Computer One

Rating:
Summary: Unsettling, even scary story of inter-species war
Review: Rivals William Brinkley's The Last Ship in its unrelenting pessimism even as it shows human intelligence coping with apocalypse. In both books, human doom is human-made, but here it's the cession of control to a computer complex, which has decided to eliminate the carbon-based competition. One of the first to realize the threat to humanity is Professor Enzo Yakuda, whose public warning nearly leads to his death and forces him outside of cvilization. The reasoning behind this novel is frighteningly solid, if you accept the idea that an evolving artificial intelligence is necessarily aggressive. (Another view can be found in Disappearing through the Overhead.) Especially in the latter half, this is a thoughtful, affecting, scary story.

Rating:
Summary: A taut, self-consistent essay on near-future AI challenge
Review: This is an excellent piece of writing, even a tour de force, powered by skillful development of the plot to the nearly inexorable conclusion of doom. If you accept the author's premise, i.e., ongoing expansion of networked computers and systems over the next 40-50 years(including final net-control of world energy sources and production) and a biological interpretation of how such a net might advance to AI complexity (the whole becomes something greater than the sum of its parts), his conclusion is frighteningly logical and realistic. I enjoyed the author's economy of style. The story is tightly focused on one player: a biology professor named Yakuda who is able to deduce the dangers of the autonomous world-net, called Computer One, from his studies of insect colonies. Be sure to read the author's introduction to his book as well; it makes some excellent points, including the difficulty of programming anything into a net such as Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." Also note that Arthur C. Clarke read this book and said "It really scared me...move over Hal!"

Rating:
Summary: A taut, self-consistent essay on near-future AI challenge
Review: This is an excellent piece of writing, even a tour de force, powered by skillful development of the plot to the nearly inexorable conclusion of doom. If you accept the author's premise, i.e., ongoing expansion of networked computers and systems over the next 40-50 years(including final net-control of world energy sources and production) and a biological interpretation of how such a net might advance to AI complexity (the whole becomes something greater than the sum of its parts), his conclusion is frighteningly logical and realistic. I enjoyed the author's economy of style. The story is tightly focused on one player: a biology professor named Yakuda who is able to deduce the dangers of the autonomous world-net, called Computer One, from his studies of insect colonies. Be sure to read the author's introduction to his book as well; it makes some excellent points, including the difficulty of programming anything into a net such as Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." Also note that Arthur C. Clarke read this book and said "It really scared me...move over Hal!"