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Demiurge
Napster and Gnutella are just the beginning. In the repidly evolving New Economy, copyright as we know it may well be a doomed institution. How will the entrenched powers defend themselves? Will they succeed?
Demiurge is set hundreds of years in the future, when anything and everything, including physical objects and people, can be copied and transmitted over the Net. The World Government depends upon enforceable copyright laws not just to regulate the economy but to ensure that each citizen lives only one life. When one of the top detectives of the World Police defects, the authorities are forced to create an illegal copy, who is left to discover why his original fled and to pick up the pieces of the family he left behind.
Meanwhile, many social thinkers believe society is plunging into the "fourth rupture," the moral crisis separating the nanotech age from the information age. Can one detective patch up the Net before the world dissolves into social and political chaos?
Demiurge is set hundreds of years in the future, when anything and everything, including physical objects and people, can be copied and transmitted over the Net. The World Government depends upon enforceable copyright laws not just to regulate the economy but to ensure that each citizen lives only one life. When one of the top detectives of the World Police defects, the authorities are forced to create an illegal copy, who is left to discover why his original fled and to pick up the pieces of the family he left behind.
Meanwhile, many social thinkers believe society is plunging into the "fourth rupture," the moral crisis separating the nanotech age from the information age. Can one detective patch up the Net before the world dissolves into social and political chaos?
- GenresScience Fiction
238 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 7, 2020
Thoughtful cyberpunk detective story
Fantastic world building and an interesting mystery exploring questions of self, ennui, middle age, souls, and learning. I would love to see more stories in this futuristic world where bodies are changeable, the mind is programmable, and souls still yearn for purpose and progress.
Fantastic world building and an interesting mystery exploring questions of self, ennui, middle age, souls, and learning. I would love to see more stories in this futuristic world where bodies are changeable, the mind is programmable, and souls still yearn for purpose and progress.
February 21, 2021
"I only wanted to write an adventure story," says the author in the preface. But when you're Sheldon Pacotti of Deus Ex fame, it won't be just an adventure story. It'll be a deep philosophical treatise on the societal problems of the imaginary realm you created with some adventure in it thrown in for good measure. The unmistakable Pacotti style is shown best in all of the fake thinker quotes in the chapter forewords (I've saved some in the highlights). The hallmark of great science fiction is that it not only raises some deep questions but also the more you think about them, the more questions will be raised. There will never be the end to the proverbial hole.
The 30th century is a weird place to live in. On one hand, with the invention of Demiurge, the magical machine that can create a complete copy of anything, including live human beings, there should be no limits to what can be accomplished. On the other hand, that would tremendously transform the human society. The author carefully avoids talking about the obvious things, money and jobs. They exist but the question is why do they still exist? Same thing with the family. One of the core conflicts of the story is the family problems but I'd imagine the concept of "family" would change pretty drastically by that point. Humans are copied daily but the copies are illegal except for the first one. After going on a dangerous mission, Paul has to be restored from a backup while his original still lives which makes him technically illegal and the large portion of the story is from the copy's perspective. Not only that, but cops, in their usual modus operandi, offer him a carrot promising that he has a chance of surviving (all illegal copies are deleted). In fact, they can even instantiate a copy of a suspect from a backup to interrogate them about the crime they're committing. I could go on rambling, but instead I'll just quote one of my favorite passages:
We are nearing the end of the nanotech age. What is coming might be termed the "information age." Within two or three centuries, we will move beyond the mere ability to instantiate molecular data to a true power to draft, comprehend, and transform complex material structures. Everything will be expressible as information. By mid-century, radical cosmetic morphing of the human body should be common; personal identity will separate itself from the human organism. Much later, perhaps centuries from now, tools for representing and transforming the human brain should begin to appear; thought will separate itself from the human mind. On the Net, we may see developments like telepathy, group minds, and non-human or supra-human morphologies of consciousness. What it means to be a sentient being, to have a self, etc., will entirely remake itself in the image of this new and ultimate plasticity. The ideoplasm at last will be coextensive with all earthly matter, energy, and complexity of organization. We will be able to amplify or diminish ourselves in ways we cannot even imagine.
The 30th century is a weird place to live in. On one hand, with the invention of Demiurge, the magical machine that can create a complete copy of anything, including live human beings, there should be no limits to what can be accomplished. On the other hand, that would tremendously transform the human society. The author carefully avoids talking about the obvious things, money and jobs. They exist but the question is why do they still exist? Same thing with the family. One of the core conflicts of the story is the family problems but I'd imagine the concept of "family" would change pretty drastically by that point. Humans are copied daily but the copies are illegal except for the first one. After going on a dangerous mission, Paul has to be restored from a backup while his original still lives which makes him technically illegal and the large portion of the story is from the copy's perspective. Not only that, but cops, in their usual modus operandi, offer him a carrot promising that he has a chance of surviving (all illegal copies are deleted). In fact, they can even instantiate a copy of a suspect from a backup to interrogate them about the crime they're committing. I could go on rambling, but instead I'll just quote one of my favorite passages:
We are nearing the end of the nanotech age. What is coming might be termed the "information age." Within two or three centuries, we will move beyond the mere ability to instantiate molecular data to a true power to draft, comprehend, and transform complex material structures. Everything will be expressible as information. By mid-century, radical cosmetic morphing of the human body should be common; personal identity will separate itself from the human organism. Much later, perhaps centuries from now, tools for representing and transforming the human brain should begin to appear; thought will separate itself from the human mind. On the Net, we may see developments like telepathy, group minds, and non-human or supra-human morphologies of consciousness. What it means to be a sentient being, to have a self, etc., will entirely remake itself in the image of this new and ultimate plasticity. The ideoplasm at last will be coextensive with all earthly matter, energy, and complexity of organization. We will be able to amplify or diminish ourselves in ways we cannot even imagine.
September 16, 2019
Sex, philosophy and sci-fi
The lead writer of the best game ever made did not disapppint with his literary work. It's a shame that he's not as appreciated as he should be, and I'll definitely recommend this book to everybody who has even a slightest interest in the genre. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was that every female character was sexualized, but I understand that this book is from a different era and I hope that later works will turn out to be different in this regard. I loved the language and the dialogues, and there were quite a few disturbing (in a good way) and emotional moments. All in all, I was just happy to dive deeper into the brilliant mind behind deus ex, and I intend to continue to do so.
The lead writer of the best game ever made did not disapppint with his literary work. It's a shame that he's not as appreciated as he should be, and I'll definitely recommend this book to everybody who has even a slightest interest in the genre. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was that every female character was sexualized, but I understand that this book is from a different era and I hope that later works will turn out to be different in this regard. I loved the language and the dialogues, and there were quite a few disturbing (in a good way) and emotional moments. All in all, I was just happy to dive deeper into the brilliant mind behind deus ex, and I intend to continue to do so.
June 3, 2019
The concepts within were better handled by Accelerando. Still, it was fairly interesting, and I would have enjoyed this better if I read it first.
April 20, 2016
A lot to think about
This is both a great story and a great mix of science and philosophy. It works as a "thriller" and as a view into how significant technical change could fundementally impact the definition of life. There is also a very real insight into what makes relationships between people work because so much is based in attitude and experience.
This is both a great story and a great mix of science and philosophy. It works as a "thriller" and as a view into how significant technical change could fundementally impact the definition of life. There is also a very real insight into what makes relationships between people work because so much is based in attitude and experience.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews