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Factoring Humanity
In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.
When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution. In concert with Kyle's discoveries of the nature of consciousness, the key to limitless exploration---or the end of the human race---appears close at hand.
Sawyer has created a gripping thriller, a pulse-pounding tour of the farthest reaches of technology. Factoring Humanity is a 1999 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.
When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution. In concert with Kyle's discoveries of the nature of consciousness, the key to limitless exploration---or the end of the human race---appears close at hand.
Sawyer has created a gripping thriller, a pulse-pounding tour of the farthest reaches of technology. Factoring Humanity is a 1999 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
Robert J. Sawyer
199 books2,377 followersRobert J. Sawyer is one of Canada's best known and most successful science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian (and one of only 7 writers in the world) to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.
Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.
A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.
A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."
http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert...
Robert Sawyer grew up in Toronto, the son of two university professors. He credits two of his favourite shows from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Search and Star Trek, with teaching him some of the fundamentals of the science-fiction craft. Sawyer was obsessed with outer space from a young age, and he vividly remembers watching the televised Apollo missions. He claims to have watched the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey 25 times. He began writing science fiction in a high school club, which he co-founded, NASFA (Northview Academy Association of Science Fiction Addicts). Sawyer graduated in 1982 from the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University, where he later worked as an instructor.
Sawyer's first published book, Golden Fleece (1989), is an adaptation of short stories that had previously appeared in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. This book won the Aurora Award for the best Canadian science-fiction novel in English. In the early 1990s Sawyer went on to publish his inventive Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, about a world of intelligent dinosaurs. His 1995 award winning The Terminal Experiment confirmed his place as a major international science-fiction writer.
A prolific writer, Sawyer has published more than 10 novels, plus two trilogies. Reviewers praise Sawyer for his concise prose, which has been compared to that of the science-fiction master Isaac Asimov. Like many science fiction-writers, Sawyer welcomes the opportunities his chosen genre provides for exploring ideas. The first book of his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Hominids (2002), is set in a near-future society, in which a quantum computing experiment brings a Neanderthal scientist from a parallel Earth to ours. His 2006 Mindscan explores the possibility of transferring human consciousness into a mechanical body, and the ensuing ethical, legal, and societal ramifications.
A passionate advocate for science fiction, Sawyer teaches creative writing and appears frequently in the media to discuss his genre. He prefers the label "philosophical fiction," and in no way sees himself as a predictor of the future. His mission statement for his writing is "To combine the intimately human with the grandly cosmic."
http://us.macmillan.com/author/robert...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 254 reviews
June 5, 2024
Loved the ideas - quantum computing, a 4th dimension where humans are all connected, and AGI.
Could have done with more of the ideas and less of the human relationships the ideas were built around.
Still a good read but I got bored with all the feelings and such.
Also
Could have done with more of the ideas and less of the human relationships the ideas were built around.
Still a good read but I got bored with all the feelings and such.
Also
February 20, 2019
Factoring Humanity hits some rather huge emotional triggers. From the start, I'm totally prepared to hate one of the main characters and the starting gun already has everyone on pins and needles. Estranged couple, suicided daughter, and the other daughter is accusing her father of molestation.
This is one hell of a hardcore start for a novel ostensibly revolving around alien contact, with a very Contact feel and development, artificial intelligence research and development, and quantum computing.
And yet, it's only an accusation under suspicious circumstances and the AI hasn't seemed to progress that far into self-awareness and we, as humanity, have refused to respond to the Alpha Centaurians.
This makes for a strangely placid novel with deep undertones of conflict and/or disturbing reveals to come. I'm pretty amazed how much I got into it. It's not flashy or fast paced. It's focused on ideas and tragedy and moving on through all the permutations of each.
Are there good reveals? Yep. Are there cool reveals? Yes, indeed. I REALLY like the way the Contact-like scenario plays out. The scientific concepts, the math, the implications, and especially the psychology underpinning it all makes this an impressive SF.
It's workmanlike in it's writing, but the ideas are completely top notch. :)
This is one hell of a hardcore start for a novel ostensibly revolving around alien contact, with a very Contact feel and development, artificial intelligence research and development, and quantum computing.
And yet, it's only an accusation under suspicious circumstances and the AI hasn't seemed to progress that far into self-awareness and we, as humanity, have refused to respond to the Alpha Centaurians.
This makes for a strangely placid novel with deep undertones of conflict and/or disturbing reveals to come. I'm pretty amazed how much I got into it. It's not flashy or fast paced. It's focused on ideas and tragedy and moving on through all the permutations of each.
Are there good reveals? Yep. Are there cool reveals? Yes, indeed. I REALLY like the way the Contact-like scenario plays out. The scientific concepts, the math, the implications, and especially the psychology underpinning it all makes this an impressive SF.
It's workmanlike in it's writing, but the ideas are completely top notch. :)
December 18, 2022
Breathtaking in its scope!
You have to hand it to Sawyer! He certainly isn't one to think small! Why deal with mere cutting edge esoteric research when one can create Factoring Humanity, a novel that folds that research into a gutsy thought experiment encompassing all of humanity, the nature of consciousness, extra-terrestrial communication and the manifold structure of the universe?
Heather Davis, a professor in the psychology faculty at the University of Toronto, has spent a significant part of her career attempting to decode a ten year long stream of obviously structured radio signals that clearly emanate from an intelligent source in Alpha Centauri. Her estranged husband, Kyle, puts in his scientific day on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research and the development of quantum computer technology. (His pet project "Cheetah" is an APE, a computer designed to Approximate Psychological Experiences. With startlingly realistic responses, Cheetah comes very close but doesn't quite clear Turing's bar of deceiving a human interrogator.) In one of those serendipitous "Eureka" moments, Heather achieves a complete breakthrough decoding the alien signal stream and realizes that the decoded data comprise a blueprint to build an amazing new technology. As she and Kyle stumble through the learning curve associated with manipulating this new alien machine, it becomes clear that humanity's understanding of communication, consciousness and the very structure of the universe will never be the same again! Life and our perceptions of reality will be fundamentally altered as soon as knowledge of this technology enters the public domain.
FACTORING HUMANITY contains a parallel sub-plot line in which Heather and Kyle's daughter, under psychological counseling, re-discovers suppressed memories of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Kyle. Issues such as sexual abuse of children, sexual harassment, Jungian theories of "false" or "suppressed" memories and the myriad social outcomes of accusations of sexual misconduct are dealt with warmly, sensitively and realistically. But, unfortunately, this whole more human part of Sawyer's novel to me seemed artificially contrived and awkwardly shoehorned into the science in order to provide a canvas on which to paint his fascinating hypothesis about the possible nature of human consciousness and communication! The two stories were individually compelling and well-crafted but their integration into a whole was less than seamless.
