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challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
UnWorld is told through the perspective of four women - Anna, who recently lost her son; Sam, Anna’s son’s best friend; Cathy, a professor of AI in the emerging field of Upload personhood; and Aviva, Anna’s Upload. This story speculates about a future use of AI by which humans are able to have a separate “brain” by uploading their memories, ideas, task lists, etc to an embedded microchip called an Upload. Because this AI technology can essentially act like a person, there is a debate about whether these Uploads are entitled to personhood apart from the human they are embedded in. Also central to this storyline is an implication that Anna’s Upload, Aviva, could have played a part in the death of Anna’s son without Anna knowing it.
I found this book really engaging. It is very heavy with grief from all angles, but it brought up some very real questions for me around AI and the use of machines to replace human activity, like nurses in a palliative care ward, or cashiers in a drug store.
I recently read Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and I think this novel brought up similar themes and questions - how much do we let the machines into our lives? Once they’re trained to think like humans, are they replacements for humans? While these works are only speculative, it’s an interesting thought experiment to play out how far we’ll let AI go.
Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Books, and Jayson Greene for my review copy!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail