Average customer rating:
- Hard SF Original 1st Contact & More
- Must read. and then read again
- Poor showing
- Free SF Reader
- Philosophical Science Fiction
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Blindsight
Peter Watts
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0765312182
Release Date: 2006-10-03 |
Book Description
Two months since the stars fell....Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown. Two months of silence, while a world holds its breath.Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn't want to meet?You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed, and the fainter one she'll do any good if she is. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesistan informational topologist with half his mind gone-as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find.But you'd give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them....
Customer Reviews:
Hard SF Original 1st Contact & More.......2007-10-08
I've never written a book review before (which will be readily apparent starting right...about...now...), but I thought I would for this book if only to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Peter Watts is/was a marine biologist. I was left with the impression that studying the aliens of the deep proved to be extraordinarily useful when imagining aliens from another world.
The science in the story is fascinating, and though I didn't understand all (nor even most) of it, Watts convinced me that he does. If you are interested in the nature of consciousness, the philosophy of mind, and the evolution of self-awareness, then you'll dig this book.
Be sure to read the appendices which provides scholarly resources defending the Watts' imagined world. I especially enjoyed the Watts' evolutionary history of the vampire--very clever!
Must read. and then read again.......2007-09-15
This is one of the best books I've ever read. The new and unusual concepts slam you in the forehead like a wet brick every couple of pages. Fair warning though - this author doesn't write down to his audience. If you're not well read or fairly bright, you'll probably get left behind.
Poor showing.......2007-09-13
Lousy, lousy book. Awkwardly written, full of technobabble, endless, incomprehensible descriptions of stuff and objects we don't care about, ultimately boring, and just sucky. Worse than Charles Stross. Don't read it. It's like a mongoloid mongrel of Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" and Elizabeth Moon's "Speed of Light" to provide the "main" storyline and of a smattering far-future science fiction settings where people live more in virtual than real reality as the excuse for its social/society background.
Don't be mislead by a comparison to these far superior works. Blindsight sucked unexcusably. I *like* hard science fiction, but this was just a mess; and not even anything new or fresh, felt like a poor rehashing of old themes, and the stuff that was new was so poorly explained that the payoff just wasn't worth it.
Free SF Reader.......2007-09-04
While Alastair Reynolds borrowed from the Muppets with his Pigs in Space, it seems that Peter Watts may have gone for Colin Wilson's Space Vampires, instead. Reynolds is someone I think you can compare Watts to in tone, although the first person type retelling style of this also brings to mind Robert Charles Wilson's Spin.
A vampire spaceship captain type. Yep, that is right. It doesn't seem dumb, either.
After some non-human contact, a ship is built to go and investigate. The crew are an odd bunch. Add a multiple personality linguist, a guy with half a brain, and a non-conventional soldier to the mix, among others.
When they find them, they struggle to understand their brand of consciousness and use of senses, which is where the title comes from.
Violence is done.
The endnotes for this book are extensive, a fair bit of work done there, and well worth a look after you have finished the book.
Almost another tweener this one, 4.25 perhaps. Rounding up is fine given the work put into the post novel text.
Philosophical Science Fiction.......2007-09-01
This is a first contact novel that's as interesting for the philosophical and literary questions it raises as it is for the narrative.
The book follows the adventures of the crew of a space ship sent to meet an alien object entering the solar system. Several of the twenty-first century crew are extraordinary: the narrator, whose autism has been partially repaired and whose job is to clarify events for the folks back home; a brilliant predator from an extinct race; and a linguist with multiple personalities. Besides the efforts to communicate with the intruder, flashbacks into the narrator's life are also included. The book also examines a future on where the human race is able to create a kind of spiritual heaven here on earth.
Readers concerned with structure will wonder at what the author is driving with this mixed bag of crewmembers and an alien with whom communication seems particularly difficult. Often events and conversations occur which lead the narrator to draw conclusions which he does not share with the reader, which may lead the reader to wonder if he is following the story as intended by the author. Moreover, the philosophical question that the author raises is not immediately apparent. Eventually it will be revealed and what has gone before will fall into place.
The literary question is whether the nature of the philosophical question should be cloaked for so long. To reveal the question early on will enable the reader to understand characters and events as they unfold. To delay confuses the reader but leads to the thrill of discovery as the puzzle is revealed. The author has chosen the latter course and so I'm not even able to reveal the main philosophical question without spoiling the tale.
If you require science fiction with plenty of action rather than character development and philosophical inquiry, this book may seem a little slow to you. Much of the action seemed to me like an H.P. Lovecraft story with a lot of talk about the feeling of horror, without ever revealing what the horror is. On the other hand, if you don't mind feeling confused as the price of considering a question about man's nature that is seldom asked, you should enjoy this novel. (By the way, some will even ask if this question is even philosophical rather than scientific.)
Book Description
In the next fifty years, life spans will extend well beyond a century. Our senses and cognition will be enhanced. We will have greater control over our emotions and memory. Our bodies and brains will be surrounded by and merged with computer power. The limits of the human body will be transcended as technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering converge and accelerate. With them, we will redesign ourselves and our children into varieties of posthumanity.
This prospect is understandably terrifying to many. A loose coalition of groups-including religious conservatives, disability rights and environmental activists-has emerged to oppose the use of genetics to enhance human beings. And with the appointment of conservative philosopher Leon Kass, an opponent of in-vitro fertilization, stem cell research and life extension, to head the President's Council on Bioethics, and with the recent high-profile writings by authors like Francis Fukuyama and Bill McKibben, this stance has become more visible-and more infamous-than ever before.
In the opposite corner a loose transhumanist coalition is mobilizing in defense of human enhancement, embracing the ideological diversity of their intellectual forebears in the democratic and humanist movements. Transhumanists argue that human beings should be guaranteed freedom to control their own bodies and brains, and to use technology to transcend human limitations.
Identifying the groups, thinkers and arguments in each corner of this debate, bioethicist and futurist James Hughes argues for a third way, which he calls democratic transhumanism. This approach argues that we will achieve the best possible posthuman future when we ensure technologies are safe, make them available to everyone, and respect the right of individuals to control their own bodies.
Hughes offers fresh and controversial answers for many other pressing biopolitical issues-including cloning, genetic patents, human genetic engineering, sex selection, drugs, and assisted suicide-and concludes with a concrete political agenda for pro-technology progressives, including expanding and deepening human rights, reforming genetic patent laws, and providing everyone with healthcare and a basic guaranteed income.
A groundbreaking work of social commentary, Citizen Cyborg illuminates the technologies that are pushing the boundaries of humanness-and the debate that may determine the future of the human race itself.
Customer Reviews:
Magneto might have a legitimate point of view, after all.......2006-01-22
I found "Citizen Cyborg" quite readable, and James Hughes brings up a number of interesting arguments against both the bio-Luddite and libertarian-Extropian views of human transformation through technological means. Regarding the latter, Hughes points to the contradiction between the Extropians' desire to re-engineer naturally evolved biology without limits, versus their taboo against intervening into the evolved "spontaneous orders" of markets. Ironically the Extropians' guru F.A. Hayek in "The Fatal Conceit" asserts that we cannot rationally control the direction of an evolved system of any sort, even in principle. But Extropians deliberately ignore that aspect of Hayek's philosophy because it conflicts with their biological agenda.
I also like how Hughes treats the futurist philosopher F.M. Esfandiary (who also called himself FM-2030) as a serious thinker. Many of FM-2030's speculations about the values and lifestyles of "Future Man" sound more plausible now than when he first promoted them in the 1970's and 1980's, and I would like to see his contributions receive more recognition.