On the other hand, Kyle's relationship with Cheetah and Cheetah's burgeoning intelligence and unique character provide an absolutely fascinating third facet to Sawyer's wonderful tale that flows much more smoothly into the story as a whole. In a manner reminiscent of Star Trek's Data, Cheetah's ruminations comprise a thought-provoking essay on the nature of sentience and humanity which is at once warm, gripping, humorous and intelligent.
A magnificent four-star combination of the outer reaches of hard and soft sci-fi from Canada's premier author of contemporary science fiction.
Paul Weiss
You have to hand it to Sawyer! He certainly isn't one to think small! Why deal with mere cutting edge esoteric research when one can create Factoring Humanity, a novel that folds that research into a gutsy thought experiment encompassing all of humanity, the nature of consciousness, extra-terrestrial communication and the manifold structure of the universe?
Heather Davis, a professor in the psychology faculty at the University of Toronto, has spent a significant part of her career attempting to decode a ten year long stream of obviously structured radio signals that clearly emanate from an intelligent source in Alpha Centauri. Her estranged husband, Kyle, puts in his scientific day on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research and the development of quantum computer technology. (His pet project "Cheetah" is an APE, a computer designed to Approximate Psychological Experiences. With startlingly realistic responses, Cheetah comes very close but doesn't quite clear Turing's bar of deceiving a human interrogator.) In one of those serendipitous "Eureka" moments, Heather achieves a complete breakthrough decoding the alien signal stream and realizes that the decoded data comprise a blueprint to build an amazing new technology. As she and Kyle stumble through the learning curve associated with manipulating this new alien machine, it becomes clear that humanity's understanding of communication, consciousness and the very structure of the universe will never be the same again! Life and our perceptions of reality will be fundamentally altered as soon as knowledge of this technology enters the public domain.
FACTORING HUMANITY contains a parallel sub-plot line in which Heather and Kyle's daughter, under psychological counseling, re-discovers suppressed memories of sexual abuse at the hands of her father, Kyle. Issues such as sexual abuse of children, sexual harassment, Jungian theories of "false" or "suppressed" memories and the myriad social outcomes of accusations of sexual misconduct are dealt with warmly, sensitively and realistically. But, unfortunately, this whole more human part of Sawyer's novel to me seemed artificially contrived and awkwardly shoehorned into the science in order to provide a canvas on which to paint his fascinating hypothesis about the possible nature of human consciousness and communication! The two stories were individually compelling and well-crafted but their integration into a whole was less than seamless.
On the other hand, Kyle's relationship with Cheetah and Cheetah's burgeoning intelligence and unique character provide an absolutely fascinating third facet to Sawyer's wonderful tale that flows much more smoothly into the story as a whole. In a manner reminiscent of Star Trek's Data, Cheetah's ruminations comprise a thought-provoking essay on the nature of sentience and humanity which is at once warm, gripping, humorous and intelligent.
A magnificent four-star combination of the outer reaches of hard and soft sci-fi from Canada's premier author of contemporary science fiction.
Paul Weiss
June 21, 2013
This is a SF geek's SF novel. See, I even used "SF" instead of "sci-fi" like I usually do to annoy the sci-fi geeks, because Factoring Humanity is Very Very Serious SF. It's full of interesting thought experiments in a broadly-scoped scenario, the epitome of thinky-mindy SF, and it also lived up to expectations of such novels in that it was very dry and full of long passages of exposition, about quantum computers, about Jungian psychology, about materials engineering, about Artificial Intelligence, about the characters' backgrounds. So, imaginative and intelligent book, interesting story, characters who are placeholders to make the plot happen.
Set in the near future, the premise of Factoring Humanity is that Earth has been receiving radio signals from Alpha Centauri for several years now. No one has managed to decipher them yet, but there is no question that they were produced by intelligent minds. I thought the book was very realistic in depicting an Earth that, once it got over the initial collective gasp of surprise that WE ARE NOT ALONE, proceeded to carry on like before. Yeah, people are curious about those aliens, but since nothing has actually happened yet and no one knows what they're saying, they've faded into the background, becoming part of the noise of modern society. I think that's exactly how the world would react, by and large.
The main characters, Kyle and Heather Davis, are estranged scientists both working on different ends of the same problem. Kyle is a computer scientist who has built an Artificial Intelligence (but not a truly self-aware one), and who is working on quantum computers. Heather is a Jungian psychologist (those still exist?) trying to decode the Centauri messages.
The book starts out more like a soap opera than a SF novel. In the opening scene, the Davis' grown daughter shows up at their home and accuses Kyle of molesting her as a child. Unfortunately, this revelation is dropped on the reader before we've even gotten to know, much less care about any of these characters, delivered like the opening act of a play with lines recited by journeyman actors. So rather than being shocked, outraged, or wanting to know whether the accusation was true, I was just baffled, wondering where the author was going with this.
Heather, who is racked with uncertainty over the accusations, meanwhile makes a breakthrough in deciphering the aliens' radio messages. It turns out they contain instructions to build something. Meanwhile, Kyle has conversations with Cheetah, his "APE" AI, and makes a breakthrough in quantum computing that could spell the death of cryptography and thus most of the world's financial industry.
Somehow, all these threads do tie together — the molestation subplot, Heather's discovery, AIs, and the true nature of the aliens. It all gets resolved in an interesting and surprisingly optimistic way, considering that the book ends with one of those SF "game-changers" in which the universe will never be the same.
It's the sort of book obviously meant to make you think, and it does, but I just never felt like any of the characters were real, and so the interpersonal drama (and the AIs & aliens plot mixed with Jungian psychology makes the interpersonal a crucial point of the book) fell flat. Factoring Humanity is recommended for people who like science fiction as a literature of ideas but aren't looking for a rippin' adventure.
Set in the near future, the premise of Factoring Humanity is that Earth has been receiving radio signals from Alpha Centauri for several years now. No one has managed to decipher them yet, but there is no question that they were produced by intelligent minds. I thought the book was very realistic in depicting an Earth that, once it got over the initial collective gasp of surprise that WE ARE NOT ALONE, proceeded to carry on like before. Yeah, people are curious about those aliens, but since nothing has actually happened yet and no one knows what they're saying, they've faded into the background, becoming part of the noise of modern society. I think that's exactly how the world would react, by and large.
The main characters, Kyle and Heather Davis, are estranged scientists both working on different ends of the same problem. Kyle is a computer scientist who has built an Artificial Intelligence (but not a truly self-aware one), and who is working on quantum computers. Heather is a Jungian psychologist (those still exist?) trying to decode the Centauri messages.
The book starts out more like a soap opera than a SF novel. In the opening scene, the Davis' grown daughter shows up at their home and accuses Kyle of molesting her as a child. Unfortunately, this revelation is dropped on the reader before we've even gotten to know, much less care about any of these characters, delivered like the opening act of a play with lines recited by journeyman actors. So rather than being shocked, outraged, or wanting to know whether the accusation was true, I was just baffled, wondering where the author was going with this.
