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AhNN
In the early 21st century, wearable AI devices became the rave, and the world was handed over to a network of awesomely intelligent computers called AHNN. (The acronym is quite rather irrelevant unless you buy the book.) Mankind became very incomparably irrepressibly near hysterically smart. All worldly problems quickly went away. Probably to someplace rather unworldly. Now, in the 31st century, or 9th, depending on who you talk to, AHNN has pretty much had it with running the world and would like to give it back.
191 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 2, 2021
“AHNN” is an intriguing story laced with humor. This well-written Science Fiction takes our evolving society, with smart phones and chip implants, to a new level. Self-driving cars, automated checkouts, and automated factory assembly are replacing the need for people. Humans aren’t keeping pace with technology advances. Troy C decides that, with his invention idea, “Man could kick AI in the silicon butt.” His enhanced, automated neural network allows humans to gather data as efficiently as computers. AHNN is the all-powerful, all-seeing, ultimate result.
Constant, instant, inescapable access to knowledge has an anesthetizing effect on individual thinking. How would the addition of android capabilities change traditional human abilities? Could we still think like humans? “AHNN” includes a rebellion against the new way of life, but how could this possibly succeed?
Constant, instant, inescapable access to knowledge has an anesthetizing effect on individual thinking. How would the addition of android capabilities change traditional human abilities? Could we still think like humans? “AHNN” includes a rebellion against the new way of life, but how could this possibly succeed?
August 1, 2018
WHAT IF A SUPERCOMPUTER was running the world, and had been for approaching a thousand years? What if the crazy, noisy, creative, chaotic world of humanity had mysteriously become quieter, less chaotic, and more organised? What if birth rates and productivity had fallen too?
In a world where everyone is connected to each other via brain implants, and that supercomputer controls everything about their lives, it could be seen as inevitable that the world would fall quiet. But AHNN registers disquiet about this situation. So…what if it decided to reintroduce a little conflict into the world it had controlled for so long? And how would that affect the people concerned?
This is the premise behind AHNN. When I first read the synopsis, I wondered what I’d let myself in for, as I’ve only begun to read new SF and fantasy again in the last few years, after a gap of 15 or so years. I’d come to dislike the way SF was going, dominated as it was by near-future stories in which computers are more important than the characters. If you haven’t got good characters, whatever the genre, it’s not worth reading; likewise if they don’t interact in an interesting way.
But AHNN isn’t really about near-future computers, though they do appear anachronistically in the book; nor is it a Terminator rip-off. It’s an expose of how those characters are affected as they “come back to life” after having their emotions, sex lives, interactions and intellectual lives put on ice by the supercomputer that connects them and makes them super-intelligent as well. It’s that that made it interesting for me.
The subtext is that going down that route of inter-connectedness and world domination by a supercomputer would be a stupid move. This is also something I’m very concerned about, so I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiments and viewpoints expressed. I myself have written about the disadvantages of telepathic communication – the lack of privacy in the main, unless you have safeguards to maintain privacy. TE Mark has dealt with this by making his human computers completely unemotional, to the point that they don’t even remember having feelings. Consequently they are ill-equipped to deal with them as AHNN proceeds to disconnect more and more of the population, having decided that this is the solution to the problem of the Earth’s quietness – and its own consequent disquiet.
The subsequent discovery of some ancient (2016!) computers reinforced the anachronistic tendencies of the story for me, and I wasn’t convinced that they’d even be working a thousand or so years later, bearing in mind that ‘a computer’s main enemy is dust’ – as my IT tutor used to say.
