Autonomous
Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction
3.7
(101)
Annalee Newitz
"Autonomous is to biotech and AI what Neuromancer was to the Internet."—Neal Stephenson"Something genuinely and thrillingly new in the naturalistic, subjective, paradoxically humanistic but non-anthropomorphic depiction of bot-POV—and all in the service of vivid, solid storytelling."—William GibsonWhen anything can be owned, how can we be free?Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack’s drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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More Details:
Author
Annalee Newitz
Pages
272
Publisher
Tor Publishing Group
Published Date
2017-09-19
ISBN
0765392097 9780765392091
Community ReviewsSee all
"Review cross-posted from <a href="https://books.max-nova.com/autonomous">https://books.max-nova.com/autonomous</a><br/><br/>Only rarely does a novel provoke such a visceral negative reaction from me. Congratulations to Gizmodo editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz for writing "Autonomous", the most hyped piece of garbage I've read this year. Also, major minus points for Neal Stephenson and William Gibson for their endorsement quotes on the cover that convinced me to give this book a chance. Newitz takes a potentially interesting idea, only superficially executes on it, and then slathers it with such an artless dose of radical intellectual property activism, pseudo-edgy hackerspace/academia wet dreams, and transsexual robotic intercourse that by the time I was halfway through, I cranked up the audiobook speed to 2x just to get it over with. If you like shallow, unbelievable characters with no development, you'll love it when Newitz smashes you over the head with wise, virtuous robots delivering lines like, "It's time for humans to understand that property is death." Take a hard pass on this one."
"It was super imaginative bio science fiction. I am so over the digital. This feels new. "
E W
Elizabeth Wissinger