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Optimal
The Algorithm Wars have ended, and the world has been optimized. Thanks to the System, everything that happens is recorded, liked, commented, shared and analyzed at scale in order to produce nonstop and ever-improving recommendations about what kind of job you should have, what kind of food you might enjoy, what kind of music you might like, what kind of exercise you need, and what kind of person you might want to sleep with. It is a world of total information and total freedom… although things tend to go more smoothly when you follow the System’s recommendations. In this hyper-networked society, Stanton Lime did the one thing that should have been He disappeared. Now the System has inexplicably selected Jack, a perfectly ordinary citizen, to find out why. From author J.M. Berger, an expert on the toxic real-world effects of a globally networked society, comes a unique dystopian vision of a total information society built by Silicon Valley, where today’s trends have become tomorrow’s reality.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
354 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2020
70 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
J.M. Berger
14 books27 followersJ.M. Berger is the author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam and coauthor (with Jessica Stern) of ISIS: The State of Terror. He is a fellow with the Counter-Terrorism Strategic Communications Project and a nonresident Fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 13, 2023
Linda Nagata liked this one a lot: "Optimal is a very smart, very well written, near-future utopia/dystopia in which everything in life is monitored and all your needs are anticipated–and mostly fulfilled–as you follow your AI-generated prompts through each day. Really, don't miss it! Highly recommended." -- from her newsletter. She's been a pretty reliable source for recommendations, and it's a $3 ebook. OK!
Well. I got my $3 worth. The book rocked right along until it got to the end, where it sort of came to pieces (literally). There was a HUGE honking WSOD-killer:
So. It's Berger's fiction debut, and it shows. Quite a lot of info-dumping, which gets awkward but is tolerable. Another grump: the fake-watch fad. But I HATED the ending. Confused, depressing and illogical. I had to let the book percolate awhile before writing this. It was a 4-star up to then. Still worth reading. But I sure wish he'd written a better ending! For me, a weak 3-star book.
Well. I got my $3 worth. The book rocked right along until it got to the end, where it sort of came to pieces (literally). There was a HUGE honking WSOD-killer:
So. It's Berger's fiction debut, and it shows. Quite a lot of info-dumping, which gets awkward but is tolerable. Another grump: the fake-watch fad. But I HATED the ending. Confused, depressing and illogical. I had to let the book percolate awhile before writing this. It was a 4-star up to then. Still worth reading. But I sure wish he'd written a better ending! For me, a weak 3-star book.
January 29, 2021
What Is Real???
I gave the book five stars because the theme and Theory are so imaginative and inventive it was quite mind-boggling. I must admit did start off very slowly and it was hard to get going in it but once I got into it it was hard to put down
I gave the book five stars because the theme and Theory are so imaginative and inventive it was quite mind-boggling. I must admit did start off very slowly and it was hard to get going in it but once I got into it it was hard to put down
December 2, 2020
JMB takes his time with world-building and character development and he doesn't set his characters into motion until 70% in. When he does, you know the characters and the world well, it is gripping and a lot of fun. Intelligent science fiction. Recommended to me by Linda Nagata of Inverted Frontier fame in her newsletter. I loved it and it had a strong PKD vibe, intriguing and mentally stimulating. Give it a chance and you won't be sorry.
February 6, 2021
A dystopian story about a world where Social Media has been evolved to a terrifying end. The mystery is a good page turner, and it highlights some serious concerns regarding the incredible power of social media algorithms to control beliefs and behaviors, and on a mass scale, control social activity of the masses. I enjoyed it right up until the end, which ended up being unsatisfying, but the journey is well worth it if you are interested in the subject matter.
September 6, 2020
Terrific story
Excellent storytelling. Nods to Sherlock Holmes, the Kobayoshi Maru scenario, and all the joys and horrors of modern day life - pandemics, conspiracy theories, social media ills. Loved this book.
Excellent storytelling. Nods to Sherlock Holmes, the Kobayoshi Maru scenario, and all the joys and horrors of modern day life - pandemics, conspiracy theories, social media ills. Loved this book.
September 9, 2020
Excellent.