Heather, who is racked with uncertainty over the accusations, meanwhile makes a breakthrough in deciphering the aliens' radio messages. It turns out they contain instructions to build something. Meanwhile, Kyle has conversations with Cheetah, his "APE" AI, and makes a breakthrough in quantum computing that could spell the death of cryptography and thus most of the world's financial industry.
Somehow, all these threads do tie together — the molestation subplot, Heather's discovery, AIs, and the true nature of the aliens. It all gets resolved in an interesting and surprisingly optimistic way, considering that the book ends with one of those SF "game-changers" in which the universe will never be the same.
It's the sort of book obviously meant to make you think, and it does, but I just never felt like any of the characters were real, and so the interpersonal drama (and the AIs & aliens plot mixed with Jungian psychology makes the interpersonal a crucial point of the book) fell flat. Factoring Humanity is recommended for people who like science fiction as a literature of ideas but aren't looking for a rippin' adventure.
November 16, 2021
This is a SF in style of older works, which were more interested in playing with real ideas from science than in characters growth and interactions. Both are important and while most current SF leans to the later, it is nice to read the former. I read it as a part of monthly reading for November 2021 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The novel was nominated for Hugo in 1999, but lost to To Say Nothing of the Dog.
The story starts with a great reveal – an adult daughter meets her estranged parents to state that her father molested her and her sister, who committed suicide some time ago. Then we shift from point of view of her father to find out that he is sure it hasn’t happened. The reader introduced to the parents, who are both working in an university: he is developing a quantum computer and having an AI to chat; she is a psychologist, who tried to decode alien signal from Alfa Centauri. The signal started to appear several years back, and while initial transmissions were understandable basics, for years no one can understand what exactly they are getting, so after the initial surge of interest, people shifted to other themes.
There is some edu-taitment, giving simple depiction of stuff, from SETI and quantum computer (and how it affects breaking currently used cyphers) to Jung’s ideas of archetypes and collective unconsciousness. The fictional part reminded me a bit of Arthur C. Clarke’s works. Overall, an interesting read but nothing spectacular.
The story starts with a great reveal – an adult daughter meets her estranged parents to state that her father molested her and her sister, who committed suicide some time ago. Then we shift from point of view of her father to find out that he is sure it hasn’t happened. The reader introduced to the parents, who are both working in an university: he is developing a quantum computer and having an AI to chat; she is a psychologist, who tried to decode alien signal from Alfa Centauri. The signal started to appear several years back, and while initial transmissions were understandable basics, for years no one can understand what exactly they are getting, so after the initial surge of interest, people shifted to other themes.
There is some edu-taitment, giving simple depiction of stuff, from SETI and quantum computer (and how it affects breaking currently used cyphers) to Jung’s ideas of archetypes and collective unconsciousness. The fictional part reminded me a bit of Arthur C. Clarke’s works. Overall, an interesting read but nothing spectacular.
November 23, 2012
I am glad I made this first step in rectifying a gap in my sci fi reading. I somehow missed reading Sawyer, who has published 21 novels for which he garnered many prizes, including both Hugo and Nebula Awards.
In this tale, a psychologist at the University of Toronto has been working for ten years on near daily transmissions of messages from an alien civilization beamed from Alpha Centauri. Only a few of the thousands of transmissions have been decoded. When the transmissions end, she accelerates her efforts and makes a breakthrough in interpretation. Her husband works at the university on an artificial intelligence and quantum computing projects. Their efforts become linked in several interesting ways that leads to harnessing an effective gift of tools from the alien that will change human existence.
The pleasure for my reading is not so much from the technology speculations, but in how the personal story of the couple motivates and inspires their discoveries. They are grieving from the suicide of one daughter and estrangement from another due to accusations of sexual abuse on the part of the father. As with the movie The Matrix and the book and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, some of the premises are a bit hokey, but the story has enough momentum to propel the reader on a compelling journey. The AI in the tale, Cheetah, is fresh and fun, struggling to master human humor. The more it learns about humans leads it to suspect that becoming self-aware and selfish go hand in hand. I look forward to trying more works by Sawyer.
In this tale, a psychologist at the University of Toronto has been working for ten years on near daily transmissions of messages from an alien civilization beamed from Alpha Centauri. Only a few of the thousands of transmissions have been decoded. When the transmissions end, she accelerates her efforts and makes a breakthrough in interpretation. Her husband works at the university on an artificial intelligence and quantum computing projects. Their efforts become linked in several interesting ways that leads to harnessing an effective gift of tools from the alien that will change human existence.
The pleasure for my reading is not so much from the technology speculations, but in how the personal story of the couple motivates and inspires their discoveries. They are grieving from the suicide of one daughter and estrangement from another due to accusations of sexual abuse on the part of the father. As with the movie The Matrix and the book and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, some of the premises are a bit hokey, but the story has enough momentum to propel the reader on a compelling journey. The AI in the tale, Cheetah, is fresh and fun, struggling to master human humor. The more it learns about humans leads it to suspect that becoming self-aware and selfish go hand in hand. I look forward to trying more works by Sawyer.
July 26, 2020
This is a very good first-contact novel, with a complex series of sub-themes involving memory and abuse and A.I. development and, of course, Sawyer's trademark hard-science speculation and exposition. I enjoyed contrasting it with first-contact scenarios from other authors, particularly Jack McDevitt. The title is quite appropriate, as the characters are very well drawn and their experiences accurately shapes their humanity. Very good sf!
February 26, 2021
Entiendo los motivos por los que fui tan tacaño en la valoración (dos estrellas) la primera vez que leí este libro, hace veinte años. Primero, me repatean los errores tipográficos (me siguen repateando), y la edición está plagada de ellos. Segundo, el planteamiento de ir de "cabecita en cabecita" (los que lo han leído, ya me entienden) es poco plausible desde un punto de vista científico y su idea de los recuerdos, también.
Veinte años más tarde, esos dos puntos negativos siguen siendo importantes, aunque tal vez menos en esta época que las editoriales (excepto las grandes, supongo) no tienen dinero para correctores. Por otra parte, acepto en cierta medida que la "plausibilidad" del argumento esté supeditada a motivos literários. Al fin y al cabo, ¿por qué limitar la imaginación porque la realidad se de otra manera? La historia está bien contada y he leído el libro en apenas unos días, lo que indica que mantenía el interés. Supongo que Mr. Sawyer habrá cambiado de parecer respecto a las IAs, a juzgar por la trilogía WWW que escribiría posteriormente. En cualquier caso, Chita sigue siendo uno de los personajes más interesantes de la historia.
