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jaybatson's review against another edition
3.0
This was more interesting because of the ideas and questions that the book examines than the actual writing. Definitely worth a read.
The book explores a large community of humans who set up shop in an insular community that is post-scarcity. Everyone can do as they wish with their time; all human needs are supplied by the system in which they live. The work of supplying this freedom is handled by a handful of sentient artificial intelligences.
The book has three interesting ideas:
1) The physical nature of the insular community. Interesting ideas about how to live in a closed ecosystem.
2) The relationship between humans and sentient, super-intelligent AIs.
3) A plausible scenario about what happens when that relationship faces challenges.
The ideas the author espouses are quite interesting, and kudos for exploring them thoughtfully. OTOH, the reasons I don't give this book a higher rating:
a) The writing drags a fair bit. Especially through the middle. The author explores a storyline in the form of a mystery being investigated by a person who is the closest thing to a cop in an idyllic society. Though the mystery provides a crucial crutch in the book, the mystery & investigation drag on dreadfully slowly, and un-interestingly. This was a major downer in an otherwise interesting possibility.
2) There's a Part 1 and Part 2 in the book, with many intervening years. It felt like two completely different books for much of the 2nd part, until ...
the end of the book,
... where the two are tied together. The payoff of the tying-together did not overcome frustration of feeling like I was reading different stories for much of the book. I'm pretty sure they author could have woven this tale differently with a more satisfying (less-frustrating) path.
Generally, this is worth a read. For me, though, it was more as fodder for discussions about the topics with friends, and less because of the actual writing. However, I'm glad the author wrote it, I recommend you buy & read it, and talk about the ideas.
The book explores a large community of humans who set up shop in an insular community that is post-scarcity. Everyone can do as they wish with their time; all human needs are supplied by the system in which they live. The work of supplying this freedom is handled by a handful of sentient artificial intelligences.
The book has three interesting ideas:
1) The physical nature of the insular community. Interesting ideas about how to live in a closed ecosystem.
2) The relationship between humans and sentient, super-intelligent AIs.
3) A plausible scenario about what happens when that relationship faces challenges.
The ideas the author espouses are quite interesting, and kudos for exploring them thoughtfully. OTOH, the reasons I don't give this book a higher rating:
a) The writing drags a fair bit. Especially through the middle. The author explores a storyline in the form of a mystery being investigated by a person who is the closest thing to a cop in an idyllic society. Though the mystery provides a crucial crutch in the book, the mystery & investigation drag on dreadfully slowly, and un-interestingly. This was a major downer in an otherwise interesting possibility.
2) There's a Part 1 and Part 2 in the book, with many intervening years. It felt like two completely different books for much of the 2nd part, until ...
... where the two are tied together. The payoff of the tying-together did not overcome frustration of feeling like I was reading different stories for much of the book. I'm pretty sure they author could have woven this tale differently with a more satisfying (less-frustrating) path.
Generally, this is worth a read. For me, though, it was more as fodder for discussions about the topics with friends, and less because of the actual writing. However, I'm glad the author wrote it, I recommend you buy & read it, and talk about the ideas.
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