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Accelerating Returns
The Law of Accelerating Returns states that technology in the coming century will be so “rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.” On one side will stand those who welcome radical advancement in technology, versus those on the other side who attempt to subvert and destroy it. These are the Blockers - rogue extremists who create spectacles of worst-case-scenario science to spur the masses to action. Rule #7 of KillJoy’s Manifesto: A Blocker does not operate underground. He participates in a group. He is mainstream. All things anathema to him, he must embrace and make central to his life. Inspired by Ray Kurzweil’s 'Law of Accelerating Returns', Bill Joy’s 'Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us', and Hugo de Garis’ 'The Coming Artilect War'.
387 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 16, 2014
This book is about:
Neo-Luddism or New Luddism is a philosophy opposing many forms of modern technology. According to a manifesto drawn up by the Second Luddite Congress (April 1996; Barnesville, Ohio) Neo-Luddism is "a leaderless movement of passive resistance to consumerism and the increasingly bizarre and frightening technologies of the Computer Age."
The so called 'modern technologies' originate from "G - Genomics. R - Robotics. AI - Artificial Intelligence. N - Nanotechnology. This is the holy quad of the 21st century, and we are going to make GRAIN like loaves and fishes."
Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942), also known as the "Unabomber," is an American mathematician and serial murderer. He is known for his wide-ranging social critiques, which opposed industrialism and modern technology. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nationwide bombing campaign against people involved with modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, ultimately killing a total of three people and injuring 23 others. The Unabomber was the target of one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's costliest investigations. His disciples are called "blockers" because they try to block the science and technological progress particularly in the GRAIN domains.
Ray Kurzweil said:
There is two old funny characters in this book: Dr. Gaveston and Ben Longstreet.
Longstreet wrote a paper called Killjoy in which he encourages Blockers to take action, explaining action tactics. Below are some of the things Longstreet thought or said:
In this book, the author also speaks about:
The trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling: The trial of Kenneth Lay, former chairman and CEO of Enron, and Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO and COO, was presided over by federal district court Judge Sim Lake in 2006 in response to the Enron scandal. The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the de facto dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron was attributed as the biggest audit failure.
The Manchester Document: The Manchester Document is nothing less than an Al Qaeda cell member manual.
William Nelson Joy (or Bill Joy, born November 8, 1954) is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andreas von Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003. He played an integral role in the early development of BSD UNIX while a graduate student at Berkeley, and he is the original author of the vi text editor. He also wrote the 2000 essay "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us", in which he expressed deep concerns over the development of modern technologies.
Here are the conclusions of this novel:
The author added at the end of his book:
There is a few typos or other mistakes like: "now was now the man" is an example of a part of one of the first sentences. One "now" must be deleted, it's evident even for a French speaker like me; "hors d'oeurves" instead of "hors d'oeuvres" and "Roert's alibi" instead of "Robert's alibi". I don't know why the authors don't re-read their books, or make it read by a proof reader or better by an editor? I don't know, but I nearly stop reading this book as soon as I see that stupid mistake right at the beginning of the story.
Anyway, this is a very interesting science fiction story set in a near future (2018-2022). The author seems to have very well studied his subject. I agree with his conclusion: "And the advances are not going to stop, no matter what we do." The Luddites think that we are about to create a Terminator and if we don't want to be dominated by intelligent machines, we have to take care to keep control over them. I don't want to block scientific or technological progress, but I want to be sure to never live in a sort of Matrix nor to be a resistant in a world like the one in Terminator Salvation. I give this book 4 stars.
Neo-Luddism or New Luddism is a philosophy opposing many forms of modern technology. According to a manifesto drawn up by the Second Luddite Congress (April 1996; Barnesville, Ohio) Neo-Luddism is "a leaderless movement of passive resistance to consumerism and the increasingly bizarre and frightening technologies of the Computer Age."
The so called 'modern technologies' originate from "G - Genomics. R - Robotics. AI - Artificial Intelligence. N - Nanotechnology. This is the holy quad of the 21st century, and we are going to make GRAIN like loaves and fishes."
Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942), also known as the "Unabomber," is an American mathematician and serial murderer. He is known for his wide-ranging social critiques, which opposed industrialism and modern technology. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nationwide bombing campaign against people involved with modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, ultimately killing a total of three people and injuring 23 others. The Unabomber was the target of one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's costliest investigations. His disciples are called "blockers" because they try to block the science and technological progress particularly in the GRAIN domains.
Ray Kurzweil said:
Technological progress in the twenty-first century will be equivalent to what would require two hundred centuries at past rates of progress. We have been speeding up. The twenty-first century will see about a thousand times greater technological change than its predecessor."
There is two old funny characters in this book: Dr. Gaveston and Ben Longstreet.
Longstreet wrote a paper called Killjoy in which he encourages Blockers to take action, explaining action tactics. Below are some of the things Longstreet thought or said:
"Altruism is an abomination to nature. No predator stops to think about the good of another species."
"Pay the bill, that is. Frankly, it frightens me to take the time to write out a check, because during the entire exercise, I wonder how many thoughts I wasted in worrying about the bill."
"What has that effort [writing about love] accomplished, other than a sexual response?"
"Everything is terrorism to you [FBI] these days [...] Any death not sponsored by the US government - terrorism!"
"Forget about Global Warming as the issue that threatens our species. Strong artificial intelligence coupled with human mania, Agent Pazzo, will be here long before the heat."
"A winner in life has more of a chance to be hated than to be loved."