Veinte años más tarde, esos dos puntos negativos siguen siendo importantes, aunque tal vez menos en esta época que las editoriales (excepto las grandes, supongo) no tienen dinero para correctores. Por otra parte, acepto en cierta medida que la "plausibilidad" del argumento esté supeditada a motivos literários. Al fin y al cabo, ¿por qué limitar la imaginación porque la realidad se de otra manera? La historia está bien contada y he leído el libro en apenas unos días, lo que indica que mantenía el interés. Supongo que Mr. Sawyer habrá cambiado de parecer respecto a las IAs, a juzgar por la trilogía WWW que escribiría posteriormente. En cualquier caso, Chita sigue siendo uno de los personajes más interesantes de la historia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2019
I think I liked where I thought this book was going more than I liked where it actually went. It certainly started out as food for thought. I liked the comparisons I thought this book was trying to subtly make between parallel universes on the quantum level and the parallel universes we make with false memories: "The rest [of her memories] was stored nowhere else but in her fallible brain." It’s interesting how much of our reality not in film and writing resides just in our brain and sometimes (probably most of the time) isn't even accurate because we’ve rewritten it by revisiting it in our minds and making it fit our version of reality. Another idea that I liked thinking about that didn’t play the role I thought it would in the book is the idea that maybe parallel worlds are fewer than we think because there are just 2 options for most events: yes, no—1 or 0. Some alternatives could never exist because it would never have been an option.
But this isn’t a book about parallel universes even though there’s a lot of setup to suggest otherwise. Instead, this is a book about artificial intelligence, alien contact, the 4th dimension, and the complexity of family relations. Earth has been receiving radio transmissions from Alpha Centauri like clockwork. At first, the messages are decipherable, but then they become incomprehensible. Finally, they stop. Of course, one of the heroes of the book solves them even though she’s a psychologist. I’m not sure why a psychologist was tasked with trying to solve the messages rather than a mathematician or linguist … but whatever. It just so happens she’s the former girlfriend of the last person who solved an alien message who subsequently killed himself in the same manner as Alan Turing. And it just so happens that her husband is working on a quantum computer and advanced AI. Somehow, this all fits together.
Anyhow, about halfway through, I found out the nature of the alien message, and it was just disappointing. I kept reading, but everything started feeling more and more loosey goosey as it proceeded. There was all that wonderful intro information that just really didn’t go where I wanted, and the book ended up feeling too implausible from what the aliens showed humanity to why the first alien message caused the boyfriend to kill himself rather than actually convey the message.
I think Sawyer’s books generally make me feel this way, though. They read quickly. They have interesting ideas. But they never quite go where I need them to go. They’re brain fodder for sure, so I won’t avoid them. I just won’t expect a 5-star read from them.
But this isn’t a book about parallel universes even though there’s a lot of setup to suggest otherwise. Instead, this is a book about artificial intelligence, alien contact, the 4th dimension, and the complexity of family relations. Earth has been receiving radio transmissions from Alpha Centauri like clockwork. At first, the messages are decipherable, but then they become incomprehensible. Finally, they stop. Of course, one of the heroes of the book solves them even though she’s a psychologist. I’m not sure why a psychologist was tasked with trying to solve the messages rather than a mathematician or linguist … but whatever. It just so happens she’s the former girlfriend of the last person who solved an alien message who subsequently killed himself in the same manner as Alan Turing. And it just so happens that her husband is working on a quantum computer and advanced AI. Somehow, this all fits together.
Anyhow, about halfway through, I found out the nature of the alien message, and it was just disappointing. I kept reading, but everything started feeling more and more loosey goosey as it proceeded. There was all that wonderful intro information that just really didn’t go where I wanted, and the book ended up feeling too implausible from what the aliens showed humanity to why the first alien message caused the boyfriend to kill himself rather than actually convey the message.
I think Sawyer’s books generally make me feel this way, though. They read quickly. They have interesting ideas. But they never quite go where I need them to go. They’re brain fodder for sure, so I won’t avoid them. I just won’t expect a 5-star read from them.
August 4, 2019
"This is crazy" said Kyle
"No, Professor....it's just business."
"I'll have to think about this."
"Of course, of course. Talk it over with your wife."
p199
The premise of the book is exciting, contact with another star system, the fourth dimension, exploration of other kinds of awareness, saving the species. Right up my alley, what's not to love?
Well, plenty as it turned out for me.
Not only is the dialogue less than stellar, the premises are thin, the characters incongruous, and the interwoven plot, which in itself is an important topic, is sucked in to the ridiculous. After wading through the physics (which I have no quick way of evaluating) I certainly did not expect them to be almost irrelevant to what unfolds.
The most interesting character to me was Cheetah, the AI, a work in progress. His suicide was just another implausible incident in the book. Did Kyle actually molest both his daughters, and was that why Mary killed herself and his other daughter won't speak to him? It has a lot to do with why he and his wife are separated. But it's not possible, except for what if were true? Is the false memory of guilt or innocence? Will the real false memory please leave the mind.
You mean God is punishing you for being an atheist? p85
In the context of this book, it certainly felt like it.
So why did I finish it when I had no real faith that it was all going to come together?
Well, statements like the above which cackled out from the mostly bland dialogue, and the occasional insight that indicated a kind of truth, or at least an idea worth pondering.
Most of the time there is no handing over the baton, no incorporating the past into the present. You wipe out those who went before. p204
RS is visualizing here nothing short of a revolution in consciousness.
Do you think it's possible...that things seem to be discrete in three dimensions might all be part of the the same bigger object on four dimensions?....What if what we perceive in 3 dimensions as 7 billion individual human beings are really all just aspects of one one great being? p264
The Overmind, Jungs collective consciousness,the evolution of species, the foundation of memory, false memory, free floating shame, innate belief, ESP: RS has attempted to cram a lot in here and perhaps that is what killed the book for me. Complexity here becomes frivolous. As much as I agree that everything is connected, I could not squeeze myself into his tesseract.
"No, Professor....it's just business."
"I'll have to think about this."
"Of course, of course. Talk it over with your wife."
p199
The premise of the book is exciting, contact with another star system, the fourth dimension, exploration of other kinds of awareness, saving the species. Right up my alley, what's not to love?
Well, plenty as it turned out for me.
Not only is the dialogue less than stellar, the premises are thin, the characters incongruous, and the interwoven plot, which in itself is an important topic, is sucked in to the ridiculous. After wading through the physics (which I have no quick way of evaluating) I certainly did not expect them to be almost irrelevant to what unfolds.
The most interesting character to me was Cheetah, the AI, a work in progress. His suicide was just another implausible incident in the book. Did Kyle actually molest both his daughters, and was that why Mary killed herself and his other daughter won't speak to him? It has a lot to do with why he and his wife are separated. But it's not possible, except for what if were true? Is the false memory of guilt or innocence? Will the real false memory please leave the mind.