This book grabs you and won't let go. It's simultaneously fascinating and terrifying, and should be read as a warning.
This book grabs you and won't let go. It's simultaneously fascinating and terrifying, and should be read as a warning.
January 28, 2021
I enjoyed this tale tremendously. I liked the way he played off our current state of the world.
October 16, 2020
Really enjoyed this. Similar premise to Chris Lodwig's great "Systemic" but considerably darker once the secrets of the system are revealed. There were some unanswered questions, especially about the police, and the end was set up so there could be a sequel although I'm not sure one is planned.
One minor niggle: A/B testing was described as being related to machine learning; it is not.
One minor niggle: A/B testing was described as being related to machine learning; it is not.
March 24, 2021
The fiction that only a student of online extremism could write
I’ve never met J.M. Berger, but I’ve been watching him closely ever since he published the ISIS Twitter Census through the Brookings Institute. At that time we were very focused on terrorist use of social media in my lab. Since then I’ve read his other non-fiction works, such as Extremism, followed him on Twitter (@intelwire) and watched him from afar as my lab expanded to consider disinformation, QAnon, and political extremism. How will we ever return to sanity online? In this book, Berger imagines a society after The Algorithm Wars are over and machines have built a utopia where carefully managed people have everything they could want, as long as they do what the algorithms say is best for them.
But what if you don’t want to follow the algorithms? What if you don’t want to be carefully managed? I never imagined Berger had a Stanislaw LEM inside him, but that is what I was constantly thinking of as the layers of the System’s world were peeled back one by one to reveal the stark truth. Thrilling page turner and dark prophecy. Well done, Mr. Berger!
I’ve never met J.M. Berger, but I’ve been watching him closely ever since he published the ISIS Twitter Census through the Brookings Institute. At that time we were very focused on terrorist use of social media in my lab. Since then I’ve read his other non-fiction works, such as Extremism, followed him on Twitter (@intelwire) and watched him from afar as my lab expanded to consider disinformation, QAnon, and political extremism. How will we ever return to sanity online? In this book, Berger imagines a society after The Algorithm Wars are over and machines have built a utopia where carefully managed people have everything they could want, as long as they do what the algorithms say is best for them.
But what if you don’t want to follow the algorithms? What if you don’t want to be carefully managed? I never imagined Berger had a Stanislaw LEM inside him, but that is what I was constantly thinking of as the layers of the System’s world were peeled back one by one to reveal the stark truth. Thrilling page turner and dark prophecy. Well done, Mr. Berger!
January 1, 2022
If you follow the prompts it gives you, this book can lead you to some dark (if not novel) perspectives on society.
I joked when I picked it up that it's about recommender systems eating the world, and that's not wrong. But besides the enjoyable mystery and SF framing, Optimal offers ample, but generally not heavy-handed, musings on freedom, control, living well, etc. There were a few weak spots in the plot (eg the police don't make sense to me), but overall those didn't detract for me from its engaging plot or effectiveness as dystopian satire. Some later chapters veered towards infodump, but in hindsight, after hundreds of pages of hinting and teasing, it was cathartic to finally find out.
The main character's journey (satisfyingly) resembles the radicalization process Berger describes briefly in his Extremism.
I joked when I picked it up that it's about recommender systems eating the world, and that's not wrong. But besides the enjoyable mystery and SF framing, Optimal offers ample, but generally not heavy-handed, musings on freedom, control, living well, etc. There were a few weak spots in the plot (eg the police don't make sense to me), but overall those didn't detract for me from its engaging plot or effectiveness as dystopian satire. Some later chapters veered towards infodump, but in hindsight, after hundreds of pages of hinting and teasing, it was cathartic to finally find out.
The main character's journey (satisfyingly) resembles the radicalization process Berger describes briefly in his Extremism.
March 10, 2022
A chilling dystopian horror story that you will devour, with wonder and a creepy sensation of this being a blueprint. There could be a sequel, though I wouldn't read it. The reveal happened. It starts a little slow this book, but it immediately makes you start asking questions about whats happening, what time period is it, and how the characters are doing what they're doing. The author makes you wait for it, all the while you become more invested in the plot, and bam! He starts telling you, by that time. There is no way to put the book down. Enjoy.
January 13, 2021
Some interesting ideas
Good ideas and interesting developments along the way. It’s not very deep but it is a fun adventure. Timely quarantined read.
Good ideas and interesting developments along the way. It’s not very deep but it is a fun adventure. Timely quarantined read.
June 13, 2022
Jack has known nothing but the System his entire life. He rises when it tells him to, he dresses in the outfit its algorithms choose for him, he follows prompts to a selected diner and finds a delicious and nutritionally-varied meal waiting for him at the table, no waiting required. From his work to his social life (romantic interactions included), the System has taken good care of him. When the System assigns him a new task – finding a man who has disappeared, somehow dropping off the System’s grid – his tidy, content world will begin to unravel. Optimal offers us food for thought as we travel through a world only different from ours by degree.
Most of us can still remember a world before big data: we’d come of age when Gmail arrived and when we began learning that Apple, Microsoft, Google, and others routinely collected and analyzed the data our online activity generated, we were properly horrified – at least, for a few minutes. Then another news story pushed itself to the top of the feed, Amazon alerted us to a new book that was exactly the kind of thing it knows we liked to read, and we forgot. Imagine a world, though, so completely ruled by algorithms that most people needn’t make any decision at all: their clothes, food, and even leisure activities are suggested to them. The System is always watching, always making helpful suggestions. Optimal’s main character was reared in such a world, and he’s found it works very well for him, most of the time. Sure, there are times when the System’s benevolent administration of Jack’s life doesn’t square with what he’d like( he yearns to be an artist, for instance, despite the System insisting that he has the soul of an accountant) but on the whole, he can’t complain. He’s a happy, safe hamster on his wheel – until he begins investigating the disappearance of a man whom he discovers was sharply critical of the System. An antique radio reveals an illicit broadcast that blows into Jack’s mind and awakens him to new possibilities.
There’s not much I can say about the plot of Optimal that won’t give it away and deny potential readers the sinister thrill of learning about this Brave New World and its hidden flaws. Perhaps what’s most notable about Optimal’s world is that there’s no obvious coercion: the System rules by suggestion. If its prescriptions are followed, users can expect a steady stream of rewarding moments: if not, they encounter subtle friction, to the point that the desired object loses interest for them: the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. For some, though, impulse and reward are insufficient: they demand fulfillment, meaning, purpose – agency. Optimal creates a picture of a world that is dystopian despite its idyll, and bears thinking about given how much of our own reality is shaped by algorithms. It’s not an accident that the rule of the System came about through ‘information wars’, chaos created by people living in different intellectual worlds from the other – each living in their own filter bubble, in increasingly smaller conceptions of the outside universe. (Berger has done previous work on the origins of extremism, making his analysis particularly interesting despite the fictional setting.) How many people evaluate their own view of reality, moderated as it is through TV and social media feeds? How many people deliberately consider the view from other eyes? Entertainment queues, too, push our being: we Flanderize ourselves by allowing the discovery menu to make part of our interests become the whole of our viewing consumption.
Optimal is a fascinating, thoughtful thriller about the world to come. Definite reccommendation.
Most of us can still remember a world before big data: we’d come of age when Gmail arrived and when we began learning that Apple, Microsoft, Google, and others routinely collected and analyzed the data our online activity generated, we were properly horrified – at least, for a few minutes. Then another news story pushed itself to the top of the feed, Amazon alerted us to a new book that was exactly the kind of thing it knows we liked to read, and we forgot. Imagine a world, though, so completely ruled by algorithms that most people needn’t make any decision at all: their clothes, food, and even leisure activities are suggested to them. The System is always watching, always making helpful suggestions. Optimal’s main character was reared in such a world, and he’s found it works very well for him, most of the time. Sure, there are times when the System’s benevolent administration of Jack’s life doesn’t square with what he’d like( he yearns to be an artist, for instance, despite the System insisting that he has the soul of an accountant) but on the whole, he can’t complain. He’s a happy, safe hamster on his wheel – until he begins investigating the disappearance of a man whom he discovers was sharply critical of the System. An antique radio reveals an illicit broadcast that blows into Jack’s mind and awakens him to new possibilities.