Although I had the impression that this story was posted on Kindle before it was really ready, there were some things I really enjoyed about it. One of them was the use of ‘AHNN’ as an expletive. In this future, the police are known as TSAPs (from To Serve and Protect). There are a couple of terms which Mark has coined which express incomplete assumption by AHNN: cog-deaf (which I assume is an abbreviation of ‘cognitively deaf’) and transitional dissociatives. I found this mildly amusing, but also saw it as an attempt at world-building which worked quite well – as well as a plot pivot. The unfortunate unassimilated people are kept, effectively, in mental institutions. (It’s also a neat way to comment on our own society and “civilisation”, where in the past women who had illegitimate babies were treated in the same way.) It’s not clear why they hadn’t been assimilated, except that for some reason they weren’t compatible, but it worked. I note that the TSAP chief, Rudi Click, is cog-deaf, and also that the Glock pistol is standard TSAP issue, so Glick carries a Glock. (However I did find that a bit clunky!) Again, this is an anachronism – at least, if the author made it clear they were modern weapons for that time instead of ancient ones from now, I didn’t pick that up.
It is a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, though, so if that’s what you like – take a look!
In a world where everyone is connected to each other via brain implants, and that supercomputer controls everything about their lives, it could be seen as inevitable that the world would fall quiet. But AHNN registers disquiet about this situation. So…what if it decided to reintroduce a little conflict into the world it had controlled for so long? And how would that affect the people concerned?
This is the premise behind AHNN. When I first read the synopsis, I wondered what I’d let myself in for, as I’ve only begun to read new SF and fantasy again in the last few years, after a gap of 15 or so years. I’d come to dislike the way SF was going, dominated as it was by near-future stories in which computers are more important than the characters. If you haven’t got good characters, whatever the genre, it’s not worth reading; likewise if they don’t interact in an interesting way.
But AHNN isn’t really about near-future computers, though they do appear anachronistically in the book; nor is it a Terminator rip-off. It’s an expose of how those characters are affected as they “come back to life” after having their emotions, sex lives, interactions and intellectual lives put on ice by the supercomputer that connects them and makes them super-intelligent as well. It’s that that made it interesting for me.
The subtext is that going down that route of inter-connectedness and world domination by a supercomputer would be a stupid move. This is also something I’m very concerned about, so I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiments and viewpoints expressed. I myself have written about the disadvantages of telepathic communication – the lack of privacy in the main, unless you have safeguards to maintain privacy. TE Mark has dealt with this by making his human computers completely unemotional, to the point that they don’t even remember having feelings. Consequently they are ill-equipped to deal with them as AHNN proceeds to disconnect more and more of the population, having decided that this is the solution to the problem of the Earth’s quietness – and its own consequent disquiet.
The subsequent discovery of some ancient (2016!) computers reinforced the anachronistic tendencies of the story for me, and I wasn’t convinced that they’d even be working a thousand or so years later, bearing in mind that ‘a computer’s main enemy is dust’ – as my IT tutor used to say.
Although I had the impression that this story was posted on Kindle before it was really ready, there were some things I really enjoyed about it. One of them was the use of ‘AHNN’ as an expletive. In this future, the police are known as TSAPs (from To Serve and Protect). There are a couple of terms which Mark has coined which express incomplete assumption by AHNN: cog-deaf (which I assume is an abbreviation of ‘cognitively deaf’) and transitional dissociatives. I found this mildly amusing, but also saw it as an attempt at world-building which worked quite well – as well as a plot pivot. The unfortunate unassimilated people are kept, effectively, in mental institutions. (It’s also a neat way to comment on our own society and “civilisation”, where in the past women who had illegitimate babies were treated in the same way.) It’s not clear why they hadn’t been assimilated, except that for some reason they weren’t compatible, but it worked. I note that the TSAP chief, Rudi Click, is cog-deaf, and also that the Glock pistol is standard TSAP issue, so Glick carries a Glock. (However I did find that a bit clunky!) Again, this is an anachronism – at least, if the author made it clear they were modern weapons for that time instead of ancient ones from now, I didn’t pick that up.
It is a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, though, so if that’s what you like – take a look!
January 14, 2018
In 2014 mankind was on the brink of higher technology. With the advancement of computer technology, we soon created and inserted the Augmented Human Neural Network into our brains, so that all data and information was at a mere thought. AHNN was rocketed into space as satellites, forever available, and for a thousand years AHNN was mankind’s god. You see, AHNN decided that man was not able to control his own destinies since he always wanted to go to war and kill each other. So the easy thing was for AHNN to control mankind. He had them procreate until they became one race. No money was needed, as everything was supplied that was needed. The police became guides – or helpers, since crime was eliminated. Man did not have to think for himself, AHNN did that for him, and since man wanted a god, AHNN became their god, too. But now, in the 31st Century, AHNN felt that mankind was too quiet. AHNN wanted to shake things up a bit, so slowly AHNN began disconnecting certain individuals to make them think on their own.
We follow five such individuals in Seattle: Bert, Lisa, Joy, Vin, and Kirk. They start searching for answers. No longer connected to other minds, they have to learn to speak again. Meanwhile Captain Rudy Glick takes over command of the Seattle TSAP (police), and his two detectives, Lt. Ellis Travers and Lt. Amy Rip, are assigned to investigate the strange behavior of some of the people and find out what is going on. And all across the world AHNN continues to disconnect others, slowly.
Written as a satire, the author has fun with this futuristic science fiction yarn about a highly advanced society suddenly turned on their heels, and must learn all over again. Plus, discover how the world ended up the way it did in the first place, and that’s not an easy task since everything beyond one thousand years is prehistory with no records available through AHNN. Their god is surely up there in the sky laughing at the problems his creation is now facing, and they want to blow him up – at least blow up AHNN’s guarded Earth-based facilities. Here it is the 31st Century and the disconnected are reliving the 1960s, trying to act like hippies and rebels, and don’t know how to go about it. At times it is hilarious. You can tell the author is having fun, and the reader can’t help but laugh at their antics. Highly recommended.
We follow five such individuals in Seattle: Bert, Lisa, Joy, Vin, and Kirk. They start searching for answers. No longer connected to other minds, they have to learn to speak again. Meanwhile Captain Rudy Glick takes over command of the Seattle TSAP (police), and his two detectives, Lt. Ellis Travers and Lt. Amy Rip, are assigned to investigate the strange behavior of some of the people and find out what is going on. And all across the world AHNN continues to disconnect others, slowly.
Written as a satire, the author has fun with this futuristic science fiction yarn about a highly advanced society suddenly turned on their heels, and must learn all over again. Plus, discover how the world ended up the way it did in the first place, and that’s not an easy task since everything beyond one thousand years is prehistory with no records available through AHNN. Their god is surely up there in the sky laughing at the problems his creation is now facing, and they want to blow him up – at least blow up AHNN’s guarded Earth-based facilities. Here it is the 31st Century and the disconnected are reliving the 1960s, trying to act like hippies and rebels, and don’t know how to go about it. At times it is hilarious. You can tell the author is having fun, and the reader can’t help but laugh at their antics. Highly recommended.
January 21, 2018
I don't usually review Sci-Fi books. Come to think of it, this might be my first review on a predominantly Sci-Fi novel, instead of a Fantasy/Paranormal with Sci-Fi elements. Then again, this is not your typical Sci-Fi. Here's why.
The writing style of the author is... Well, unusual.
It includes a lot of adjectives, repetitions (purposeful ones) and long, yet one-sentence paragraphs. It takes a while to get used to it.
Reason two is the story idea itself, and more specifically how it is written, and no, not because of the writing style.
What I'm talking about is the way the story is structured. Instead of a story, it reads more like an exploration in a possible future. The writer's hypothesis of what could become of us in the years to come, and how it all starts now. It also feels like a social commentary about our dependence on technology and how it dehumanizes us, but his suppositions of what awaits us are garnished with humor.
To me AHNN reads more like a speculative essay than a novel and Chapter 1 even sounds more like an article. It was an unusual piece to review and definitely a change from the other ARCs I got for January.
I'd recommend AHNN to Sci-Fi fans who need a change from the mainstream writing style and to those who like to speculate where technology is taking our future.
The writing style of the author is... Well, unusual.
It includes a lot of adjectives, repetitions (purposeful ones) and long, yet one-sentence paragraphs. It takes a while to get used to it.
Reason two is the story idea itself, and more specifically how it is written, and no, not because of the writing style.
What I'm talking about is the way the story is structured. Instead of a story, it reads more like an exploration in a possible future. The writer's hypothesis of what could become of us in the years to come, and how it all starts now. It also feels like a social commentary about our dependence on technology and how it dehumanizes us, but his suppositions of what awaits us are garnished with humor.
To me AHNN reads more like a speculative essay than a novel and Chapter 1 even sounds more like an article. It was an unusual piece to review and definitely a change from the other ARCs I got for January.
I'd recommend AHNN to Sci-Fi fans who need a change from the mainstream writing style and to those who like to speculate where technology is taking our future.
December 28, 2016
What a fantastical picture, imaginative author T.E. Mark has painted with his newest book AHNN! A unique vision of a future that could easily become reality if humans continue to obsess about nothing else but the latest technological gadgets and forget how to live without.
At the beginning of the 21st century, wearable artificial intelligence devices become en vogue and seemingly overnight the world was handed over to a network of computers named AHNN. Now, after a millennium, everyone is a computer network node, inter-connected by subcutaneously implanted units via the Augmented Human Neural Network, which is tasked with managing the world. Although everyone became super smart virtually overnight, access to information seems to have become the alpha and the omega. This future is free of violence and darkness, but it appears to be overshadowed by a certain sadness.
All goes well in this near-perfect future until the AI realizes in its infinite wisdom that it hasn’t done humanity any favours by turning everyone into nothing but living automatons without apparent purpose. AHNN decides that in order to put things right again, it needs to bring back the Sixties, also known as the “cultural decade” of the 20th century.
This insanely funny, yet thought provoking story will keep you laughing all throughout. The author took a rather controversial subject matter, added charm, intelligence, and copious amounts of humour and technical detail. Although the story vaguely reminded me of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Spock's Brain", T.E. Mark definitely made it his own. In this relatively quick read, uncontrollable laughter is pre-programmed!
At the beginning of the 21st century, wearable artificial intelligence devices become en vogue and seemingly overnight the world was handed over to a network of computers named AHNN. Now, after a millennium, everyone is a computer network node, inter-connected by subcutaneously implanted units via the Augmented Human Neural Network, which is tasked with managing the world. Although everyone became super smart virtually overnight, access to information seems to have become the alpha and the omega. This future is free of violence and darkness, but it appears to be overshadowed by a certain sadness.
All goes well in this near-perfect future until the AI realizes in its infinite wisdom that it hasn’t done humanity any favours by turning everyone into nothing but living automatons without apparent purpose. AHNN decides that in order to put things right again, it needs to bring back the Sixties, also known as the “cultural decade” of the 20th century.
This insanely funny, yet thought provoking story will keep you laughing all throughout. The author took a rather controversial subject matter, added charm, intelligence, and copious amounts of humour and technical detail. Although the story vaguely reminded me of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Spock's Brain", T.E. Mark definitely made it his own. In this relatively quick read, uncontrollable laughter is pre-programmed!
December 11, 2016
T.E. Mark has created a unique vision of a future world where we could all be headed to if we continue to be stuck like glue to all of our technological devices, if we continue to obsess over the latest toys, if we forget that what truly matters in this life are the human bonds. It is a world where people are given fish but have not been shown how to fish. Surprisingly, his world of the future isn't a dark, grim, violent one but it is a sad place nevertheless where humans are nothing more than automatons who have lost the will to be unique and introspective. Everything is clean and in its place but the technological master itself has reached a level of wisdom in which it realizes that it hasn't been doing the human race any favors and that things need to change. All of this and more is delivered with a nice sense of humor and an attention to describing futuristic devices.
