Not long after Matthias Renn invents the Neuropack-a synthesis of classical computer hardware and lab-grown neural networks-self-driving vehicles can finally... drive.
When Renn's boss, Lucius Harlow, imbues the Neuropacks with simple rules taken from entomology, most notably the swarming behaviors of insects, the vehicles begin to navigate with unforeseen efficiency.
But there's a problem. Their interconnectedness leads to unprogrammed behaviors as the Neuropacks begin self-organizing and showing signs of emergence. The self-driving cars were meant to exhibit simple logic, but nature-even deep within a computer's architecture-tends toward complexity.
At first, these emergent behaviors are merely a curiosity. But as chaos paralyzes the eastern seaboard, Matthias realizes the horrifying truth of his own creation. The Neuropacks haven't just self-organized; they have awakened. Nature tends toward complexity, and complexity has no need for creators. As efforts to control the unthinkable continue, it becomes clear that these machines aren't malfunctioning; they're evolving-and their ultimate objectives are aimed at the very top of the food chain.
Review :
Uncoded is simultaneously hilarious, irreverent, action packed and timely. It is a look at emergence, yes, but also what happens when technology outpaces its creators while billionaires are granted increasingly unregulated playgrounds. It is a sprawling, deep look at consciousness itself, the requirements for machine sentience, and it broaches these topics in a matrix of action, humor, and insight. This book delivers its fast-paced action and hard science through the characters' interactions and is replete with an evil tech-bro overlord whose own AGI despises him, an unintended AGI that arises within a fleet of interlinked self-driving vehicles, a mad-scientist, his lover, a precocious teenager and her ex-special ops father, and - my personal favorite - pissed off, out of work New York City cabbies armed with an electromagnetic pulse weapon... Uncoded starts strong and only gets stronger as the pages are flipped. It's an absolute joy-ride and I recommend it strongly! - JR, NYC