I find fault with Hughes's book in the following areas, however:
1. He puts too much emphasis on the technology of baby-making, maybe he because writes for a "family values" friendly American readership, at a time when most developed democratic countries now face population declines, especially Japan. It looks as if people in democracies have better things to do than planning to create genetically improved offspring.
2. He doesn't deal with the threat Peak Oil poses to the future of technological civilization.
3. He fails to address the fact that aging people for the most part can't or won't integrate novelty and additional risks into their lives, and what this means for the acceptance of new technologies in aging democratic societies.
4. He doesn't explain how Transhumanism would address the conflict of secular modernity versus third-world christianity and traditional Islam.
5. He assumes that everyone will behave himself to thrash out all these policy issues through democratic processes, instead of looking for shortcuts to get his way.
6. And, he assumes that the people with superior energy, ability and ambition, regardless of their social origins, will just tolerate living under democratic rule, instead of using their enhancements to challenge the authorities, like Magneto from the X-Men mythos. (A few years ago I asked: How do we handle the prospect of the Evil Transhuman? Answer: Plan on becoming the first one!) Many philosophers have long recognized that most people (the vulgar) live closer to the animal level than a relative handful of humans who have greater capacity for cognition and achievement. These natural aristocrats chafe now under the regime of the vulgar -- so why wouldn't they use enhancements to break free from social-political constraints and start making their own rules?
Maybe Hughes will address these issues in the future books I've heard he plans to write. I find it unfortunate that this one seems to have fallen dead-born from the press, compared with the best-selling book Ray Kurzweil published about future technologies. I hope "Citizen Cyborg" can get its second wind, because the questions it raises will require social responses much sooner than we think.
Pondering the Post-human--It Portends a Plethora of Problems.......2005-12-19
The day I finished reading "Citizen Cyborg" I met friends for a late dinner in an upscale Georgetown bistro. As a measure of the power of medical ethicist James Hughes' book, our dinner conversation revolved around the potential of babies free of genetic defects, the elimination of most of the diseases that now decimates our population, the potential of creating non-human sentient beings that might well have legal rights, and the possibility of near immortality. The domination of these issues among such an eclectic group of young Washingtonians is a measure of the book's saliency in the first part of the twenty-first century. I recommend "Citizen Cyborg" as an entertaining, challenging, and provocative exploration of the meaning of the post-human in modern American society.
Part history, but especially an ethical perspective on the future, Hughes describes the efforts of those who seek to bring a future to humanity that offers the elimination of most diseases and enhances life through the use of drugs, careful eugenics, technological enhancement, and biotech innovations. The mapping of the human genome, according to Hughes, is just the beginning of a future in which human life might be radically improved. These possibilities also harbor questions and fears, as anything new and different has always done. Dubbing them "bioLuddites," Hughes suggests that those opposing these possibilities are organizing to ensure that the United States does not participate in the next fundamental transformation in human history. The biotech revolution has the potential, he believes, to be more significant than the Industrial Revolution that the United States embraced.
The battle lines in this debate are already being drawn, and skirmishes over stem cell research, pharmaceuticals, cloning, and related innovations are already underway. These are nothing compared to future controversies, according to Hughes. What do we do once we are presented with cloned human beings? Are those individuals citizens of the United States? What rights do they have? What will prospective parents do once they have the capability through mastery of the human genome to ensure that birth defects are eliminated in their fetuses? What if they had the capability to select genes for greater intelligence for their fetuses? Would they do so? Should they be allowed to do so? These are only some of the coming challenges.
The bioLuddites use arguments ranging from religion to Nazi eugenics to oppose any human intervention into these processes. Hughes takes a different approach. He argues that it is impossible to turn back these innovations and rather than trying we should seek to regulate and control them. He contends that the manner in which American society decides these challenges will chart the course for the future. He suggests that a faith in our democratic institutions is necessary here, and that through them we might reach decisions that will preserve human freedom and make possible a hopeful future. Through this process we might reach decisions on which of these potentials should be mandatory for all Americans, which should be forbidden, and which might be voluntary but carefully regulated.
To return to my Georgetown dinner conversation, there was no consensus among those at the table on these questions. Some embraced the potential changes and looked forward to having these new choices. Others were opposed, suggesting that it was "not nice to mess with Mother Nature." Some thought it was "playing god" and therefore inappropriate for humans. The diversity of responses at dinner mirrored the divisions in larger society, and if the forcefulness of beliefs expressed at the table is any guide, the debates in society will be difficult and trying.
It certainly seems that James Hughes is onto something important. "Citizen Cyborg" is an important exploration of what may well be the most critical issue of the twenty-first century.
This is a seminal work of Evolutionary Bioethics.......2005-10-13
"James Hughes has written a profoundly important book for anyone seriously seeking to understand the real ethical and religious issues, and possibilities, that confront humanity today. His voice, however, is one of reason and hope, as opposed to the politics and policies of fear that seem to have paralyzed the imagination of reactionary intellectuals of the right and the left who have dominated the discussion until now. Hughes is a true evolutionist, who recognizes that evolution is a continuing process, that the "cold, hard facts" of materialistic science and technology, are basically friendly, and that the fundamental liberal principles of liberty, equality, solidarity of persons, reason and progress are as just as real, and maybe even more important, today then at the time of the original enlightenment."
- Rev. Peter H. Christiansen (First Unitarian Church Los Angeles 1969 - 1976)
Interesting look at humanity's future.......2005-10-11
New technologies are coming in the near future that have the potential to radically change what it means to be human. This book looks at why democratic societies must respond to things like cloning, genetic engineering and nanotechnology, instead of pretending that they don't exist.
What the author calls "bio-Luddites" are opposed to such new technologies, because they feel that mankind should be happy with its 70 (or so) years of life, characterized by increasing bodily disfunction in its later stages. Another reason for opposition is the vague, but always there, possibility of a disaster unleashing some new plague on the world. Some people say that taboos and gut feelings are the path to wisdom. If a new technology feels spooky, ban it immediately. The Catholic Church opposes such things because they are supposedly offensive to God.
On the other hand, if a person is found to be a carrier for, or genetically susceptible to, Disease X, don't they have the right to fix their DNA (assuming a safe and reliable method can be found to do so)? Those who call themselves transhumanists (based on humanism) believe that people should have the right to modify their bodies, whether the quest is for greater intelligence, longevity or a happier outlook on life. They are the first to assert that there must be adequate discussion beforehand, and adequate safeguards after the introduction of a new technology. Such things must also be available to all people, through some sort of universal health insurance, not just to the rich. Transhumanists have no desire to take over the world, but one of the subjects for social consideration has to be how to extinguish potential schisms between humans and posthumans. To those who think that some new regulatory agency is needed, the author does not agree. Agencies like the FDA and EPA will be able to do the job, if they ever get the funding and authority needed. Don't forget that 25 years ago, in vitro fertilization was considered an abomination; now it is practically mainstream.
This is a pretty specialized book, but it shouldn't be. Like it or not, the new technologies described in this book are coming in the near future. It is better to start discussing, now, how to deal with them, instead of just saying No. The reader may not agree with everything in this book, but it is an excellent place to begin that discussion.
David Ishalom India.......2005-07-16
a revealing book about the future. technology had created mankind and civilization. but in the future technology is going to create human transformation into transhumanity. the author which is a leader in the formative transhumanism phenomena, reseaching the political and ethical implications of this transformation with a clear and convincing advocacy for democratic transhumanism. a must read book for anyone with open eyes for the future.
