User Zero: Inside the Tool that is Reshaping Dystopia

by Adrian E Hanft III

Who is User Zero? When there is a disease outbreak, as is often the case in apocalyptic movies, the first person infected is referred to as patient zero. One moment you are minding your own business cleaning the cage of a genetically modified monkey, the next you are a zombie infecting humanity with your sickness as armageddon ensues. So it goes. What would be the utopian equivalent of patient zero? If one person can trigger an epidemic, could a single person also transform the world for the better? Someone like that would have to see the world differently, to think differently, and behave in ways that would surprise us. User Zero is a journey inside our minds to find that long-lost world-altering ability. Along the way we will encounter out of control Navy ships, toxic homes, tragic user errors, absurd traditions, and our inability to cope with the technological marvels we have created.

259 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2020

Reviews

[David Stong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars, actually. Somewhere between "Read it" and "Really liked it" Ade clearly has something he wants us to know/think about/grow from. With quotes from Robert Pirsig and Buckminster Fuller, I see we occupy similar head space. We should've connected more.