"Avogadro Corp." William Hertling

“Mike rejoined them, carrying coffees on a tray and the New York Times, interrupting David’s introspection. “Guys, you are never going to believe this!” "They still print paper newspapers?” David said sarcastically. “You’re right, I don’t believe it.” ― William Hertling, Avogadro Corp

The subtitle for this book is "The Singularity is Closer than it Appears," which told me all I needed to know - that the world in the book was going to change irrevocably.

The premise - that is, given the right programming, a computer can take over the world - is not new.  It is the premise behind all the Terminator movies and others of that genre and a multitude of science fiction stories.  That a computer or computer program can be a benevolent protector of man is the idea behind "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein.  

In this case, a program is being developed to help people write e-mails.  Not unlike auto-correct and grammar check in word processing programs like MS Word, the help here would be to make an e-mail more persuasive.  The program searches through e-mail correspondence involving the recipient looking for the types of e-mails they have made positive responses to rather than negative, and then it makes suggestions based on what will be most favorably accepted. 

The problem begins when funding for the project seems to be running out. One of the programmers tweaks the program to make 'corrections' rather than suggestions and to consider options that would increase the funding for the project's success.  In other words, the programming instructs the program to look out for itself and gives it the power to edit e-mail to do so.  Oops.

The bulk of the book is about how the programmers try to take back control from the monster they have created as the program begins to control more and more of the company, then their contractors, then...  Well, it just keeps going.

I could see most of what happened before it did, and found few surprises here.  That in itself is not so bad, but I found the plot and plot devices hackneyed.  The existence of a Luddite in the company, who depended on paper records rather than electronic, seemed more convenient than realistic.  The colleagues who became compatriots, rather than nonbelievers or enemies, also seemed convenient.  The subsequent battle for control required the most suspense of disbelief of all the elements - up until that point, I was genuinely frightened that this could happen. 

This was a fun read that fed my feelings of paranoia just enough.  But, if I am attracted to another book by Hertling, it will be happenstance, not planned.

About listening to books as entertainment/company:  Because of all the listening I do, I look for ways to extend my credits through audible.com as much as possible by almost always buying something during their 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 sales.  But that results in some questionable purchases and disappointing listens.  It also means I am becoming jaded on pedestrian literature.  This book is one of those.

I don't listen to music radio, I rarely watch a movie at home, and even more rarely do I watch TV.  Much of that has to do with how hard it is for me to hear.  To understand any of those, I really need to stream the sound directly to my hearing aids, which is possible and I have been doing for 5 years.  When I do, I can control the volume and set the sound so that I only have amplified sound from the source (the computer, TV or radio) and only natural sound from the surrounding environment.  This has made it possible for me to listen to things again, but I had gotten out of the habit of movies and TV, and didn't go back to that.

However, I continued to listen to books all through the trying times of working around my hearing loss and increasing tinnitus. Now that I can stream directly to my hearing aids, I find it a more satisfactory experience than when I was missing about 20% of the words (my discrimination rate, that is, the rate at which I understand the words I hear).  And it is the entertainment that I now depend on.  I find myself listening to books all the time - while walking, driving, sewing, painting, crocheting, and cleaning the house.  

To fill all that time, I need a lot of recorded books.  I also need good quality recordings, which keeps me from using LibriVox.  Occasionally audible.com has a sale that lets me get the books I want, but mostly they have lists of sale books.  Hence come books like this that are not the greatest reads, but do fill my time.