Book Description
This is the first cross-over book in the history of science written by an historian of economics, combining a number of disciplinary and stylistic orientations. In it Philip Mirowshki shows how what is conventionally thought to be "history of technology" can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. His analysis combines Cold War history with the history of the postwar economics profession in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with the content of such abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. He links the literature on "cyborg science" found in science studies to economics, an element missing in the literature to date. Mirowski further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents found in the larger culture, arguing that neoclassical economics has surreptitiously participated in the desconstruction of the integral "Self." Finally, he argues for a different style of economics, an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism. Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame. He teaches in both the economics and science studies communities and has written frequently for academic journals. He is also the author of More Heat than Light (Cambridge, 1992) and editor of Natural Images in Economics (Cambridge, 1994) and Science Bought and Sold (University of Chicago, 2001).
Customer Reviews:
Impressive and fun.......2006-06-21
As you can see from the previous reviews, this is a book that provokes strong feelings. As usual that's often more a reflection on the reader than on the book. You'd never guess that this book is (by intention) very funny. But it is.
Mirowski has written elsewhere that John von Neumann is the "hero" of this book. Von Neumann thought neoclassical economics was nonsense, and made no secret of that opinion. As a result, many post-war American economists have tried to write him out of history. One fruit of their effort was the beatification of John Nash as the patron saint of game theory, a process that began in the 1980s.
According to this book, the irony is that those same economists have "followed the trajectory" of von Neumann's thinking for the last five decades, even if they wouldn't acknowledge it. Through the 1970s or so they relied on fixed-point theorems and other nonconstructive proof techniques (von Neumann in the 1930s). From the 1980s to now, they have relied on game theory (von Neumann for a few years in the 1940s). Recently, they have begun to rely more on computers, particularly to study "agent"-type automata (von Neumann from the mid-1940s to the end of his life). And, as for von Neumann, military funding has been an important factor throughout this development.
Actually, this isn't "the" irony, but just one of many. If you've ever had any suspicions that neoclassical economics was kind of a crock, you'll find them well-supported in this impressively well-researched book. (Some highlights include the misplaced aspiration to axiomatize economic theory, the impossibility of computing Nash equilibria, ditto for Walrasian general equilibria, the socialist antecedents of "free market" jingoism, the bounded usefulness of V. Smith's market experiments, and much else.) It may be a bit of a stretch to say that the book reads like a thriller, but the fun of uncovering some additional bit of intellectual dishonesty with each turn of the page did keep my attention.
For over 500 pages, this story is told with a sustained, righteous and gleeful sarcasm. Such a tone may sound tiresome, but based on the evidence Mirowski brings forward - much of it the neoclassicals' own words - it struck me as quite justifiable. And I laughed a lot.
However, be aware that this book is less self-contained than Mirowski's earlier book, "More Heat Than Light". Even if you've read that book first (which I recommend, especially if you're not an economist), you should have at least a Scientific American-level of acquaintance with theory of computation, a bit more math-intensive experience with game theory (like a few chapters of Myerson -- not that "Machine Dreams" has any equations, but the math is often alluded to), and smidgens of Arrow, Debreu, Herb Simon, Vern Smith and Kahneman & Tversky. You should also know "who" Bourbaki is and have some experience of the Bourbakist style, because it's taken for granted that you already do.
There are a few quirks, but nothing so dire as what other reviewers have mentioned. For example, the "Newtonian" issue appears maybe in one offhand comment. More frequent, no less irritating, and just as utterly inconsequential is the use of the word "thermodynamics" when "statistical mechanics" would have been more appropriate. (None of those physics gaffes is important to the main theme.) An august group of manuscript readers allowed the author repeatedly to use "phenomena" and "automata" as singular nouns in the first two-thirds of the book. And throughout, there are ironic allusions and silly puns based on pop culture references, which is fine; but those of you born after 1965 may miss a lot of them.
Maybe one day, some econ undergrad as yet unborn will write a senior honors thesis glossing those many dozens of goofy remarks. For its multitude of remarks both insightful and trenchant, this book deserves to continue to be read at least until that time.
A weak case.......2004-04-18
Recognizing apprehension about current developments in technology and the "closed worlds" of the "brave new world of electronic surveillance and control centers", and the presence of anti-cheerleader/antagonists towards artificial intelligence and its supposed tendency to reduce the complexity of humanity to "a very small part", the author of this book attempts to step beyond this and give an historical overview of the influence of what might be called (and these are words of this reviewer), a "cyborg epistemology" in the field of economics. The evidence cited is on the whole anecdotal, and what results is a view of economics that could more properly be called "deterministic". If economics is to be labeled "cyborg science", then this labeling might have many different meanings depending on the attitudes and background of the reader. For this reviewer, the decision to read this book was based on the belief that it might shed some light on how intelligent machines are being used either to develop new economic theories or to understand the vast amounts of empirical economic data currently available.
Luckily though the author does not intend to give the reader another neo-Luddite treatise on the perils of technology. He lets the reader know early on in the book that this is not his intent, in spite of the first few pages of the book, which might lead a reader to think otherwise. The author describes "cyborg science" as a description, taken by historians and sociologists of science, of the manner in which science has been transformed as an institution since World War II. According to the author, this designation is due to Donna Haraway, a contemporary sociologist of science, and applied by many other researchers whom he lists. In order to be fair to the author's use of the term as delineated by these researchers, one would need to study their works. This reviewer has not read any of these, but concentrated instead on the arguments put forward by the author himself, independent of any prior analysis or works of others he depends on. And it is the opinion of this reviewer that although the author might have respected the goals and opinions of all of these researchers in their concept of "cyborg science", it does not conform to the concept of "cyborg" as viewed (in general) in artificial intelligence. The concept of cyborg as an "automaton" is one that the author had in mind, but thinking of machines as automatons takes place in only a few small circles in the field of artificial intelligence. Further, the "attack of the cyborgs", which labels one section of the book, is a theme of many Hollywood movies, but it is an exaggerated and even comical view of artificial intelligence, and does not deserve inclusion in any serious study of the history of the influence of artificial intelligence on economic theory.
The author begins his "cyborg genealogy" with Charles Babbage and quickly moves on to von Neumann, Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener, Alan Turing, the main instigators (consciously or not) to the "cyborg science" of post-war economics. Throughout the book one can see clearly how the field of operations research was influenced by these individuals, and how ideas from physics, in particular from thermodynamics and statistical physics, found their way into economics. Babbage is described as someone who saw no reason why the human mental faculties could not be "economized" with the assistance of machinery. His portent of the future is certainly remarkable, given the trend in the last decade of low-level machine intelligence replacing hundreds of tasks typically done by humans. The "Second Industrial Revolution" spoken of by Norbert Wiener, and currently advertised with gusto by the new technophilic generation of inventor/visionary Ray Kurzweil, is fully in place, and shows every indication of having extreme social consequences.
One must not however exaggerate the influence of well-known individuals in science and technology in bringing out true changes in society. The ideas of these individuals are widely quoted, but their efficacy is usually tested by many unknown individuals, whose sole interest is in the applicability and marketability of these ideas. The author spends too much time elaborating on the contributions of a small collection of people, ignoring those who were (causally) responsible for the rise of the information age and machine intelligence. In addition, the anecdotal comments attributed to Babbage, von Neumann, Shannon, Turing, and Weiner, that the author believes proves their view of economics as a "cyborg science" does not mean it has actually become one. The author does not propose any criteria, independent of these anecdotes, for establishing his case that post-war economic theory should be characterized as such. These criteria would have to involve the use of statistical sampling and tests, which is completely absent in this book. A much stronger, and more interesting case could be made if the author did not shy away from these techniques.
