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Loading... WWW: Wake (edition 2009)by Robert J. Sawyer
Work InformationWWW: Wake (WWW Trilogy) by Robert J. Sawyer
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A story of a blind girl into whose life a miracle comes, sight, but with sight comes a vision of the internet and also a vision of something else in the corners, a glitch that may not be a glitch but something growing, a possible inhuman friend. Part of the start of this story involves an highly transmissible H1N1 flu variant that starts in rural China... written in 2008/9; this edition published in 2019. Honestly that part and how the Chinese government handled it made the hackles rise on the back of my neck. There are parts that are a bit outdated (like hardly anyone outside of Russia uses LiveJournal -moment of silence - anymore) but glossing over that I can see how this handles a lot of the issues and is quite prescient. I'm curious where things are going to go from here. How Caitlin is going to survive, what's going to happen to Webmind, Hobo and in China. It's been a while since a book brought me to tears. It's been a while since a book brought me to tears out of joy and optimism. This one did. It wasn't earth-shattering, but it was absolutely joyous. Why? Well, the main reason is that I absolutely love stories of emergent AIs. And when Sawyer applies a lot of very well-researched speculations based on only the technology we have now, building a beautiful picture of waking up from first principles? I have nothing but respect for this. And yet, this is hardly the only thing this book is good at. The main story is gorgeous as well. Young Caitlin has grown up blind but thanks to some equally interesting sight-restoring techniques, she discovers she can see the World Wide Web as colorful geometry. Between her own life and discoveries, some very nice parallels with the overall story-structure with a team of scientists and a half-Bonobo monkey and a quasi-revolutionary hacker on the other side of China's Firewall, we've got a huge, beautiful setup and the first very careful steps of a new consciousness. I can't stress how well this was accomplished. This isn't a fly-by-night story with the same elements but with a tenth the research, care, or intelligence. This is a direct commentary on our current science and it actually gave me a sense of real wonder. Awe. It also helps that it accurately describes just about all its foundations in not just a clear way, but in an ACCURATE way. :) But what did I love most? Okay. I'm weird. I loved the Shannon Entropy Function. I want someone to run a plot on me, please. :) Let me sum up something: This book ought to be well-known. It ought to be discussed and enjoyed and in the common zeitgeist of modern SF. It isn't a throwaway title meant to pass an afternoon away. It's a complex and stand-up commentary on what we could all BE, in all the best ways that SF can function. Of course, if I might get to the point sooner, I should refer back to my first statement. The book made me cry from joy. It OUGHT to be enough to encourage anyone to read it. :) no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesWWW (1) Is contained inContainsWas inspired by
Although Caitlin Decter is blind, she can effortlessly surf the Internet by following its complex paths clearly in her mind. When she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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[UPDATE: Still enjoyable the second time around. And the multi-reader audiobook is excellent.] ( )