You mean God is punishing you for being an atheist? p85
In the context of this book, it certainly felt like it.
So why did I finish it when I had no real faith that it was all going to come together?
Well, statements like the above which cackled out from the mostly bland dialogue, and the occasional insight that indicated a kind of truth, or at least an idea worth pondering.
Most of the time there is no handing over the baton, no incorporating the past into the present. You wipe out those who went before. p204
RS is visualizing here nothing short of a revolution in consciousness.
Do you think it's possible...that things seem to be discrete in three dimensions might all be part of the the same bigger object on four dimensions?....What if what we perceive in 3 dimensions as 7 billion individual human beings are really all just aspects of one one great being? p264
The Overmind, Jungs collective consciousness,the evolution of species, the foundation of memory, false memory, free floating shame, innate belief, ESP: RS has attempted to cram a lot in here and perhaps that is what killed the book for me. Complexity here becomes frivolous. As much as I agree that everything is connected, I could not squeeze myself into his tesseract.
January 20, 2011
As one reads Robert J Sawyer’s books it becomes obvious that some of his major interests are Star Trek, Quantum Computing, Parallel Universes and First Contact. Factoring Humanity is no different as it encompasses all these elements.
Factoring Humanity focuses on the lives of Heather and Kyle Davis, a separated couple with 2 daughters. Heather is a psychology professor trying to decipher radio messages from Alpha Centauri and Kyle is a Computer Professor trying to perfect AI and Quantum Computing. Heather has a break through with the indecipherable messages when she stumbles upon the solution; the messages are the plans to create a devices that allows someone to enter the 4th dimension and get in touch with humanity’s overmind. Kyle’s story line focuses on his Quantum research and the various organizations that wish to bury and/or fund this research. There is also a side story of their youngest daughter accusing Kyle of molesting her and of the oldest daughter’s suicide.
Overall I found this to be the weakest of Sawyer’s novels. The molestation story line seems out of place and the resolution to Kyle’s story is rushed and almost non existent. The book flows well from the various story lines but I found myself skipping parts of Kyle’s story to get back to Heather and the overmind. I would give this book a mediocre rating and say it is probably only for hardcore Sawyer fans.
Factoring Humanity focuses on the lives of Heather and Kyle Davis, a separated couple with 2 daughters. Heather is a psychology professor trying to decipher radio messages from Alpha Centauri and Kyle is a Computer Professor trying to perfect AI and Quantum Computing. Heather has a break through with the indecipherable messages when she stumbles upon the solution; the messages are the plans to create a devices that allows someone to enter the 4th dimension and get in touch with humanity’s overmind. Kyle’s story line focuses on his Quantum research and the various organizations that wish to bury and/or fund this research. There is also a side story of their youngest daughter accusing Kyle of molesting her and of the oldest daughter’s suicide.
Overall I found this to be the weakest of Sawyer’s novels. The molestation story line seems out of place and the resolution to Kyle’s story is rushed and almost non existent. The book flows well from the various story lines but I found myself skipping parts of Kyle’s story to get back to Heather and the overmind. I would give this book a mediocre rating and say it is probably only for hardcore Sawyer fans.
May 7, 2018
Definitely a wow book. This was a travel re-read, it was fun to read a book in one go, haven't done that in awhile. This one starts rough especially as a father to a daughter. But it gets past it. Sawyer's standard book is a near-future sf with a couple of things changed. It used to be that each book would have exactly two big ideas. This one must be after the point that he through bunches of ideas big and small. A tear-jerker with a pretty good ending. And the ideas are still flowing all the way to the end. This one has AI, messages from aliens, cosmic consciousness and repressed memories - which was more than enough. A quick great read.
November 17, 2021
This one is definitely more about the "science" then the "fiction". To be fair, the science is fascinating (if, perhaps, more "fiction" than "science"), and the book takes it to some surprising places. It was written in the 90s, and set right around the present. I have no idea whatsoever if the underlying science on things like quantum mechanics has held up, but in context it all still works. And I always enjoy reading wrong predictions in science fiction, especially of the day-to-day variety. "Datapads," weirdly-incapable cell phones, the odd superfluous rant about some specific scientific debate that ended up resolved in the opposite direction, like how homo sapiens and neanderthals couldn't possibly have interbred—for me, these kinds of things really add to the fun.
The book's problem is with its emotional core. The central plot revolves around a divorce and a child-abuse accusation, but the emotional lives of the characters just don't quite cohere. As a reader, the book is nicely paced, but there is a lack of urgency in the character's responses to a whole variety of issues that just doesn't ring true, and the emotional aspects of the book unfold more like thought experiments than as the urgent, messy stuff of real life. And as the science fiction aspect ramps up towards a very enjoyable conclusion, the promised insight into the characters' emotional lives never quite lands. I do think its telling about my own taste that the book never felt dry or boring. I don't mind an author info-dumping theories about Jungian psychology or quantum computing, especially when they tie back into the story in such interesting ways. What I don't like, I guess, is when emotional development gets treated in the same way. (Also, men are horny and women are complicated. In case you didn't know. /s)
Still, this was a fun, thought-provoking read. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but I certainly don't regret reading it.
The book's problem is with its emotional core. The central plot revolves around a divorce and a child-abuse accusation, but the emotional lives of the characters just don't quite cohere. As a reader, the book is nicely paced, but there is a lack of urgency in the character's responses to a whole variety of issues that just doesn't ring true, and the emotional aspects of the book unfold more like thought experiments than as the urgent, messy stuff of real life. And as the science fiction aspect ramps up towards a very enjoyable conclusion, the promised insight into the characters' emotional lives never quite lands. I do think its telling about my own taste that the book never felt dry or boring. I don't mind an author info-dumping theories about Jungian psychology or quantum computing, especially when they tie back into the story in such interesting ways. What I don't like, I guess, is when emotional development gets treated in the same way. (Also, men are horny and women are complicated. In case you didn't know. /s)
Still, this was a fun, thought-provoking read. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but I certainly don't regret reading it.
March 11, 2013
The book gives food for thought on a number of ideas (which aren't mentioned below). Perhaps, it deserves more than 2 stars for that. However, there are 2 areas of serious concern.
The first few chapters leave the impression one is reading a book simply about a married couple living apart who are confronted by a grown daughter who accuses the father of molesting her as a child. That may not be a promising start for someone looking for idea SF.
The story makes no claims about spirituality, but a central part of the "science" seems to be more consistent with that mindset. It conceives of a fourth (spatial) dimension "overmind" of which each human is a 3-dimensional component. But what fourth spatial dimension does the universe offer? (How could string theory's *possible* curled-up dimensions be relevant?) How would a connection via (an extra) spatial dimension let one person access another person's memories? Even assuming that's possible for the living, how could it work for a thoroughly decomposed corpse of someone dead for centuries? If that were possible for those who once were part of the overmind, how could it be for an alien race which was never part of the human overmind? A doubtful concept is stretched to preposterous extents.
The first few chapters leave the impression one is reading a book simply about a married couple living apart who are confronted by a grown daughter who accuses the father of molesting her as a child. That may not be a promising start for someone looking for idea SF.
The story makes no claims about spirituality, but a central part of the "science" seems to be more consistent with that mindset. It conceives of a fourth (spatial) dimension "overmind" of which each human is a 3-dimensional component. But what fourth spatial dimension does the universe offer? (How could string theory's *possible* curled-up dimensions be relevant?) How would a connection via (an extra) spatial dimension let one person access another person's memories? Even assuming that's possible for the living, how could it work for a thoroughly decomposed corpse of someone dead for centuries? If that were possible for those who once were part of the overmind, how could it be for an alien race which was never part of the human overmind? A doubtful concept is stretched to preposterous extents.
June 12, 2011
Factoring Humanity started strong but had a poor finish - it left a somewhat saccharine taste in my mouth. Sawyer tries to combine a thoughtful first-contact story with a much more down-to-earth family dynamic story, and the result doesn't quite work. The strongest part of the book, in my opinion, is the discussion regarding the alien transmissions - how precisely would we communicate with an alien species where we had nothing in common? However, he adds in some distracting elements - for instance the secondary alien message about the carbon, the business with the overminds, etc, and that weakens the narrative fabric of the whole.
July 25, 2017
As I've come to expect from Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer: a brilliant, well written (and enormously researched) and vastly entertaining read.
October 14, 2021
This was great so many big ideas, intelligent alien life, A.I. and a dark family secret. If you enjoy SF I really recommend this book.
October 12, 2020
This review contains no spoilers.
Several years ago, I read Robert Sawyer's Calculating God, and it made a significant impression on me. It was exactly the kind of mind-stretching science fiction story that I really enjoy: a high-stakes collision of an alien presence with our normal everyday world that, in turn, opens the door for some mind-stretching exploration of really big concepts. The same held true for FlashForward, which was a short-lived but entertaining TV show a while back. I *think* I read the book on which that was based, as well, but I find that my recollections of the two are jumbled. Regardless, my point is that everything I've encountered by Sawyer has really made me think, has entertained me, and has presented challenging ideas in an approachable way that I truly appreciate, and this book is no different.
Offering some tantalizing conversations about psychology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, parallel universes, alien intelligence, and more, I really ripped through this book very swiftly. I even found time to do some additional exploration outside of my reading time so I could better understand tesseracts and n-dimensionality. I appreciate the opportunity to learn fun, intriguing concepts while being carried along by a bold and entertaining story. I look forward to reading more of Sawyer's works (I have several more on my shelf already), and I invite you to do the same.
Several years ago, I read Robert Sawyer's Calculating God, and it made a significant impression on me. It was exactly the kind of mind-stretching science fiction story that I really enjoy: a high-stakes collision of an alien presence with our normal everyday world that, in turn, opens the door for some mind-stretching exploration of really big concepts. The same held true for FlashForward, which was a short-lived but entertaining TV show a while back. I *think* I read the book on which that was based, as well, but I find that my recollections of the two are jumbled. Regardless, my point is that everything I've encountered by Sawyer has really made me think, has entertained me, and has presented challenging ideas in an approachable way that I truly appreciate, and this book is no different.
Offering some tantalizing conversations about psychology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, parallel universes, alien intelligence, and more, I really ripped through this book very swiftly. I even found time to do some additional exploration outside of my reading time so I could better understand tesseracts and n-dimensionality. I appreciate the opportunity to learn fun, intriguing concepts while being carried along by a bold and entertaining story. I look forward to reading more of Sawyer's works (I have several more on my shelf already), and I invite you to do the same.
November 7, 2011
interesting and lucid concepts, and I'm a sucker for a tesseract; plus it's a total page turner. however, it's ultimately lacking in moral courage. the protagonists are excused by the narrative from any hard decisions or realisations or morally questionable actions, which is not necessarily a cardinal sin in an ideas-based science fiction novel, except where the idea is humanity expanding its capacity for empathy (as is the case in this book). in that case, your protagonists need some real sins to begin with. god! so disappointing. plus rape accusations that turn out in a SHOCKING TWIST to be baseless (if you really needed a spoiler warning on that you are less jaded than you need to be) are a strong contender for the worst, most cliched plot device ever. also disappointing and cliched false progressivism: the figure of the tragically extinguished indigenous person. oh yeah and WHAT was the deal with that AI subplot, gross, poor AI, you deserved better!
September 18, 2011
So, first the U of T is NOT the Harvard of the North. Second, you discover something that changes humankind forever and you use it to solve your own little problems!? Thirdly, you have a sentient AI and you misunderstand it to the point it kills itself? Lastly, Everybody is nice at the end, really? What happened to the psychopaths?
May 3, 2024
Initially I was hooked on the premise of this novel - a psychologist decodes an alien message from the Alpha Centauri system and, just like in Carl Sagan's Contact, the other-worldly message contains instructions on how to construct a machine based on the alien's advanced technology.
This book was written in 1998 and the story therein takes place in 2017 with an epilogue set in 2019 so it's interesting to read how Sawyer forecasted what our current world would be like. Some hits and some misses, but fun to read about.
Like another of Sawyer's books, Hominids, there is a secondary plot involving a rape, and in Factoring Humanity the rape is allegedly committed by said psychologist's husband against their two daughters. One of the daughters killed herself because of the alleged rape while the surviving daughter cut her dad out of her life and is threatening legal action. The husband denies the allegations, moves out, and the marriage falls apart as one would expect. The husband is a computer scientist and created an an evolving AI in his lab named Cheetah, and their relationship becomes a third plot line. Sawyer hit the nail on the head with his vision of modern-day AI. Cheetah was one of the more interesting characters in the book and I was just as, if not more, interested to see how he would end up than the human characters.
So, what did our protagonist psychologist do after she assembled her machine from Alpha Centauri, probably the most important scientific discovery in the history of mankind? Well, she kept it a secret, of course, and tried to use it to discover if her husband raped their daughters. Oh, and then she let her surviving daughter have a spin in it. I just couldn't get past this. Is this how a scientist would behave? Maybe, if the future of her family depended on it. But it didn't feel right to me. I didn't buy it.
I'll give this book and OK rating because of the excellent science fiction but it often times was over shadowed by the lurid rape bits / family drama storyline and that didn't work for me. The ending as a little to new-agey and nebulous for me, too. I've got a few more Sawyer books on the shelf so I'll give him another try.
This book was written in 1998 and the story therein takes place in 2017 with an epilogue set in 2019 so it's interesting to read how Sawyer forecasted what our current world would be like. Some hits and some misses, but fun to read about.
