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Book finished
Mar. 23rd, 2013 09:14 amAccelerando by Charles Stross
This is a freely available book, I got it from here.
I have been a singularity non-believer since reading Vinge's version of it, first in Marooned in Real Time. This book turned me around on that point - I now think that at least SOME version of a singularity is actually a possibility. This book is very heavy with technical terms; I actually told someone a few days ago "I really liked this book, but you won't" because honestly, unless you're pretty comfortable with computer terminology, it's just going to be impenetrable.
It's probably the level of detail that Stross goes into that convinced me though. I require proof of extraordinary claims, and just waving your arms and saying "blah blah Moore's law blah blah we're doomed in some unspecified way that I can't describe because it's incomprehensible to our puny minds" doesn't convince me. Showing me the singularity happening, as Stross has, is much more convincing. A lot of the technology he uses to bring it about isn't all that far-fetched either.
I very much appreciated that the language level of this book is quite high. It's the farthest thing from being written at the typical 6th grade reading level. At the same time, that meant that it was a very slow read even by my standards. With most books I can skip lightly over the paragraphs and be just fine; with this book, every sentence really needs to be absorbed separately.
I gave it 4/5 on Goodreads. I reserve 5/5 only for genre-defining works. Actually this may be one. I may go upgrade it later after I have time to digest it a bit.
FWIW, I read the last 15% or so of this on the Kindle Paperwhite that I bought yesterday. I thought that I was reading very little at a time simply due to short attention span, but now I suspect that my eyes were getting tired of the LCD. I read longer on the Paperwhite than on the tablet, though that could be just because I was approaching the end of the book. The Kindle "X minutes left in this chapter" is also a good motivational tool though.
This is a freely available book, I got it from here.
I have been a singularity non-believer since reading Vinge's version of it, first in Marooned in Real Time. This book turned me around on that point - I now think that at least SOME version of a singularity is actually a possibility. This book is very heavy with technical terms; I actually told someone a few days ago "I really liked this book, but you won't" because honestly, unless you're pretty comfortable with computer terminology, it's just going to be impenetrable.
It's probably the level of detail that Stross goes into that convinced me though. I require proof of extraordinary claims, and just waving your arms and saying "blah blah Moore's law blah blah we're doomed in some unspecified way that I can't describe because it's incomprehensible to our puny minds" doesn't convince me. Showing me the singularity happening, as Stross has, is much more convincing. A lot of the technology he uses to bring it about isn't all that far-fetched either.
I very much appreciated that the language level of this book is quite high. It's the farthest thing from being written at the typical 6th grade reading level. At the same time, that meant that it was a very slow read even by my standards. With most books I can skip lightly over the paragraphs and be just fine; with this book, every sentence really needs to be absorbed separately.
I gave it 4/5 on Goodreads. I reserve 5/5 only for genre-defining works. Actually this may be one. I may go upgrade it later after I have time to digest it a bit.
FWIW, I read the last 15% or so of this on the Kindle Paperwhite that I bought yesterday. I thought that I was reading very little at a time simply due to short attention span, but now I suspect that my eyes were getting tired of the LCD. I read longer on the Paperwhite than on the tablet, though that could be just because I was approaching the end of the book. The Kindle "X minutes left in this chapter" is also a good motivational tool though.
