Blogging the Noosphere

Finished reading Daniel  Suarez’s The Daemon, in between getting grants and writing papers and such, this semester.  This is maybe the best book I have read about technology, and its threats (as well as promises) in our immediate future, in the past year or two (and that is saying much when compared the likes of Charlie Stross, Neil Stephenson and Vernor Vinge).

Some might say this is cyberpunk reborn.  Others might raise an eyebrow at some of the parallels to, for example, the Matrix trilogy and cyberpunk (the writing predates the Matrix trilogy AFAIK).  This IS neo-cybperpunk, it has all the elements (underclass and high-technology), but it is better!  Imagine William Gibson in his prime (Neuromancar), but a writer who is a real programmer and hacker, and knows plausible threats (and possibilities) that might emerge from the technology as it is currently implemented in our world.  This is Suarez, and this is the brilliance of his book.  As with the best of SF, it takes current trends and extrapolates them, to image a  plausible (and chilling) near-future scenario. I’m not saying that the distribute AI Daemon he imagines is easy, or even likely to become reality.  But so much in this work is spot on and insightful, in terms of the impacts of technology on our society and culture, and the struggles between nation-states, corporations and individuals  (see Life Inc. ).

I loved this book, and can’t wait for the promised sequal coming in 2010 (hopefully that will be early rather than later in the year).