Like another of Sawyer's books, Hominids, there is a secondary plot involving a rape, and in Factoring Humanity the rape is allegedly committed by said psychologist's husband against their two daughters. One of the daughters killed herself because of the alleged rape while the surviving daughter cut her dad out of her life and is threatening legal action. The husband denies the allegations, moves out, and the marriage falls apart as one would expect. The husband is a computer scientist and created an an evolving AI in his lab named Cheetah, and their relationship becomes a third plot line. Sawyer hit the nail on the head with his vision of modern-day AI. Cheetah was one of the more interesting characters in the book and I was just as, if not more, interested to see how he would end up than the human characters.
So, what did our protagonist psychologist do after she assembled her machine from Alpha Centauri, probably the most important scientific discovery in the history of mankind? Well, she kept it a secret, of course, and tried to use it to discover if her husband raped their daughters. Oh, and then she let her surviving daughter have a spin in it. I just couldn't get past this. Is this how a scientist would behave? Maybe, if the future of her family depended on it. But it didn't feel right to me. I didn't buy it.
I'll give this book and OK rating because of the excellent science fiction but it often times was over shadowed by the lurid rape bits / family drama storyline and that didn't work for me. The ending as a little to new-agey and nebulous for me, too. I've got a few more Sawyer books on the shelf so I'll give him another try.
May 27, 2018
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 4/5
There are some good science fiction ideas here. The kind of ideas that lead the reader to thinking about awesome possibilities and implications. The scenarios prompt one to ponder what they would do in that situation, wishing that they would get to play such a role in a great moment of human history. Sawyer has a gift for taking hard science fiction ideas, presenting them in such a way that the laity can follow along, and then branching off and doing something interesting with it all. The reader has to work harder, in fact, at experiencing wonder and understanding motivations and decisions than they do in understanding the science behind quantum computing or the tricks of factor analysis. Sawyer can explain the science to us, but the narrative is markedly shallow in other areas fundamental to a good story - things like build-up and character depth.
Much like his other early-career Hugo nominated or award winning books, Sawyer clutters up the text with pointless description. I found myself embarrassed reading about our near-future society. Not that Sawyer intended it to be embarrassing, but it was just so banal as to be offensive to my meager pride in humanity. If that is who we are as a people and a society; if that is all Sawyer can find to remark on, well then television shows such as Seinfeld and Friends (which Sawyer thinks enrich this tale) probably are a good representation of human civilization. This tale again evinces Sawyer's lack of confidence in himself as a science fiction writer. Unconformable with a tale solely of science and its implications, Sawyer spends half the book on extraneous relational drama. We get backstories, flashbacks, and internal monologues of the characters in this drama, but they never build the character. Instead what they do is fill the pages. A lot of character decisions become mundane or ridiculous as a result. Too often the science fiction story got left in the background, and even when there were good moments to bring it back in, Sawyer was more inclined to introduce us to a new hard science fiction element or puzzle as a wrinkle or twist. There were far more ideas and dramas here than were necessary; the story set up by the prologue didn't need (and would have been better without) the additional flair. The science fiction community should be grateful that Sawyer put these ideas out there for us, but one can't help wishing that the actual writing had been given over to a better storyteller.
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 4/5
There are some good science fiction ideas here. The kind of ideas that lead the reader to thinking about awesome possibilities and implications. The scenarios prompt one to ponder what they would do in that situation, wishing that they would get to play such a role in a great moment of human history. Sawyer has a gift for taking hard science fiction ideas, presenting them in such a way that the laity can follow along, and then branching off and doing something interesting with it all. The reader has to work harder, in fact, at experiencing wonder and understanding motivations and decisions than they do in understanding the science behind quantum computing or the tricks of factor analysis. Sawyer can explain the science to us, but the narrative is markedly shallow in other areas fundamental to a good story - things like build-up and character depth.
Much like his other early-career Hugo nominated or award winning books, Sawyer clutters up the text with pointless description. I found myself embarrassed reading about our near-future society. Not that Sawyer intended it to be embarrassing, but it was just so banal as to be offensive to my meager pride in humanity. If that is who we are as a people and a society; if that is all Sawyer can find to remark on, well then television shows such as Seinfeld and Friends (which Sawyer thinks enrich this tale) probably are a good representation of human civilization. This tale again evinces Sawyer's lack of confidence in himself as a science fiction writer. Unconformable with a tale solely of science and its implications, Sawyer spends half the book on extraneous relational drama. We get backstories, flashbacks, and internal monologues of the characters in this drama, but they never build the character. Instead what they do is fill the pages. A lot of character decisions become mundane or ridiculous as a result. Too often the science fiction story got left in the background, and even when there were good moments to bring it back in, Sawyer was more inclined to introduce us to a new hard science fiction element or puzzle as a wrinkle or twist. There were far more ideas and dramas here than were necessary; the story set up by the prologue didn't need (and would have been better without) the additional flair. The science fiction community should be grateful that Sawyer put these ideas out there for us, but one can't help wishing that the actual writing had been given over to a better storyteller.
December 31, 2018
A good book and a quick read (3.3 total hours) which interestingly hits some of the same points as Forever Peace - but with considerably more finesse. Not completely without flaws, but I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more from this Canadian author.
Messages from space have been arriving for a while at the start of the story, and while the first few have been decoded, the rest are a mystery. One of the two main characters (a psychologist) works on that mystery, the other (her husband) works on quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and his favorite artwork involves a tesseract. Great subject matter for SF abounds! One of their daughters committed suicide, and the other has her own issues, and this subplot is quite important in the long run.
When the messages stop, an idea occurs for decoding them, and soon the Interocitor is built - only this is more of a mirror to the human overmind than a travel device. Driven to investigate her daughter's claims, our main character unwraps this and other mysteries, and ultimately the alien goals as well.
This is a book which leads you to think, and some of the subplots are clumsily handled. For me, these were minor drawbacks, and I fell headfirst into this thought experiment - surfacing only a day (and 3.3 total reading hours) later. If you don't need to have action in all your science fiction, this is highly recommended.
Messages from space have been arriving for a while at the start of the story, and while the first few have been decoded, the rest are a mystery. One of the two main characters (a psychologist) works on that mystery, the other (her husband) works on quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and his favorite artwork involves a tesseract. Great subject matter for SF abounds! One of their daughters committed suicide, and the other has her own issues, and this subplot is quite important in the long run.
When the messages stop, an idea occurs for decoding them, and soon the Interocitor is built - only this is more of a mirror to the human overmind than a travel device. Driven to investigate her daughter's claims, our main character unwraps this and other mysteries, and ultimately the alien goals as well.
