Factoring Humanity

Factoring Humanity hits some rather huge emotional triggers. From the start, I'm totally prepared to hate one of the main characters and the starting gun already has everyone on pins and needles. Estranged couple, suicided daughter, and the other daughter is accusing her father of molestation.

This is one hell of a hardcore start for a novel ostensibly revolving around alien contact, with a very Contact feel and development, artificial intelligence research and development, and quantum computing.

And yet, it's only an accusation under suspicious circumstances and the AI hasn't seemed to progress that far into self-awareness and we, as humanity, have refused to respond to the Alpha Centaurians.

This makes for a strangely placid novel with show more deep undertones of conflict and/or disturbing reveals to come. I'm pretty amazed how much I got into it. It's not flashy or fast paced. It's focused on ideas and tragedy and moving on through all the permutations of each.

Are there good reveals? Yep. Are there cool reveals? Yes, indeed. I REALLY like the way the Contact-like scenario plays out. The scientific concepts, the math, the implications, and especially the psychology underpinning it all makes this an impressive SF.

It's workmanlike in it's writing, but the ideas are completely top notch. :) show less

es el que más me ha gustado de sawyer, pero tiene los mismos problemas de todos sus libros: gran premisa inicial, estilo directo y accesible que a la mitad se vuelve simplón y condescendiente, personajes que pasan de creíbles a odiosos, ideas interesantes y diversas basadas en ciencia superficial pero sólida, que poco a poco se convierten en extrapolaciones apresuradas y convenientes basadas en seudociencia, etcétera. pero hay al menos una sorpresa cerca del final, y el final mismo es menos decepcionante que los de las otras novelas suyas que he leído (el cálculo de dios, mindscan y la trilogía homínidos). anyway, se lee rápido.

What I love about Sawyer's books is that he's on the cutting edge of blending modern science and spirituality with a dash of psychology for good measure. It's quite an innovative convergence. What I dislike is that most of his novels still seem as if he's learning basic dialogue and social interaction much like those awkward moments when you're talking to somebody that has a genius IQ but lacks the social EQ to go with it. On the whole Factoring Humanity is a creative exploration of Jung's cosmic consciousness, but there are enough awkward moments to make it less than satisfying.

Protagonist studying the inscrutable messages of aliens. Ends with some fun Jungian stuff, so that was cool.

Positives: A lot of "cool skiffy concepts" and "science porn." Negatives: Not much character development, a writing style best described as "functional," and an unfortunate tendency to end his stories by leveling up to some "transcendent" experience that is by definition indescribable.

In Factoring Humanity, Robert Sawyer explores the possibility of contact with another life form while focusing on how that would change humanity as we know it. There is a fine line between solving our most complex problems and opening ourselves up to total domination. How could we possibly understand an alien species when we don't understand ourselves?

I love Robert Sawyer's books. I always miss the characters, and he leaves me thinking about the possibilities he proposes in his books.

So much is all woven together in this book. There is a mystery and family interaction. And there is a brilliant look at life in the universe and how it connects. Included is some good stuff on AI and thoughts about where that is going. And a look at the 4th dimension and Schrodinger's Cat. I loved the descriptions of some of the more unusual experiences of our characters (no spoilers here) to include the mechanical one. Sawyer as usual made me think about what really matters.

This is one of Sawyer's better books, although it takes a while to get into it. Be patient and you'll be rewarded. Good story line. Imaginative science. Upbeat. Without giving away the ending, I'll just say that the book begs for a sequel. Sawyer's hallmark is a thin story line that he uses to carry his speculations about science and human cultures. His imagination and scientific speculation seems well grounded. The story line and his scientific discourses complement each other very nicely. Reading a Sawyer sci-fi novel is a treat.