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A review by amynbell
Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer
3.0
I think I liked where I thought this book was going more than I liked where it actually went. It certainly started out as food for thought. I liked the comparisons I thought this book was trying to subtly make between parallel universes on the quantum level and the parallel universes we make with false memories: "The rest [of her memories] was stored nowhere else but in her fallible brain." It’s interesting how much of our reality not in film and writing resides just in our brain and sometimes (probably most of the time) isn't even accurate because we’ve rewritten it by revisiting it in our minds and making it fit our version of reality. Another idea that I liked thinking about that didn’t play the role I thought it would in the book is the idea that maybe parallel worlds are fewer than we think because there are just 2 options for most events: yes, no—1 or 0. Some alternatives could never exist because it would never have been an option.
But this isn’t a book about parallel universes even though there’s a lot of setup to suggest otherwise. Instead, this is a book about artificial intelligence, alien contact, the 4th dimension, and the complexity of family relations. Earth has been receiving radio transmissions from Alpha Centauri like clockwork. At first, the messages are decipherable, but then they become incomprehensible. Finally, they stop. Of course, one of the heroes of the book solves them even though she’s a psychologist. I’m not sure why a psychologist was tasked with trying to solve the messages rather than a mathematician or linguist … but whatever. It just so happens she’s the former girlfriend of the last person who solved an alien message who subsequently killed himself in the same manner as Alan Turing. And it just so happens that her husband is working on a quantum computer and advanced AI. Somehow, this all fits together.
Anyhow, about halfway through, I found out the nature of the alien message, and it was just disappointing. I kept reading, but everything started feeling more and more loosey goosey as it proceeded. There was all that wonderful intro information that just really didn’t go where I wanted, and the book ended up feeling too implausible from what the aliens showed humanity to why the first alien message caused the boyfriend to kill himself rather than actually convey the message.
I think Sawyer’s books generally make me feel this way, though. They read quickly. They have interesting ideas. But they never quite go where I need them to go. They’re brain fodder for sure, so I won’t avoid them. I just won’t expect a 5-star read from them.
But this isn’t a book about parallel universes even though there’s a lot of setup to suggest otherwise. Instead, this is a book about artificial intelligence, alien contact, the 4th dimension, and the complexity of family relations. Earth has been receiving radio transmissions from Alpha Centauri like clockwork. At first, the messages are decipherable, but then they become incomprehensible. Finally, they stop. Of course, one of the heroes of the book solves them even though she’s a psychologist. I’m not sure why a psychologist was tasked with trying to solve the messages rather than a mathematician or linguist … but whatever. It just so happens she’s the former girlfriend of the last person who solved an alien message who subsequently killed himself in the same manner as Alan Turing. And it just so happens that her husband is working on a quantum computer and advanced AI. Somehow, this all fits together.
Anyhow, about halfway through, I found out the nature of the alien message, and it was just disappointing. I kept reading, but everything started feeling more and more loosey goosey as it proceeded. There was all that wonderful intro information that just really didn’t go where I wanted, and the book ended up feeling too implausible from what the aliens showed humanity to why the first alien message caused the boyfriend to kill himself rather than actually convey the message.
I think Sawyer’s books generally make me feel this way, though. They read quickly. They have interesting ideas. But they never quite go where I need them to go. They’re brain fodder for sure, so I won’t avoid them. I just won’t expect a 5-star read from them.