Chapter 1: Me and This Book

A Bit About Me

Let's start with a flash of credentials: I have spent my career building military robots, animatronic creatures, industrial automation systems, simulated characters, and AI agents. My background in video games and animatronics has always been deeply rooted in Human-Machine Interaction.

Decades of hands-on experience have taught me what it takes to lead these machine entities, which I call Bots (for reasons you'll soon learn). I previously published a paper in the Journal of Human-Robot Interaction around 2014 detailing what robots should look like, and much of what was predicted then has now materialized. I also worked on the US Army Research project known as C2ORE, which focused on controlling robot teams on the battlefield using real-time strategy style controls. My work moved through industrial automation and enterprise-grade VR / simulations, ever-focused on the involvement of AI with the world of the human.

These days, I work as a technology consultant. I advise businesses on integrating AI, simulations, and automation, and I build the systems when the project calls for it. It all comes back to the same core experience: knowing what Bots can do, what they can't, and how to lead them.

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Using this Book

I've sequenced things in a way that should help you construct the skills and learn the principles, should you read them front to back. But this isn't a storybook, it's a tool. Feel free to skip around to absorb it --- to chase your curiosity.

Chapter 2 establishes the motivation for understanding the rest of book. If you're already in, you can probably skip it.

3 is a distilled version of the principles foundational to the lessons.

4 provides vital technical detail about Bots. If you're a Bot engineer you may be ok skipping this. (But if you're a seasoned engineer, you've probably learned to regularly review basics and to establish a shared context!)

5 is about the soft skills of Leadership relevant to Bots. It's basically a mindset chapter.

6 is applying Leadership to Bots. That's the meat.

7 is a hopeful sendoff as you begin your adventure leading Bots.