This is an extremely nihilistic book and I disagree with its message, which is that humans being immortal and free of all wants is somehow a bad thing because it would get "boring". This is not a very good exploration of the ethics of AGI, and though it is interesting for taking the three laws of robots to the logical conclusion, I think the actual depiction of the Prime Intellect (the AI) itself isn't great. It is basically a religious parable on how AGI and transhumanism is bad because it makes you not human or some shit.
There are definitely interesting parts to the story, especially when it explores society after the change, but more of the time is spent in rather uninteresting and random sections that destroy the pacing. There isn't really a strong enough ethical debate in the story. It could have been about [ how the aliens had all been killed (hide spoiler)], but instead most of it is about humanity had somehow fallen because we had lost the will to struggle or their connection to nature or whatever metaphysical rubbish first worlders like to say from their comfortable positions. The story doesn't explore what life is like for the average person in this new computer-game universe. It seems everyone apart from the main characters is having a rather good time.
The world is fairly well realized but the science is not. Everything the Prime Intellect does is magic. It turns the whole universe into a computer thanks to handwavium. This is not a realistic exploration into what a technological singularity would look like. The part where Prime Intellect is kind of 'doing' the singularity is interesting though, and is probably the highlight of the book. I wish more of it was from its perspective.
Not that I am not skeptical of the whole idea of an AI singularity, where the quantity of capitalism somehow runs away from the quantity, the technology escapes the social and economic formation that it exists in. The capitalist technology resolves capitalism itself, it makes class society obsolete. Actually, this is an interesting path of thought.
The prose is bad and the dialogue is often not easy to parse. It manages to avoid being tedious only due to its short length and interesting premise.
The main character Caroline is not just unlikeable but wrong while being presented as right. Her character doesn't develop, she immediately becomes a nihilistic freak when the universe becomes a utopia. I'm completely against the e
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