In this book, the author also speaks about:
The trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling: The trial of Kenneth Lay, former chairman and CEO of Enron, and Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO and COO, was presided over by federal district court Judge Sim Lake in 2006 in response to the Enron scandal. The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the de facto dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron was attributed as the biggest audit failure.
The Manchester Document: The Manchester Document is nothing less than an Al Qaeda cell member manual.
William Nelson Joy (or Bill Joy, born November 8, 1954) is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andreas von Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003. He played an integral role in the early development of BSD UNIX while a graduate student at Berkeley, and he is the original author of the vi text editor. He also wrote the 2000 essay "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us", in which he expressed deep concerns over the development of modern technologies.
Here are the conclusions of this novel:
"The applications [for machine-man integration] would still come, despite the public's growing disgust over far-reaching technology."
"And the advances are not going to stop, no matter what we do. What's coming is coming, and honestly, all we did was accelerate the change. We caused it to go faster, we didn't stop anything."
The author added at the end of his book:
"I don't know Ray Kurzweil or Bill Joy, but their ideas hooked me on tech futurism. Their differing assessments of the coming century sparked this story, and I suspect we are headed for neither utopia nor dystopia, but something between those two poles. I discovered Hugo de Garis after the first draft. His idea of the Artilect War is spot on with what I imagined for this story, but this story is set in preArtilect times."
There is a few typos or other mistakes like: "now was now the man" is an example of a part of one of the first sentences. One "now" must be deleted, it's evident even for a French speaker like me; "hors d'oeurves" instead of "hors d'oeuvres" and "Roert's alibi" instead of "Robert's alibi". I don't know why the authors don't re-read their books, or make it read by a proof reader or better by an editor? I don't know, but I nearly stop reading this book as soon as I see that stupid mistake right at the beginning of the story.
Anyway, this is a very interesting science fiction story set in a near future (2018-2022). The author seems to have very well studied his subject. I agree with his conclusion: "And the advances are not going to stop, no matter what we do." The Luddites think that we are about to create a Terminator and if we don't want to be dominated by intelligent machines, we have to take care to keep control over them. I don't want to block scientific or technological progress, but I want to be sure to never live in a sort of Matrix nor to be a resistant in a world like the one in Terminator Salvation. I give this book 4 stars.
June 5, 2016
Here is a near future techno-thriller about those who welcome the accelerating pace of technology, and those who want to subvert it.
Isaac and Julia are part of group of rogue extremists called "blockers." Their intent is to perform acts of terror to present the public with spectacles of worst-case scenario science. They are not your average technology-hating luddites, but people in corporate boardrooms and research labs who want to slow the seemingly inevitable joining of man and machine.
There is a major corporate battle going on between Pelius Research and Talbot Laboratories, and Talbot is losing. Even though Talbot is America's largest biotech company, every day seems to bring another lawsuit, ethics violation, or other bit of bad publicity, all orchestrated by Pelius. To say that Arrica, the female CEO of Pelius, does not like Talbot, and Marcus Jovan, its founder and CEO, is much too generous. She wants to put Talbot out of business, and then buy out what's left in a takeover.
Robert Ploof is an arrogant little you-know-what who is not afraid to walk over people on his way to the top. After being fired by Talbot, and quickly hired by Pelius, he takes credit for a potentially huge breakthrough in the coming man/machine integration. A public demonstration of the breakthrough goes very wrong, with "help" from Julia. Meantime, there is a story of an estranged father and son, and a senior executive at Pelius with his own anti-science agenda. Does either corporation survive the Pelius/Talbot war?
This is an excellent story. Not only is it thought-provoking (is technology changing at maximum speed really such a good thing?), but it is also a strong and well-done piece of writing. It is very much worth the time.
Isaac and Julia are part of group of rogue extremists called "blockers." Their intent is to perform acts of terror to present the public with spectacles of worst-case scenario science. They are not your average technology-hating luddites, but people in corporate boardrooms and research labs who want to slow the seemingly inevitable joining of man and machine.
There is a major corporate battle going on between Pelius Research and Talbot Laboratories, and Talbot is losing. Even though Talbot is America's largest biotech company, every day seems to bring another lawsuit, ethics violation, or other bit of bad publicity, all orchestrated by Pelius. To say that Arrica, the female CEO of Pelius, does not like Talbot, and Marcus Jovan, its founder and CEO, is much too generous. She wants to put Talbot out of business, and then buy out what's left in a takeover.
Robert Ploof is an arrogant little you-know-what who is not afraid to walk over people on his way to the top. After being fired by Talbot, and quickly hired by Pelius, he takes credit for a potentially huge breakthrough in the coming man/machine integration. A public demonstration of the breakthrough goes very wrong, with "help" from Julia. Meantime, there is a story of an estranged father and son, and a senior executive at Pelius with his own anti-science agenda. Does either corporation survive the Pelius/Talbot war?
This is an excellent story. Not only is it thought-provoking (is technology changing at maximum speed really such a good thing?), but it is also a strong and well-done piece of writing. It is very much worth the time.
January 2, 2012
There is a theory in some circles that TV shows such Star Trek are shown to get the population used to strange facts and scientific advances and this book could be used in the same way. This is a fascinting book that will make the reader compare fiction to reality and start to question everything. For those that like a good mystery, a good conspiracy theory or just a darn good read this is a must read.
February 2, 2013
I found each chapter interesting, but I got tired of starting with new characters and a new story with each chapter. I figured that it would all come together in the end, but realized that I would never remember all the characters and events until then.
April 4, 2012
outstanding! gripping right from the start. haunting concept. brilliantly executed. this really is a never-ending-story.
March 4, 2012
Well done Pete! Interesting and horrifying at the same time, but i could barely put it down.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews