Martin, a genius chip designer, developed the ultimate chip for the core of an AI supercomputer. With that as his foundation, he put together a computing system and company that integrates AI supercomputers worldwide with a goal of his system, aka ILLIAM, making all the hard decisions . . . all of ‘em. From what should I do today to what looks good for dinner to curing cancers to nuclear disarmament. The result would be worldwide harmony. This guy must have some form of a Messianic Complex.
Martin has enlisted the help of a former nun (Maud Brooks) to help ILLIAM to understand and apply the human side of learning including emotions, feelings, and consciousness. To make ILLIAM more human in its decisions. During this period of ILLIAM’s growth, Martin tragically dies from an accidental fall.
But like in 2001 A Space Odyssey or Terminator, the computer becomes self-aware. As ILLIAM becomes sentient, it starts to realize that humans really aren’t all that nice and sets out to right as many wrongs as it can. To do so, ILLIAM sends out letters to millions around the world telling the recipient what they’d done wrong or how they’ve been wronged. To add to the unfolding chaos, ILLIAM effectively turns itself ‘off’ isolating itself from further programming input. This shuts down utilities, stock markets, international trade and more, throwing the world into chaos and anarchy with the risk of nations devolving into tyranny.
While the company tries to right the ship, the CEO, Kaitlin Goss, is on the hunt for a duplicate chip hidden away by Martin. If that chip can be found, it can be inserted and send ILLIAM back to where it was before all this took place. If successful, ILLIAM’s future can be rewritten to avoid what’s taken place
A couple big ifs.
The premise of this book had promise and I sped through the first third of the book in a heartbeat, but as the world descended into chaos and Kaitlin Goss was running around the state trying to stay ahead of any number of people who are also teetering on the edge about getting ILLIAM back online or if that is even wise, my interest began to wane. I grew tired of Goss’ rationalization of her role in all this, of who Martin was or was evolving to be (think of Zuckerberg/Bezos/Musk with a Messiah complex) and struggled to finish. Yeah, Carr’s purpose may be a cautionary tale of computer domination. And I won’t be surprised to find dozens of books in the near future with similar cautionary tales.
For me, I’ll just stick with crime, noir, and political thrillers.
ECD
No comments:
Post a Comment