So no, this book is not one of the reactionary anti-technology polemics that are beginning to proliferate the bookstores. But it is clear when reading the book that the author is expressing anxiety about the current state of technology and he makes a deliberate attempt in the last pages of the book to engage in philosophical value judgments. The "raw emotions" he says he felt in the development of his ideas compel him to make moral commentary on the state of economic theory. He does not see sinister plots behind military funding of economics, but he does hold the researchers obtaining this funding accountable for their results, and we should not believe them when they say they were working independently and without outside interference or pressure. The author though does show some traces of the post-hermeneutic criticism that has in large measure dominated the humanities. His worries of viewing markets as machines are in the opinion of this reviewer unjustified if one is to go solely by the content of the book.
The (thinking) machines of today are making markets, but not controlling them.
Note added later.......2002-12-30
The suggestion made in the last chapter is to try to identify an automaton that describes a particular market. This program will not work because of lack of uniqueness, as is explained by the work on generating partitions in nonlinear dynamics. Given any sttistical distribution, one can find infinitely-many different automata that can be programmed to generate that distribution. Mirowski's suggestion cannot be carried out in any meaningful sense for that reason. In finance theory we have recently (with Gunaratne) deduced a particular stochastic dynamics from market histograms, and there we also have faced nonuniqueness in identifying the underlying dynamics. The bigger and more immediate problem is to find nonfinancial economic data that are accurate enough to draw any meaningful conclusion from the purely empirical histograms.
Now for the irritation. I find it academically irresponsible in this day and age to equate Newtonian mechanics with 'equilibrium'. From the beginning, Newtonian mechanics was about periodic and quasiperiodic orbits. The orbits that were studied prior to 1900 typically have neutral equilibria. To be 'in equilibrium' in such a case, the earth (for example) would have to sit at the center of the sun. Poincare' discovered chaos in Hamiltonian systems around 1900. In a chaotic system all equilibria are unstable but the orbits are bounded. See Ivars Peterson's 'Newton's Clock' for a description of the history of the discovery of chaos in the solar system. Toffoli and Fredkin discovered Turing machine-level complexity in a Newtonian system (constructed of billiard balls) around 1983, and Chris Moore (now at the Santa Fe Institite) showed around 1993 that certain area preserving maps are equivalent to Turing machines. In other words, Newtonian systems can exhibit not merely chaos but maximum complexity as well. The misidentification of Newtonian mechanics with 'equilibrium' or simple mechanics should now be laid to rest once and for all. It would be more accurate to say that the economists borrowed the idea of static equilibrium from Archimedes. Also, take note please that every digital computer is a Newtonian electromechanical system.
Undecidable econ vs. Perfect Rationality.......2002-06-18
I've read about 250 pages and can recommend that anyone with an interest in economics and finance should read this fantastic book. The basis for the text are the contributions of Shannon, Turing, von Neumann, Wiener, Koopmans, Marshak, and Arrow. Mirowski tells us the main story of the interaction of the Cowles Commission with RAND, which Bernstein does not at all hint at in his Capital Ideas. Having praised the book, I will now concentrate mainly on a few points of disagreement. Undecidability should not be confused with noise in stochastic processes. Systems at the transition to chaos can define automata that can perform simple arithmetic. That 'cyborg' has it's origin in the physical sciences seems farfetched (the connection between Turing and physics is supposed to be via Maxwell's demon, but was Turing really motivated by the idea of Maxwell's demon?). Nonlinear dynamics and fractals ('chaos' and fractals) certainly did not evolve from cybernetics or 'system theory' ('system theory' was based at best on an awareness of equilibria and limit cycles of differential equations, and made vague, unjustifiable allusions to holism). Cybernetics cannot really be seen as the midwife of what is now loosely called 'complexity' either, rather, that (still undefined) field grew out of nonlinear dynamics, neural networks, computability theory and molecular biology. Mirowski is right that many scientists confuse simulations with experiment and observations. I have argued against this confusion in papers and books.
Mirowski paints an intriguing picture of (Gödel-influenced) von Neumann, RAND, researchers with awareness of information and computability limitations leading to agent-based modelling with some respect for empiricism on the one hand, and then, on the other hand, Arrow, the Cowles Commission and their later rejection of empirics, instead with emphasis on Bourbaki-style existence proofs leading to infinte demands on information requirements on Walrasian agents and noncomputable equilibria. We now know that agent-based modelling can easily lead to fat-tailed price distributions (as observed empirically), whereas in contrast the origin of the systematic head-in the-sand philosophy of the neo-classical economic theorists is made quite clear in this work. One can summarize the neo-clasical economic agent as follows: his dynamics are trivial (equilibrium, including Nash equilibria) but the information demands made on him to interact with other agents and locate an equilibrium point are impossible (noncomputable). Moreover, we now know that financial market statistics point toward the instability of Adam Smith's hand, so that the notion of dynamic equilibrium is complelety uninteresting so far as understanding markets is concerned.
Book Description
Kage Baker's trademark series of SF adventure continues now in a direct sequel to The Life of the World to Come. Mendoza was banishednbsp;long ago, to a prison lost in time where rebellious immortals are "dealt with." Now her past lovers: Alec, Nicholas, and Bell-Fairfax,nbsp;are determined to rescue her, but first they must learn how to live together, because all three happen to be sharing Alec's body. What they find when they discover Mendoza is even worse than what they could imagined, and enough for them to decide to finally fight back against the Company.
Customer Reviews:
2355 is not far away. It's all about to hit the fan........2007-05-25
In this, the next to the last of the novels of the Company, Baker brings us closer to the end, the year 2355, after which the record of history given to the cyborgs ends. This has always been a source of concern for the immortals. Will the company try to kill them all? Do they revolt against their masters? What happens?
We are given a few clues. Several forces are in motion.
Enforcer Budu and Facilitator Joseph. Budu is angry about the `retirement' of the ancient enforcers. What is he planning? After lying in a vat for years and years, he is back in action and his `son', Joseph, who is acting rather oddly, is supporting him.
Alec (plus two other personalities), the Captain, and Mendoza. Their plans are pretty clear but complications and uncertainties regarding the Captain and Edward are getting in the way.
Labienius. Oddly quiet in this story. But he is still out there and has been planning for millennia.
Executive Facilitator Suleyman has his operatives in action.
What is Alpha-Omega?
It's been 10 years since the 1st book in this series arrived. And, although it's been a good ride, I'm glad we are reaching the end. We are not immortal, after all.
If you have not read preceding novels in this series, do NOT start here but go to the beginning, In The Garden of Iden.
Tiresome.......2007-03-30
This book is little more than an interlocutory novel before the final book. Alec saves Mendoza, some startling revelations, but after that it goes nowhere, whilst all the bickerings between Alec-Edward-Nicholas gets really annoying and pointless, till mercifully the book ends. Waiting for the final volume.
Nw avenues in plot and writing.......2007-03-08
I had just completed "Gods and Pawns", a really remarkable book of short stories and novelettes. It is true that this could have been presented as a series of short stories but I think Ms Baker had another plan. She was trying, with all the jumping around in time, to sharpen the focus tighter and tighter toward the eventual ending. (I wish the series could go on forever and it just might if Dr Zeus would ever land in OUR time and give Ms. Baker all those little doohickies making her immortal.)
Although it was slightly confusing at first, the idea of the three Alecs (or Edwards or Nichlases) working together in the same body was brilliant. Nothing could match, though, the rebirth of my favorite gal pal, Mendoza, and her rapturous love for her Trinity love. The action was fast and furious and the revelations came from all directions as the fatefull year in which history ends approaches - Joseph figured prominently, rescuing his "Father" Budu, trying to rescue Mendoza from Alec in what was a case of plain old mortal jealousy, running around behind the Company's back. Joseph and Alec are unaware that each of them are fighting Dr Zeus. All the while Alec is furtively making plans for the future while Mendoza sends them to times unknown with each wild bout of lovemaking. And what about the lonely and arguably insane David trapped in the far past?
