and technologies beta-testing tomorrow’s wars today. The result is a book both hilarious and hair-raising that poses profound ethical questions about the creation and use of ever more powerful killing machines.”
— Gideon Yago, writer, MTV News
“It’s not science fiction, it’s not fantasy, it’s here now. Read Wired For War.”
— Robert Young Pelton, author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places
“…A vivid picture of the current controversies and dazzling possibilities of war in the digital age.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Genuinely Provocative”
— Book Forum
“…Full of vignettes on the use of robotics, first-person interviews with end-users, what has occurred in the robotics industry in its support of the nation, and what is “coming soon.” Some of the new ideas are just downright mind-blowing…”
–The Armchair General
“An admitted war geek, P.W. Singer obsesses—over the course of 400-plus pages—about the growing role of robots in combat. His tone is oddly jovial considering the unsettling subject matter, but you won’t find a more comprehensive look at mechanized death outside science fiction.”
–DETAILS Magazine
“If you want the whole story of remote warfare, pick up a copy of Wired for War, in which Peter Singer, a fellow of the non-profit Brookings Institution in Washington DC, exhaustively documents the Pentagon’s penchant for robotics. Think of it as the next step in the mechanisation of war: swords and arrows, guns, artillery, rockets, bombers, robots.”
— The New Scientist
“Wired for War is a sprawling, eye-opening, important look at an evolving technology that promises to change the future in profound ways. Read it. Be prepared.”
— Military.com