4.8 KiB
[HSF] Rainbows End
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Author: u/None *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3evvzo/hsf_rainbows_end/
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Score: 15
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Created: 2015-07-28T11:09:15
Post:
http://www.amazon.com/Rainbows-End-Vernor-Vinge/dp/0812536363
/u/Alexanderwales said this was one of his favorite books so I decided to read it. Unfortunately there are no rationalist characters in this novel, and the main characters make some bad decisions along the way. The main character also wasn't very likable. The world-building was incredibly good though.
The details of Rainbows End might not become reality, but I think the overall ideas of this novel are very realistic. It takes place in a world that looks a lot like ours, if you just extrapolate out the technology. Social networks and the internet have become all pervasive parts of our world and you're connected to them 24/7. It sets the feeling of being lost in a world that is almost incomprehensible to you. This is amplified by the choice of choosing a main character who is technologically illiterate. Everyone lives inside a bubble, and what's going on in other bubbles is not visible to you. This is already true in our world, especially on the internet, albeit less dramatically. See filter bubble. Liberal people hang out in liberal forums, with liberal friends and mostly receive news from a liberal point of view.
The main characters have nothing to contribute to this frenetic future unless they adapt, and quickly. Robert, the main character, tries to do something what he thinks is beneficial, but due to unforeseen consequences he causes something entirely else to happen. And so it turns out the book is largely about people trying to discover the significance of their own actions. Another way to put this is, they're trying to discover the meaning of their own life. That is an increasingly harder thing to do when you can't comprehend what is actually happening around you, and when the cause and effect get muddled.
There is also some focus on dangerous technologies, like the mind control technology, and it's quite relevant to today's discussion about dangerous AI technologies.
So to summarize, I think this is one of the most plausible sounding future-depictions I've read, but I didn't like the characters that much.
Edit. made a slight typo in the title, had to post again.
Comments:
u/alexanderwales [+7] Time flies like an arrow (3 hours later)
If you haven't read it already, here's Vinge's The Coming Technological Singularity (notable partly because it was written in 1993, and partly because it's the wellspring of a lot of talk about the Singularity).
And yes, this is (probably) my favorite book. There are imperfect characters who get a little less imperfect as they go, fumbling their way forward in uncertain times like most of us do. I personally like that, but could understand if it weren't in /r/rational's set. It's got some stellar near-future worldbuilding.
u/embrodski [+4] (4 hours later)
FYI for those who aren't yet aware: Vernor Vinge coined the term "Singularity." I believe this essay was the first major popularization of it.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+5] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (56 minutes later)
The way the protagonist starts out being a deliberate asshole, and eventually realizes that that's not working for him any more... and probably wasn't working as well as he thought before he got sick... is pretty core to the story. He's not supposed to be a likeable character, he's supposed to have the potential for becoming one.
u/Shrlck [+3] Dragon Army (47 minutes later)
I read that book as per /u/alexanderwales suggestion too. I completely agree with your analysis. Really good worldbuilding but un-awesome characters.
u/biomatter [+2] (2 hours later)
Your description of the setting reminds me of the Oubliette in Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief. People could move around in public as visible-but-indiscernible hazy people-clouds, or reveal themselves to only friends/family/etc, however they wanted to customize it.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+3] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (3 hours later)
More like the Rights Economy in Karl Schroeder's Permanence.
u/biomatter [+1] (16 hours later)
That sounds like a really interesting book! I skimmed a bit of the plot intro on Wikipedia - would you recommend it?
u/ArgentStonecutter [+2] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (a day later)
would you recommend it?
Unreservedly.
u/biomatter [+1] (8 days later)
Just finished Permanence! It was fantastic, thanks for the rec.