Sensual, bitter, humorous, informative - all the hallmarks of another fantastic entry from the incomparable Ms. Baker.
One of the better novels of the Company series.......2007-03-03
I have read all the company novels and short stories. This book, along with "The Life of the World to Come" and the "Graveyard Game" are my favorites. Although the novel does not resolve anything, the writing style, settings and dialogue make you overlook this fact. I am certain that the final novel coming out in July will answer all our questions. I do agree with other reviewers that Mendoza as a sex-starved, clingy girlfriend is a bit hard to swallow after following her in the previous novels. However this will change in the final novel I am sure..
This should have been short stories rather than being a novel.......2007-02-04
I've been reading this series since day 1, and of course we all are anxious to find out what happens next. But this book won't tell you.
First, let me say that if you haven't read the rest of the series, this book would be totally incomprehensible; if the title popped up on your recommended list or you saw it and thought it looked interesting, but you haven't read the previous books, you would find it a complete jumble with unexplained characters, and the plot would have no detectable beginning or end. That said, if you are someone who HAS been following the series, you would still find it almost that jumbled!
I finally decided, after a few chapters, to regard this as a set of short stories that happen to be interleaved; that way, I could read and enjoy some of the brilliant scenes, and the humor, without being annoyed at the way some characters have changed personality, and without being annoyed at the way we don't actually reach the end.
Some of the things I did like about this volume:
*Joseph's enjoyment of being a Rogue Cyborg (which he thinks of complete with those capital letters).
*The very strange David Reed, and his very strange office.
*The scene where Nicolas breaks into Latin, at seeing Mendoza; as someone old enough to remember when Catholic prayers were in Latin, I recognized what he was saying, and I will tell you that if you try to translate it merely as words, you won't get the full emotional impact of that scene. What he is saying is an extremely well-known and powerful prayer usually addressed to the Virgin Mary.
*Suleyman and Latif, who at this point seem to be the only cyborgs still working for the good of humanity (that's not giving away much, since if you read the previous couple of volumes you already know that.)
Some of the things that I didn't like one bit:
*Mendoza as a besotted idiot.
*The improbable, difficult-to-accept-even-with-suspension-of-disbelief, threefold nature of Alec's personality with Nicolas and Edward; I didn't like the way this was shaping up when it first appeared, two books ago, and I like it even less now.
*The way the ending leaves us nowhere, pretty much where we were at the beginning, like watching Wagner's Ring Cycle for 20 hours only to find ourselves back in the River Rhine with a lump of gold. We jump back and forth in time, we get up to 2352, but we're actually no closer to 2355 than we were at the end of the plot in the previous book. Far too much is left unresolved.
In short: if you're following the series, you sorta have to read this one - but read it in small doses, and be prepared for being left unsatisfied. Enjoy the humor where it occurs, and then turn your brain off the book until there's another one, 'cause there's no particular food for thought here.
Book Description
Freed from persecution by their creators, the emerging Cyborg race establish their own world. Amaryllis is among the hunters rescued and, per Cyborg law, expected to take no less than two, nor more than four, male companions. She has one serious problem. She's not a Cyborg. Rating: Graphic violence, graphic sex, explicit language, profanity, menage a trois, bondage, self sex, and exhibitionism.
Download Description
Freed from persecution by their creators, the emerging Cyborg race establish their own world. Amaryllis is among the hunters rescued and, per Cyborg law, expected to take no less than two, nor more than four, male companions. She has one serious problem. She's not a Cyborg. Rating: Graphic violence, graphic sex, explicit language, profanity, menage a trois, bondage, self sex, and exhibitionism.
Customer Reviews:
very entertaining and more.......2007-05-23
I very much enjoyed this erotic scifi book. It was exciting and funny, and actually gave me a fresh perspective on my "problem" husband. We have been married over 25 years and like many couples there is a gender gap. In the last five years, in some ways, it's been more difficult than ever for me to forgive him for things that seem willfully inconsiderate. The cyborg guys in this book (and Cyborg Nation [e-book]) are very intelligent, but ignorant in how to be with women in personal relationships, because they were intended for war and never were programed to socialize with women. Lately I've been thinking that men are really something like the cyborgs in the story, because they are hard wired differently from women and that's what makes them so obtuse many times. This book has made me see more clearly that sometimes when I think my husband's being such a jerk, he's not purposely being that way; he's hard wired to be that stupid.(the same as not having the programing) It's ironic that a funny, erotic scifi story could make me see something that (worse than useless) counceling totally missed on.
One hot read.......2007-02-13
This is a fun book to read. The sex scenes are hot! The main character, Amy, is conflicted about the definition of what it is to be human, but by the end she finds her answer. Kaitlyn O'Connor did a great job in this book. My only complaint that this book it too short. Highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sci-fi and romance.
2 1/2 stars notably better than average for the genre.......2007-01-26
I was unsure where to place this book and finally decided on the erotic romance captured by aliens genre. It simply doesn't have the complexity of future action/erotic romance that "Interstellar Service & Discipline: Victorious Star" by Morgan Hawke has and is not close to Jaid Blacks "The Empresses New Cloths" while there is a little humor it falls short and the characters are OK but not as well developed as they could be and the plot is pretty rudi primly.
Overall better than average for the erotic fantasy captured by aliens genre but not outstanding.
lover of sci-fi romance.......2007-01-19
This is one of my favorite books and was hard to put down it was so good. Both the sci-fi element and the romance were great. The story was interesting and beleiveable without being too complicated & sex was great without being too much over the top.
Hot menage!.......2006-09-08
Good story line. The sex is hot but done well. The female lead is not some helpless wimp who waits to be rescued, even when she gets herself into dangerous situations. I will look for more books by this author.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant Collection of Essays.......2004-10-26
Donna Haraway will be remembered historically, if she's remembered at all, as the most misunderstood theorist of the twentieth century. Appealing to individuals used to simplistic rhetoric and discourse, due to her subject matters of feminism and science studies, Haraway uses langugae more apt to the deconstructions of Jacques Derrida. This connection is elided but important in understanding Haraway's project.
The essay "Situated Knowledges" offers the clearest construction of her argument, which is, roughly and unjustly on my part, to trouble the subject-object distinction and provide potential postions for ethical research and study.
Her brilliance makes her important but also extremely difficult. Why it was used for a sophomore level university class I'm not sure. This book promotes and profits from rereadings--and why else buy a book?
Brilliancies........2004-09-10
Donna Haraway's work in this collection continues to amaze me. Her intense critical engagement with the history of science is resolutely brilliant: she takes common conceptions of the body, objectivity, power, and 'nature' and pulls the rug of patriarchal metaphysics out from under them. These essays are concerned with unravelling origins myths, pointing out the pitfalls of political innocence, deconstructing our conceptions of the natural and the artefactual--you know, the usual. Her project is immense, but the she hones her points in each essay very well with dazzlingly astute political analyses and characteristic poetic phrases. If you're interested in oppositional antiracist feminist consciousness, Haraway's yr philosopher.
Jaded and slanted.......2003-11-02
"Simians, Cyborgs, and Women" sounds as if it might be interesting to discuss the connections between the three conceps upon first glance. Feel free to read the opening portions of the book. They are representative of the majority of the book. If you are well-versed in fanatical feminist theories - and, more importantly, agree wholeheartedly with them - then you will enjoy the book immensely. On the other hand, if you are expecting a healthy discussion of the basis of, rationale for, and definitions of feminist theories, look elsewhere. The book is rife with shakey feminist theories which serve as premises to even still more outrageous conclusions, without any attempt to justify the premises themselves. As a result, it ends up a house of cards, without a strong foundation, puffed up far more than it ever should. I would have been more interested in seeing a well-structured analysis of the views underlying the arguments she makes. Alas, a search for such an analysis was in vain.
Book Club 3.......2003-04-08
Rur Soc 248
3/30/03
Book Club # 3
Simians, Cyborgs, and Women written by Donna J. Haraway is a compilation of ten essays from 1978 through 1989 that focus on the idea that nature is constructed, not discovered, and truth is made, not found. Donna J. Haraway is a science historian and Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She explains her ideas in this book through a strong feminist viewpoint.
Haraway divides her book into three sections, each section addressing different topics. The first section of the book discusses feminist struggles of developing knowledge and behavior in the social lives of monkeys and apes. The second part of the book discusses contests for the power to determine stories about nature and experience. The last part of the book discusses the cyborg embodiment and the fate of feminist concepts of gender, feminist ethics and even discusses the immune system as a biopolitical map of the chief system of difference in a postmodern world.
My opinions on this book are very one sided. I did not enjoy reading it at all. I thought that the book was very difficult to read. The book had a great deal of words in it that I have never seen before. I found myself constantly looking to a dictionary just so I could get the message behind what Haraway was trying to relay. One of the other reasons that the book was difficult to read was because it talked about many theories and ideas that I have never heard about before. This would have not been a big issue if the theories had explained more before they were used in proving Haraway's arguments. A direct example of this is when Haraway uses the theories that Zuckerman and Rowell have about reproduction. There was one part of the book that I thought was fairly interesting and that was Haraway's idea, that people in today's modern world are cyborgs because we incorporate so much technology into our lives. I thought that that idea was a very clever way to describe our highly technical world. I went into reading this book with an open mind and I left the book with an open mind. Even though I did not enjoy reading this book and I thought it was very boring after reading it I am now more aware about how different people think and their point of view and that is always a valuable thing to take away from an experience.
Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature.......2003-03-28
Christine Kovac
Sociology 248
Book Review #3
March 26, 2003
Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature
How did nature come about? Did it happen over night or was it a process that happened gradually over time? Donna Haraway, in a complex manner, addresses this issue in her book with a feminist perspective as she analyzes historical narratives, accounts, and stories about the creation of nature. She looks at several theories of famous theorists including Darwin's evolutionary theory, social constructionism, and Freud's body politic in order to justify her argument throughout the book.
Haraway believes and argues with insightful information that everything that exists is a form of construction in which one thing leads to the development of another and so on. She specifically targets women throughout her book when supporting her argument. For example,
"Teaching in women's studies classrooms is a historically specific activity. Such
teaching inherits, constructs, and transmits particular reading and writing practices that are politically complex. These material practices are part of the apparatus for producing what will count as `experience' on personal and collective levels in women's movement. It is crucial to be accountable for the politics of experience in the institution of women's studies. ......Women do not find `experience' ready to hand any more than they/we find `nature' or the `body' performed, always innocent and waiting outside the violations of language and culture" (Haraway, 109).
This particular situation is not an obvious feature when it comes to looking at the method of women's movement. It is the experience that women obtain which enables them to move forward in women's movement. It is constructed from one thing to the next, in which many different aspects such as experience are part of a process. It is humans that have constructed scientific evidence and then analyzed it and tested it over and over again. Haraway implicitly stresses that humans make what exists, things do not all of the sudden appear in front of us. She also talks about human bodies and how we make them, they do not pre-exist as many people believe. They are made through the process of intercourse between a man and a woman where a human organism inside a female comes to existence.
Haraway's book is ten complicated chapters full of many technical aspects about the evolution of nature through creation. While it is quite insightful, a lot of unfamiliar and technical language is used that can make the reading very frustrating. Identifying the specific argument Haraway is trying to make is not easy when digesting an incredible amount of complex information. It is a difficult book that addresses and investigates many theories critical to her argument that nature was constructed over time. If you have a lot of time on your hands, are interested in the development of nature, and are aroused by the enjoyment of intellectual challenges, I recommend this book.
Book Description
This book takes the process of "reading the body" into the fields at the forefront of cultureâthe vast spaces mapped by science and technologyâto show that the body in high-tech is as gendered as ever. From female body building to virtual reality, from cosmetic surgery to cyberpunk, from reproductive medicine to public health policies to TV science programs, Anne Balsamo articulates the key issues concerning the status of the body for feminist cultural studies in a postmodern world.
Technologies of the Gendered Body combines close readings of popular textsâsuch as Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the movie Pumping Iron II: The Women, cyberpunk magazines, and mass mediaâwith analyses of medical literature, public policy documents, and specific technological practices. Balsamo describes the ways in which certain biotechnologies are ideologically shaped by gender considerations and other beliefs about race, physical abilities, and economic and legal status. She presents a view of the conceptual system that structures individuals’ access to and participation in these technologies, as well as an overview of individuals’ rights and responsibilities in this sometimes baffling area. Examining the ways in which the body is gendered in its interactions with new technologies of corporeality, Technologies of the Gendered Body counters the claim that in our scientific culture the material body has become obsolete. With ample evidence that the techno-body is always gendered and marked by race, this book sets the stage for a renewed feminist engagement with contemporary technological narratives.
Amazon.com
Ah, pity poor Mendoza. She's a botanist stuck in dusty southern California in 1862, with a broken heart, bizarre companions, lousy food (frijoles and steak again, anyone?), and no plants to study. On top of all that, she's immortal--a cyborg created and maintained by Dr. Zeus, also known as the Company. From its 24th-century headquarters, the Company sends orders back in time to Mendoza and her fellow cyborgs, who collect stuff from the past and send it ahead through time machines for inscrutable uses. But things go from bad to worse for our heroine when drought and smallpox decimate the region, leaving her with nothing to do but pine for her three-centuries-lost mortal love, the martyred Nicholas Harpole. But what's this? Along comes a British agent--the spitting image of Nicholas--hell-bent on upsetting the Union in its hour of need. Mendoza must decide whether to help him in his plot to ensure British rule of the Americas, thereby directly disobeying her Company mandates. She finds herself in a weird race against time itself in this story of science fiction adventure, mystery, and comedy, with not a few reverential in-jokes about SoCal culture thrown in for good measure.
Kage Baker's style and wit make her novels among the best reads in science fiction today. Mendoza in Hollywood, the third book in the Company series (10 are planned) is simply delightful, with the focus back on dear, tragic Mendoza, and tantalizing hints of mysterious conspiracies aplenty. Lots of questions remain unanswered, but Baker weaves such a delicious tale, it's a pleasure to be teased. The series began with In the Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
This is the third novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF, now back in print from Tor. In the twenty-fourth century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of lifefor profit, of course. It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company, Dr. Zeus. One of these is Mendoza the botanist. The death of her lover has been followed by centuries of heartbreak. She spends a period of time in early twentieth-century Hollywood in the days of D. W. Griffith. Then Mendoza, in the midst of the Civil War, and runs into a man disturbingly similar to her lost love. She is about to find love again, and be in more trouble than she could ever have imagined.
Customer Reviews:
Somebody Get This Book Some Ritalin (tm).......2007-09-02
_____I could've sworn I wrote up a full and decent review of this bland blathering book some time ago... Well, whatever: With some minutes before dinner, I'll just recap my thoughts on this text. It truly was boring for one thing. For another thing, the book was tangental--always and again popping from one branching plot development to another. Top it all off with how this book reads more like an anthology with a short attention span, and it does not even qualify as a novel. Having MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD published as a novel is something like labeling oatmeal a sweet and putting it on the candy-store shelf: a deceptive thing to do.
_____The deception begins when we get to meet a truly awesome set of characters--awesome a great selection of ways. The main protatonists are cyborgs. Meaning, they have computer-enhanced brains with access to remote knowledge, have bodies endowed with super powers, and they are immortal. One would expect a mighty assemblage of immortal cyborgs to be put to some amazing and appropriate test of abilties. One would therefore expect rip-roaring science fiction. So you are led to believe, ladies and gentlemen, so you are led to believe...
_____OF COURSE YOU DON'T GET AN AWESOME BOOK. This book, after the first several chapters, degenerates into a haphazard series of events that involve characters alternating between investigating the antics of gun-toting locals and watching movies. That's right: the super-duper immortal cyborgs spend maybe as much time munching popcorn and watching movies as they do in actually DOING something. I'll tell you what: If I was an immortal cyborg with super-powers and was sent back in time on a mission, you would not catch me wasting half of my time eating buttered maize. That, and my attention would focus on ONE PLOT DEVELOPMENT AT A TIME.
_____Yes, in terms of plot development, the book has a hard time getting and keeping a plot. So the protagonist is first sent to collect rare plants. Then the protagonist decides to go help sell some pie-safes. And then the protagonist investigates a time-cave thing (a la Stephen King's DARK TOWER series). This then meanders into the protagonist deciding to part-time it as a prostitute...among other things. Only at the very freaking tail-end of this donkey of a book do we a coherent and finalizing plot development--that which leads to the main protagonist's professional downfall. It was as if this book was just made up as it was being typed with no real sense of direction. By the way, we all know what comes out the tail-end of a donkey, right? That would pretty much match the quality of this book's construction--plotless, meandering, and pointless.
_____By the way, before folks think that I'm just a lone-star madman out to slam random sci-fi novels, have a look at comments posted by other reviewers regarding MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD. Was this book boredom-inducing--as claimed by another reviewer? Why, YES it was! "Meandering," somebody else said that. I'll drink to that sentiment as well. Was there a problem with only the best development in the book happening at the VERY END--like say, in the last seventy pages? I see that same problem, and I'll raise you a five-dollar gold-piece to boot. If you don't believe my cinnamon-tinged verbal antics regarding the awfulness of this book's plotlessness, then you are very welcome to browse around at other reviewers' posts. This guy is not alone in slamming this book.
_____Maybe the only saving grace of this book was that it had a coherent writing style. What do I mean by that? Well, there is a problem with a lot of the science fiction novels out of the 1990s. Maybe it is a problem with LSD, because a lot of novels from that decade and beyond have an acid-trip style of writing: writing styles so crazed and incoherent that a person has to pick through the pages like a psychiatrist digging through the dialogue of a serial killer or something. Damien Broderick, Julian May, those are just two authors that come to mind when it comes to mindless madness and senselessness in writing. Kage Baker actually managed to stay coherent for the duration of MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD. For that reason, I gave the book two stars instead of one. Now I'm off to get my dinner--not popcorn. And somebody get this book something to make it more focused.
Another Company title.......2007-08-01
I'm working my way through the Company series. The underlying story of the immortals and the "company" of the 24th century that produced them and the time travel involved fascinates and Baker seems to be able to carry it through. Easy reads,well written and hard to put down. A wonderful multi-faceted drama
Wandering Aimlessly.......2007-06-10
In this installment of the Company novels, Mendoza is stationed in the hills of Hollywood, California, during the early 1860's. Her task, as always, is to collect rare and/or valuable plant species that would not survive the centuries without the Company's help.
Beyond Mendoza's task to collect plant species for the Company, the plot in this installment was pretty thin. The characters just did not have much of a purpose...there was no cohesive plot holding everything together. And, while we do end up with a bit more information about the Company at the end than we had at the beginning...there was nothing to move things along to reach the climax of the story.
Overall, Mendoza's jaunt in Hollywood has been the biggest disappointment of the three Company books up to this point. I look forward to things hopefully picking up with the next installment.
Savour it slowly.......2007-02-20
kage Baker's rich and evocative writing makes this haunting tale of haunted "Mendoza in Hollywood" fascinating. Future and past revive in a strange never-never land of the soul, in which Mendoza is living, whilst interacting with her fellow Time Traveler colleagues. You'll feel the strange melancholy of the immortal, the whilst beiing entertained by Oscars' funny antics as he tries to peddle a curious piece of kitchen furniture, and you'll be intrigued and moved as another cyborg develops an attachment to the birds he's studying. A bit slow in climaxing, this book is nonetheless a joy for the reader.
look at Baker's Amazing review of "Intolerance" .......2006-07-15
If you live in Los Angeles, Baker's novel is replete with so many local references. Especially centred on the suburb of Hollywood. The setting in the novel is in the 1860s, while much of Hollywood is still chaparral and dirt. But Baker gives a crazy juxtaposition of that Los Angeles with its 20th century equivalent. So there are many remarks about, say, Hollywood and Vine, or the 710 freeway. Makes one wonder if Baker actually lives in Los Angeles. Either that or she has certainly done her homework.
The book is also distinguished by a very long and hilarious review of D W Griffith's Intolerance. Here I am, writing a review of Baker's book. But I tell you that in some weird fashion, her narrative review of Intolerance is one of the best reviews of a movie that you might ever read, in any context. Baker's descriptions of the plot of Intolerance are given in a fast paced style, reminescent of the idea behind MST3K. Baker uses the characters in her novel to spice up her analysis in a way that she simply could not otherwise do.
Book Description
Believing that the enterprise of constructing "artificial intelligence" transcends the bounds of any one discipline, the editors of Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds have brought together researchers in AI and scholars in the humanities to reexamine the fundamental assumptions of both areas. The AI community, for example, could benefit from explorations of human intelligence and creativity by philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, literary critics, and others, while analysis of AI's theoretical struggles and technical advances could yield insights into such traditional humanist concerns as the nature of rationality and the mind-body dichotomy.
The contributions include a continuation of the famous Hubert Dreyfus-Daniel Dennett debate over Kasparov's defeat by IBM's Deep Blue; Philip Agre's tracing of difficulties in AI research to the inherited tensions of Cartesian dualism; Evelyn Fox Keller's examination of the development of computer technology in relation to biology; Douglas Hofstadter's argument that thinking is more than the theorem-solving activities of AI; and Alison Adam's discussion of the implicitly male universal subject used in AI.
Average customer rating:
- Satisfying ending to an intriguing series
- Some images aren't worth seeing
- ugh, don't bother
- Behemoth
- Satisfying conclusion to a fascinating series
|
Behemoth: Seppuku
Peter Watts
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0765311720
Release Date: 2004-12-09 |
Book Description
Lenie Clarke-amphibious cyborg, Meltdown Madonna, agent of the Apocalypse-has grown sick to death of her own cowardice.For five years (since the events recounted in Maelstrom0, she and her bionic brethren (modified to work in the rift valleys of the ocean floor) have hidden in the mountains of the deep Atlantic. The facility they commandeered was more than a secret station on the ocean floor. Atlantis was an exit strategy for the corporate elite, a place where the world's Movers and Shakers had hidden from the doomsday microbe szlig;ehemoth-and from the hordes of the moved and the shaken left behind. For five years "rifters" and "corpses" have lived in a state of uneasy truce, united by fear of the outside world.But now that world closes in. An unknown enemy hunts them through the crushing darkness of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. szlig;ehemoth- twisted, mutated, more virulent than ever-has found them already. The fragile armistice between the rifters and their one-time masters has exploded into all-out war, and not even the legendary Lenie Clarke can take back the body count.Billions have died since she loosed szlig;ehemoth upon the world. Billions more are bound to. The whole biosphere came apart at the seams while Lenie Clarke hid at the bottom of the sea and did nothing. But now there is no place left to hide. The consequences of past acts reach inexorably to the very floor of the world, and Lenie Clarke must return to confront the mess she made.Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands. But even after five years in pitch-black purgatory, Lenie Clarke is still Lenie Clarke. There will be consequences for anyone who gets in her way-and worse ones, perhaps, if she succeeds....szlig;ehemoth: Seppuku concludes the final act (begun in szlig;ehemoth: szlig;-Max) of Peter Watts's chilling and powerful Rifters series.
Customer Reviews:
Satisfying ending to an intriguing series.......2007-06-16
Peter Watts concludes his _Rifters_ saga in the fourth and final volume, _Behemoth: Book Two: Seppuku_. Watts had written that he originally planned a trilogy but that changes in the publishing industry had forced him to divide his rather large final volume into two novels, but that he was fortunate to have a good breaking point between the two books and two resulting novels that were different in scope. It seems to have been a good choice, as while _Behemoth_Book One_ focused nearly entirely on the undersea refuge of the corpses and rifters (along with our old friend Achilles Desjardins), _Book Two_ spent no time there at all but instead allowed the reader a tour of a post-Behemoth North America, a taste of international politics, and of course the end game between Lenie Clarke, Ken Lubin, and Achilles (and a new character that the book introduces, a physician by the name of Taka Ouellette).
Overall I found it satisfying. The post-apocalyptic world we got to see was believable and interesting though wasn't perhaps as well-explored as what we got to see in _Maelstrom_. We were shown much more of the sick and sadistic pleasures of Achilles. While never really entering "torture porn" territory, the reader is left with a sense of disquiet (at least this one was) about how far the author would go in that regard. I didn't think it gratuitous, as this was a fundamental aspect of Achilles' character and of what had happened to him regarding his conscience, but it still nonetheless made me a bit uncomfortable at times (and makes me wonder just what the future holds for some forms of entertainment, given the evolution of horror films and the continual apparent need for succeeding films to outdo one another, a point I think the author was trying to make).
I liked the ending, it had two interesting twists I really enjoyed and didn't devolve into what it could have been (one character simply killing another, story over). The world at the end of the novel is fundamentally different and not necessarily a world without hope. It is also a world that would be interesting to see explored in a later novel.
I would like to express my displeasure at this series being out of print despite its recent age (_Seppuku_ came out in 2004). That is a real shame, as it is a worthwhile and interesting series, an excellent addition to the end of the world sub-genre of science fiction as well as probably the finest novel to ever handle the deep sea and ocean themes. The series overall was well researched (the author himself was a marine biologist) and had well-developed characters, a fascinating setting, and was an intriguing exploration of developing trends in our world.
Some images aren't worth seeing.......2007-03-07
I loved Starfish. I appreciated the smart science (hey, gotta love SF with bibliographies!); I found the world riveting and the characters well-drawn. But I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this book. The sequence of sexual sadism, which stretches on for chapter after excruciating chapter, is simply too visually explicit to be worth experiencing. It's an image I just didn't need, and one I can't get out of my head. It includes an eroticized clitoridectomy, for goodness sake. For me, that sequence overshadows everything else in the book, and however much you may want to see the resolution of issues raised in the other books, be sure you're willing to have that image stuck to your eyeballs before you buy or read this volume.
ugh, don't bother.......2006-06-13
The first book, "Starfish" was amazing, just a great read. This last book is horrible! Confusing, pointless, and extremely degrading, I wish I had never read it. I agree whole heartedly with "aisian film c" above! The rape and torture of one of the more sympathetic characters is what really pushed this book into the crapper for me.
Behemoth.......2005-04-09
An anaerobic microbe from the deep sea may have delivered the coup de grace to an already struggling mid-21st century world.
It makes more sense to me to review the whole series when it's one story -- so here goes.
I was very surprised to find that the mass market editions of these books are out of print -- even as the final hardcover has only just been released. I can't understand why this series wouldn't get more support, because in my opinion it has everything that successful science fiction needs. Watts incorporates big, shiny ideas -- and the deep-sea biology is a wonderful original touch. The books include a high level of action and tension and, pleasantly unusually for "idea" SF, are strongly character-driven. And the characters are tormented enough for anyone.
There are flaws. At times, the plot is unclear, and while I like the pivotal role played by ignorance and misunderstanding, at times an irritating back-and-forth plot dynamic (Seppuku is a cure, no it isn't, yes it is) appears. Characterization, while overall excellent, at times seems over the top -- it's not entirely clear why *everyone* is so messed up, and the stupid bickering between the Rifters and the corporates in Atlantis left me with sympathy for neither side. I was put off by the apparent indifference of the characters to the impending destruction of Earth's whole ecosystem -- but then, they're selfish and profoundly damaged people, and creating sympathy for them in the reader's mind does not seem to have been Watts' priority. I would have found the aforesaid destruction more effective had it been shown more clearly.
But, despite all these quibbles, I think this series is really good SF, and I highly recommend it.
Satisfying conclusion to a fascinating series.......2005-03-01
First off, for those of you haven't already read "Behemoth: B-Max" (at least) you will definitely want to do so before tackling "Behemoth: Seppuku". For reasons that the author explains in the first volume, they constitute one book that was split into two due to pressures in the publishing issue. This novel does not stand alone, and will make no sense without reading the previous volume. Furthermore, there are two other volumes in the series "Starfish" and "Maelstrom" and while each entry stands on its own fairly well, reading the books in order would definitely be the approach I would recommend.
For those of you who are new to the series, here is a brief synopsis that should tell you whether or not these books are for you. Essentially, the story arc is about evolution: human, animal and electronic. By mixing a blend of biology, computer science and chaos theory, author Peter Watts has created a near future Earth where man is simultaneously at the height of his powers and walking the knife's edge of total ecological failure. In an effort to maintain the high standard of Western living mankind has turned to deep sea geothermal power to meet their energy needs. Miles below the ocean, specially engineered humans culled from the dregs of society maintain these power plants. However, what no one could have expected was that they would encounter an organism that would unleash an apocalypse. Part hard science-fiction, part post-apocalyptic, the first two books represent a genuinely original voice in the genre.
For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting "Seppuku" rest assured the ending is eminently satisfying. Given the two volume approach, it is difficult to offer much in the way of plot details without providing spoilers, but I can say that after the somewhat broader focus of "Maelstrom" and "B-Max" the story has gone full circle and boiled back down to the most perverse trinity of characters one is likely to find: Lenie Clarke, Ken Lubin and Achilles Desjardins. As the three engage in a power-play in which no one's motivations are clear and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, action takes precedence over thought, to sometimes disastrous effect. Nonetheless, the science and technology which has so defined this series is on ample display and is as prescient as ever.
Of particular note, I found the conclusion to be perfectly enigmatic. This is post-apocalyptic fiction, and a happy ending would have been wildly out of place, but Watts' conclusion recognizes this without being entirely bleak. In this regard, his novel owes more to "Alas, Babylon" with it's open ended conclusion, than the superb, but utterly fatalistic "On the Beach".
To say more would risk huge spoilers, so suffice it to say "Sepukku" is every bit the conclusion I was hoping for. Watts has combined hard science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction and taken both in new and exciting directions. If you're a fan of the series, you'll be glad at the way it ends; if you're intrigued by this review, grab "Starfish" and start from the beginning.
Jake Mohlman
Books:
- Blood of Roses
- Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment
- Coffee, Tea or Me? The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses
- Double-Blind (Battletech , No 31)
- Dr. Pitcairn's New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats
- Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
- Emotional Unavailability : Recognizing It, Understanding It, and Avoiding Its Trap
- Enslaved by Ducks
- Fablehaven Rise of the Evening Star (Fablehaven) (Fablehaven) (Fablehaven) (Fablehaven)
- Games of No Chance (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Publications)
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