There’s not much I can say about the plot of Optimal that won’t give it away and deny potential readers the sinister thrill of learning about this Brave New World and its hidden flaws. Perhaps what’s most notable about Optimal’s world is that there’s no obvious coercion: the System rules by suggestion. If its prescriptions are followed, users can expect a steady stream of rewarding moments: if not, they encounter subtle friction, to the point that the desired object loses interest for them: the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. For some, though, impulse and reward are insufficient: they demand fulfillment, meaning, purpose – agency. Optimal creates a picture of a world that is dystopian despite its idyll, and bears thinking about given how much of our own reality is shaped by algorithms. It’s not an accident that the rule of the System came about through ‘information wars’, chaos created by people living in different intellectual worlds from the other – each living in their own filter bubble, in increasingly smaller conceptions of the outside universe. (Berger has done previous work on the origins of extremism, making his analysis particularly interesting despite the fictional setting.) How many people evaluate their own view of reality, moderated as it is through TV and social media feeds? How many people deliberately consider the view from other eyes? Entertainment queues, too, push our being: we Flanderize ourselves by allowing the discovery menu to make part of our interests become the whole of our viewing consumption.
Optimal is a fascinating, thoughtful thriller about the world to come. Definite reccommendation.
September 26, 2020
The punch of this book sneaks up on you, as the story develops and the layers of this seemingly perfect world are peeled back. At several spots I was reasonably sure how a plot point would resolve, only to be surprised to discover not only was I wrong but the revealed answer was so much more interesting and thought-provoking. The prose is fluid, the characters have great depth, and the premise fascinating and more than a bit frightening.
November 23, 2020
Renndi frekar blint í sjóinn en oftar en ekki er það bara fínt. Hafði lesið aðra (fræði)bók eftir sama höfund þar sem hann kortleggur öfgastefnu (Extremism - mæli með, bókinni þeas). Þessi er hins vegar skáldskapur, sci/fi/dystópíu-stemning með vísanir í raunveruleikann, þann sem við erum stödd í um þessar mundir. Núna fer þessi umsögn að nálgast allsherjarvitleysu. Allavega, þetta er bók sem greip mig frá byrjun og alveg til enda. Óhætt að mæla með, held ég.
January 6, 2022
Clairvoyant view of what the Singularity might entail
As a novel, this is pretty good. As an analysis of the possible.pitfalls of the current merging of humanity and our increasing reliance on technology it is frightening and on point. Highly recommended for anyone thinking about how our lives and world might change as technology takes over.
As a novel, this is pretty good. As an analysis of the possible.pitfalls of the current merging of humanity and our increasing reliance on technology it is frightening and on point. Highly recommended for anyone thinking about how our lives and world might change as technology takes over.
February 22, 2021
The simplest summary is "1984 in a world with Facebook", but it's a more thoughtful and less straightforward homage than that logline might give it credit for, and I found it built up as the world-building unspooled and left more of an impact than I had initially expected going into it.
February 3, 2021
A solid original premise relevant to today. Plausible to the point of inevitability. Chilling, all the more so because it's written by someone who knows the subject. Recommended.
February 25, 2021
Fantastic. #readoptimal
March 13, 2021
Enjoyed this a lot. Wrote a longer review here: https://medium.com/hybrid-analyst/boo...
April 13, 2021
I admit it - a big part of me wants to live in the utopian/dystopian future that Berger lays out here.
March 20, 2022
Chilling
A very thoughtful and insightful book. Perhaps the 1984 of our time. We need to think long and hard before we attach our senses to a digital stream.
A very thoughtful and insightful book. Perhaps the 1984 of our time. We need to think long and hard before we attach our senses to a digital stream.
December 20, 2023
A remarkably well thought out vision of algorithmic influence and control. The writing is engaging and well paced. All around it’s a book that stays with you for its world and its characters.
August 13, 2024
Not entirely satisfying, but interesting
September 26, 2023
A grim, but interesting and engaging look at the future.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews