≡ [PDF] WWW Wonder Robert J Sawyer 9780441019762 Books

WWW Wonder Robert J Sawyer 9780441019762 Books

Download As PDF : WWW Wonder Robert J Sawyer 9780441019762 Books

WWW Wonder Robert J Sawyer 9780441019762 Books

This was the final book in the WWW trilogy, showing the emergence of an intelligence within the framework of the internet, named Webmind. The first two books dealt with its creation and then its early forays into the public light. This last one deals with how it and humanity come to terms for peaceful coexistence.

With such examples as Hal and Skynet to prejudice us, it’s hardly surprising that Webmind was not received with open arms. Some want to kill it immediately. Others want to try to isolate it somewhere. But Webmind has its own priorities and shows itself to be a worthy opponent and a magnanimous winner. I don’t want to spoil it with specifics, but eventually Webmind proves itself to be a useful addition to humanity.

Meanwhile Caitlin, the blind teenage girl who discovered and nurtured Webmind, manages to ride out her celebrity status and move further into adulthood. There’s nothing particularly Sci-Fi about that part of the story, but it was sweet and kept Webmind’s increasingly high-stakes propositions tied to the realm of mere mortals.

All in all, it was a nice conclusion to the trilogy.


Tags : WWW: Wonder [Robert J. Sawyer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV> <b>View our feature on Robert J. Sawyer's WWW:Wonder</i>.</b> <b> A writer of boundless confidence and bold scientific extrapolation ( New York Times</i>) concludes his mindbending trilogy. </b>Webmind-the vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web-has proven its worth to humanity by aiding in everything from curing cancer to easing international tensions. But the brass at the Pentagon see Webmind as a threat that needs to be eliminated. Caitlin Decter-the once-blind sixteen-year-old math genius who discovered,Robert J. Sawyer,WWW: Wonder,Ace,0441019765,FIC028000,Science Fiction - General,Artificial intelligence;Fiction.,National security;Fiction.,World Wide Web;Fiction.,Artificial intelligence,Fiction,Fiction - Science Fiction,Fiction Science Fiction General,Fiction-Science Fiction,GENERAL,General Adult,Monograph Series, any,National security,SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,Science Fiction,Science Fiction - Hard Science Fiction,United States,World Wide Web

WWW Wonder Robert J Sawyer 9780441019762 Books Reviews

I absolutely loved all three books. I agree with many that Sawyer got up on his soapbox a little too much, but the story advanced so many new ideas and possibilities to think on, it was worth wading through all the left wing muck. I loved it all anyway, right up until the very end. And then ... it was almost as bad as the stereotypical cheater's ending instead of tying up all the loose ends, you just write, "...and then I woke up. It was all a dream."

That's not, of course, how it ended. But I was extremely disappointed.

All that having been said, however, I wouldn't pass up three volumes of great storyline just because I didn't enjoy the last 5 minutes. I'll just make up my own ending in my head and be happy.
I hadn't realised until the end of this novel that the trilogy is somewhat like an allegory for the past present and future. Past, with uncertainty, feeling new things, starting new things, and exploring the world (physically and cognitively) as would a newborn child. The second one is the present state of the world, the struggles, the battles over perceived "good" and perceived "evil", the desire to try and do everything paired with the natural limitations decorated along the steady path of progress. Being taught and becoming more holistically expansive with that acquired knowledge....Gosh, I really did enjoy this third one though. You can see that Mr. Sawyer is a blend of illuminated realism and confident optimism. I'll leave it at that, because I guess anything else would spoil the brilliance of it all. He's a very powerful philosopher. His progressive views delightfully scream between the lines of this trilogy, most especially this one.
Plowed through this book like it was warm butter and I was a hot knife. The story is well done. The writing style is good, Robert J. Sawyer can write very detailed at times but does not seem to go overboard in this series. It is a must read for anyone that likes hard fiction.
Good story, good premise, great writing. Everyone should read this series. Gives hope for our future. Caitlan the heroine in this story is a much better character than Katnis of the Hunger Games. The premise is also infinitely better than The Hunger Games with kids killing kids all for the sake of entertainment for the rich and opulent. "wwwWonder" explores the possibility of a sentient being becoming aware. The author uses the example of Helen Keller who was deaf and blind, and how she was awakened to the presence of others in her world of darkness and silence. Robert Sawyer is an amazing author in the way he explains science, technology and how it all relates to a higher consciousness. In this instance it is the egg teaching the chicken about morality and how happiness can enrich the whole world.
Robert Sawyer's created another great story centered around consciousness, morality, truth, and survival. I loved reading it.

In some ways the book seems a bit rushed though. For example

He got Pearl Harbor's date wrong. How could any thinking person over forty manage that? I guess Dec. 7th really didn't live in infamy after all.

Sawyer AGAIN discusses the Prisoner's Dilemma without ever having bothered to find out the most basic tenant of game theory namely that the best choice is often to vary one's responses. The idea that for a given problem, it's best to respond one way part of the time, and another way part of the time, is not intuitive - we tend to think logic can lead us always to one best choice. I'm disappointed to see yet another novelist who's missed that basic point, especially a writer who seems to have attempted a little bit research on the question. For example, in the Prisoner's Dilemma, if one knows the exact penalties for a particular action, it might be best to betray one's fellow prisoner 30% of the time, and support him 70% of the time. The percentages can be figured out EXACTLY with a little math, which I've forgotten. As Sawyer correctly points out, if you have a reputation to uphold, or you can evaluate your fellow prisoner's reputation, then your best action will be different, but THAT is not part of the Prisoner's Dilemma problem.
UPDATE Sawyer is right. I'm wrong. Damn. Could'a sworn those lectures thirty years back were about the prisoner's dilemma and not some very similar problem in game theory. -(

The idea that a random choice, even weighted in one direction or another, is the best choice, is pretty amazing to me. I think it goes a little distance to explain the behavior of successful people who don't always seem to follow the same decision rules in seemingly similar decision situations.

Similarly, Sawyer wimps out in three ways

First, the emergent AI is dependent upon the internet, and therefore dependent on people and decides that maximizing people's happiness is the best way to survive.
Second, the AI, although much smarter than anyone, is somehow deemed less creative than our brightest people; it depends on our creativity for its own advancement.
Third, Sawyer decides to make the AI quote famous people, instead of trying to write anything serious that an entity more intelligent than us might decide to communicate about life.

The question of an emergent AI that was not utterly dependent on humanity and what its morality might be is a bit more interesting that what Sawyer chooses to discus.
Limiting the creativity of the super-smart entity seems to be simply puzzling, as is Sawyer's use of the protagonist's web-sight to twice save the AI from terrible threats - I never understood why the protagonist's help was really necessary for the AI.
Gathering famous speeches produces some pretty interesting things to read, but there is a bit of letdown here...maybe I should have just Googled famous speeches?

But I liked the book. I'm glad I bought it. I recommend it to others. It's got more grit than most well told novels.
This was the final book in the WWW trilogy, showing the emergence of an intelligence within the framework of the internet, named Webmind. The first two books dealt with its creation and then its early forays into the public light. This last one deals with how it and humanity come to terms for peaceful coexistence.

With such examples as Hal and Skynet to prejudice us, it’s hardly surprising that Webmind was not received with open arms. Some want to kill it immediately. Others want to try to isolate it somewhere. But Webmind has its own priorities and shows itself to be a worthy opponent and a magnanimous winner. I don’t want to spoil it with specifics, but eventually Webmind proves itself to be a useful addition to humanity.

Meanwhile Caitlin, the blind teenage girl who discovered and nurtured Webmind, manages to ride out her celebrity status and move further into adulthood. There’s nothing particularly Sci-Fi about that part of the story, but it was sweet and kept Webmind’s increasingly high-stakes propositions tied to the realm of mere mortals.

All in all, it was a nice conclusion to the trilogy.