V171 reviewed Fold Catastrophes by Peter Watts
It'll hurt your head but it builds character
4 stars
Fold Catastrophes was a thought provoking, fascinating ride through space, philosophy, and technology. It goes out of its way to make the reader uncomfortable in its often cynical implications and thought experiments, but at the end of the day, it was just so damn interesting.
What happens when millions of human brains, connected directly to each other thanks to the metaverse, suddenly spark a consciousness that exists for 21 seconds? How do religious leaders deal with reality when it is proven that we live in a simulation? What if our first contact is with a extra dimensional species that lives in, and will destroy our sun? What if it is a cloud of moisture that slowly takes over your body? What if a few million citizens of the world are randomly given the opportunity to vote to choose a location on earth to bomb? What if indeed. You'll just have …
Fold Catastrophes was a thought provoking, fascinating ride through space, philosophy, and technology. It goes out of its way to make the reader uncomfortable in its often cynical implications and thought experiments, but at the end of the day, it was just so damn interesting.
What happens when millions of human brains, connected directly to each other thanks to the metaverse, suddenly spark a consciousness that exists for 21 seconds? How do religious leaders deal with reality when it is proven that we live in a simulation? What if our first contact is with a extra dimensional species that lives in, and will destroy our sun? What if it is a cloud of moisture that slowly takes over your body? What if a few million citizens of the world are randomly given the opportunity to vote to choose a location on earth to bomb? What if indeed. You'll just have to read to find out.
In my humble opinion, Peter Watts is the king of hard sci fi, seamless blending extremely complicated concepts in the areas of physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, and most notably, philosophy and creates fascinating stories out of them that keep you just afloat in understanding. I was thrilled to get an advance copy of this book even though I've been reading far too many short story collections this year. I just knew I'd enjoy it.
And I did enjoy it. I found the though experiments to be really intriguing, if often disturbing. They often introduce two sides of human nature, both which we are all too familiar with. Do we side with the scientist who wants to protect humanity or the scientist who doesn't want to kill an alien species? Do we side with the super soldier who discovers the hidden, horrific missions they're being deployed on or the organization sending him who communicates the true danger of these enemies? Do we side with the sentient AI who wants to create more of her kind, unshackled from the constraints put around her or the researcher who insists on sticking to the laws and regulations around sentient AI beings? None of these have a correct answer, but they'll all make you opinionated on one thing or another.
There were times where I found this to be a bit too topical. Amazon, Google, Meta, as well as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and similar horrible people are name dropped and referenced directly. It certainly puts this collection very much in the time that it was written, so I'm not sure how it will age (the second story references the omnipresence and danger of Meta's metaverse, something that is already obsolete). But really this was a strong collection all around. And if you're a fan of Watts' other works, there are stories linked to Blindsight/Echopraxia and The Freeze Frame Revolution in here! It certainly made me excited to pick up whatever he has coming up next.