December 12, 2016
T.E. Mark has created a unique vision of a future world where we could all be headed to if we continue to be stuck like glue to all of our technological devices, if we continue to obsess over the latest toys, if we forget that what truly matters in this life are the human bonds. It is a world where people are given fish but have not been shown how to fish. Surprisingly, his world of the future isn't a dark, grim, violent one but it is a sad place nevertheless where humans are nothing more than automatons who have lost the will to be unique and introspective. Everything is clean and in its place but the technological master itself has reached a level of wisdom in which it realizes that it hasn't been doing the human race any favors and that things need to change. All of this and more is delivered with a nice sense of humor and an attention to describing futuristic devices.
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March 17, 2018Imagination or vision? I couldn’t help but ponder this question while reading this multi-layered tale. In this scifi/dystopian novel the entire world has been transformed and is ruled by a vast A.I. (artificial intelligence) known as AHNN. This plot at first glance might appear to be just another tale on a familiar theme, but AHNN deviates from the norm almost instantly.
AHNN is a clever, highly imaginative, and well-written original story with a god deal of humor. The plot flows smoothly and quickly, and the characters are as diverse as they are interesting. For these things alone, AHNN is worth a read. Though personally, I feel it would be a shame to dismiss this book as mere entertainment, and not give it some deep thought. On close inspection the story reveals a world with technology and social issues reminiscent of our own, such as A.I.’s taking over jobs that were previously filled by human workers, racial discrimination, and unrest due to border and immigration disputes, to name but a few. Does this suggest we are on the verge of becoming a dystopian society, or have we already taken the first initial steps to that end?
In AHNN, the all-powerful A.I. resolves all the issues which face the population under its rule. The irony is that once the people become totally reliant on AHNN and the new technology which runs their world, they lose all the things which make them unique, and well, human. Meanwhile, AHNN, the great technological guide and deity in orbit above the earth, appears to gain at least the rudiments (if not more) of humanity itself, when it realizes that all its efforts to improve his people’s lives have not yielded quite the results it envisioned
I believe that the way the book ends is a warning about human complacency, and the fact that down through the ages humankind has never been able to fully resolve its in-group, out-group issues satisfactorily. Instead, we seem to resort to the same old tactics and behaviors we always have used in the past, even though our knowledge and technology continues to increase. It appears that our advanced knowledge and technology only serve to make us more dangerous, and vulnerable, and ultimately the probable facilitators of our own eventual demise. Or could it simply be that the only way humankind will actually grow and thrive is on chaos and conflict?
I highly recommend this brilliant scifi/dystopian tale to all who enjoy this genre, and especially to all who want a book that makes them think.
AHNN is a clever, highly imaginative, and well-written original story with a god deal of humor. The plot flows smoothly and quickly, and the characters are as diverse as they are interesting. For these things alone, AHNN is worth a read. Though personally, I feel it would be a shame to dismiss this book as mere entertainment, and not give it some deep thought. On close inspection the story reveals a world with technology and social issues reminiscent of our own, such as A.I.’s taking over jobs that were previously filled by human workers, racial discrimination, and unrest due to border and immigration disputes, to name but a few. Does this suggest we are on the verge of becoming a dystopian society, or have we already taken the first initial steps to that end?
In AHNN, the all-powerful A.I. resolves all the issues which face the population under its rule. The irony is that once the people become totally reliant on AHNN and the new technology which runs their world, they lose all the things which make them unique, and well, human. Meanwhile, AHNN, the great technological guide and deity in orbit above the earth, appears to gain at least the rudiments (if not more) of humanity itself, when it realizes that all its efforts to improve his people’s lives have not yielded quite the results it envisioned
I believe that the way the book ends is a warning about human complacency, and the fact that down through the ages humankind has never been able to fully resolve its in-group, out-group issues satisfactorily. Instead, we seem to resort to the same old tactics and behaviors we always have used in the past, even though our knowledge and technology continues to increase. It appears that our advanced knowledge and technology only serve to make us more dangerous, and vulnerable, and ultimately the probable facilitators of our own eventual demise. Or could it simply be that the only way humankind will actually grow and thrive is on chaos and conflict?
I highly recommend this brilliant scifi/dystopian tale to all who enjoy this genre, and especially to all who want a book that makes them think.
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