This is a book which leads you to think, and some of the subplots are clumsily handled. For me, these were minor drawbacks, and I fell headfirst into this thought experiment - surfacing only a day (and 3.3 total reading hours) later. If you don't need to have action in all your science fiction, this is highly recommended.
May 2, 2017
This book has aged a bit - I don't know if Jungian archetypes and quantum origin of consciousness are still commonly accepted theories, but the book is nevertheless still full of intrigue and some mind expanding concepts. I've read books that have dealt with 4th physical dimensions, collapsing wavefunctions, the fear of artificial intelligence and quantum physics, but seldom in the same book with a central focus on child abuse, incest and repressed memories. The (spoiler) collective consciousness of all humanity that connected with the buglike aliens and gained empathy was also an interesting touch - although a little far fetched. Overall, fairly creative writing, quite solid science (if you're a fan of Chomsky and Jung), decent characterisation (thankfully competent and rational characters, scientists with grown up problems). A few interesting thoughts that sprigged my mind were those about the Water Hole (shared basis for life, which is clearly subverted by the fact that "life" can exist in silicon), the fact that the world would not really change even if we discovered alien life (a perfectly probable, if somewhat cynical, option, although the opposite is an often used trope), and the concept of sharing so entirely someone's mind - taking privacy to a whole new level (I mean, my brain has so many awful thoughts! Thoughts are meant to be private, right? What would my loved ones think of me if they could see into my mind? Is the truth valuable or is it more valuable for us to have all the thoughts and only choose the ones that are the most useful or harmonious for the sake of humanity?
Overall, I liked it.
Overall, I liked it.
October 21, 2019
I almost abandoned Factoring Humanity in the first few pages when it looked like the novel was going to turn into some kind of child rape/incest drama. That was not the kind of story I had signed on for. But I stuck it out and I’m glad I did.
Factoring Humanity is a first contact story, and, like many of these kinds of stories, it asks how can we possibly communicate with aliens who are totally different from ourselves. At the same time it asks if it’s even possible for us to know other humans on a significant level.
This is science fiction that is more interested in mind bending ideas and solving puzzles than it is in staging explosive action sequences. The audiobook was well read. I liked this novrl a lot.
Factoring Humanity is a first contact story, and, like many of these kinds of stories, it asks how can we possibly communicate with aliens who are totally different from ourselves. At the same time it asks if it’s even possible for us to know other humans on a significant level.
This is science fiction that is more interested in mind bending ideas and solving puzzles than it is in staging explosive action sequences. The audiobook was well read. I liked this novrl a lot.
September 11, 2023
4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
September 17, 2013
You can read the publishers review for the general plot and some of the plotters in this Canadian's author's science fiction. I found this book quite fascinating in its rather accurate descriptions of both Jung's 'collective unconscious' as well as its explanation of quantum physics as applied to building a quantum computer. It does get a bit technical and those who know nothing of Jung or Quantum mechanics might find the book a little bit over the top in the detail it presents. 'Factoring Humanity' is a mind stretcher in another way in that it asks us to try imagine the fourth dimension (which is not time) in the form of a hypercube.
One of the things I found most intriguing about this book was a concluding hypothesis that if humans ever succeeded in building a true artificial intelligence machine, that that new AI's would soon conclude that humans were superfluous. Humans are way too slow and not very smart to an AI's way of thinking, so who needs them.This idea coincides with one of the premises of the Matrix film trilogy wherein the resident AI was doing it's best to wipe out what remained of humanity.
In other words, perhaps some peoples fascination with trying to create true Artificial Intelligence might deserve further thought as to possible unintended consequences.
One of the things I found most intriguing about this book was a concluding hypothesis that if humans ever succeeded in building a true artificial intelligence machine, that that new AI's would soon conclude that humans were superfluous. Humans are way too slow and not very smart to an AI's way of thinking, so who needs them.This idea coincides with one of the premises of the Matrix film trilogy wherein the resident AI was doing it's best to wipe out what remained of humanity.
In other words, perhaps some peoples fascination with trying to create true Artificial Intelligence might deserve further thought as to possible unintended consequences.
February 25, 2013
Publisher's Summary
In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.
When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution. In concert with Kyle's discoveries of the nature of consciousness, the key to limitless exploration - or the end of the human race - appears close at hand.Sawyer has created a gripping thriller, a pulse-pounding tour of the farthest reaches of technology. Factoring Humanity is a 1999 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.
©2003 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
What the Critics Say
"[T]his is exciting, readable science fiction that will take you where no one has gone before - and you'll never forget the ending." (Amazon.com review)
"An intelligent and absorbing double-stranded narrative." (Kirkus)
In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Mysterious, unintelligible data streams in for ten years. Heather Davis, a professor in the University of Toronto psychology department, has devoted her career to deciphering the message. Her estranged husband, Kyle, is working on the development of artificial intelligence systems and new computer technology utilizing quantum effects to produce a near-infinite number of calculations simultaneously.
When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution. In concert with Kyle's discoveries of the nature of consciousness, the key to limitless exploration - or the end of the human race - appears close at hand.Sawyer has created a gripping thriller, a pulse-pounding tour of the farthest reaches of technology. Factoring Humanity is a 1999 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel.
©2003 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
What the Critics Say
"[T]his is exciting, readable science fiction that will take you where no one has gone before - and you'll never forget the ending." (Amazon.com review)
"An intelligent and absorbing double-stranded narrative." (Kirkus)
February 21, 2016
I loved the character conflict, the healing family theme and the characters themselves. I thought the vision of first contact was brilliant. This is how I imagine it would be, mental first. The way the author tied in Jung was brilliant also, and I liked the second mystery represented by the former friend of the heroine, the one who died. The message from that civilization revealed at the end was stunning. There are graphics in the book to help with visualization, which I appreciated. I recommend this book to non sci fi readers as much as science fiction readers as long as you have some interest in science because the story of the family is riveting and rewarding. The science is well explained and doesn't bog down the story at all. You'll get a taste of the many worlds theory, Jung psychology, memory planting, the fourth dimension, artificial intelligence, and quantum physics all in ways that relate to people. And if you aren't that into science, this book stands alone on the compelling family story.
March 7, 2020
This book needs a trigger warning: At least 25% of the way into the book, it is primarily about child sexual abuse. Alien messages are coming from outer space. The adult daughter accuses her dad of abuse when she was a child. An in depth analysis follows of false accusations of child abuse. Did he do it? Does his wife think he did it? Did their other daughter kill herself because of abuse? Is the girl having a false memory implanted by a therapist? Oh, yeah, the alien messages. They just stopped. Although the book keeps discussing about child rape. I read this far (25%) thinking that eventually the book would talk about the alien messages, however, I can't stand the sick discussion of child rape anymore, so I am done with this book. If the rape accusations are supposed to be an allegory for parallel universes or something the author certainly could have done it in a less offensive way.
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