Prey by Micheal Crighton

[BiggusGeekus]

OK, I read Prey over the past few days.

I wasn't pre-disposed to really give the book a chance, but I still didn't care for it. The main character is an expert in nanotech programming, his wife works for a nano company that's going bust, he's out of work, her company is using his software, and she doesn't hire him on because ... why? Instead he gets brought on by some other guy after everything has hit the fan.

SPOILERS

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Elecromagnetic pulses destroy the nano-robots until the end ... why? I might have just missed something here.

How are the symboitic nano robots even aware of the wild ones? Unless I'm supposed to believe they were incredibly sophisticated which would preculde their need for Jack's expertise in the first place. What motivation do Ricky & Julia have for bringing Jack to the project at all?

The number of advances Crichton posulates are overwhelming. Molecule sized cameras, solar cells, hard drives, propulsion, radio brodcasters, and radio recievers all in the same package. This isn't a cautionary tale anymore than the movie Independence Day was.

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END SPOILERS

As a techo-thriller, I didn't like it. There are too many huge leaps of technology and Crichton breaks his own rules. As a novel, I didn't like it. The characters have little motivation to do anything and the protagonist turns from depressed loser to energetic commander in the space of a few pages.

Nanotechnology has become fiction's new philosopher's stone. Maybe that's why I didn't like the book. The philosopher's stone was fabled to be able to turn lead into gold and grant immortality. The nanotechnology sci-fi books I read promise the same thing and with equal creedence.

 

[Look_a_Unicorn]

Edit: Triple post *slaps head*

 

[Look_a_Unicorn]

Edit: double post *rubs flattened forehead*

 

[Look_a_Unicorn]

Nanotechnology Rant

(speaking from scientific theory) Nanotechnology, with it's ability to move the component atoms of elements, could very well turn lead into gold. And back again (with the comparative size of the respective heaps dictated by atomic mass...).
It can theoretically also prolong life indefinitely- to date no biologists have been able to prove or disprove the existance of a "vital force" that powers us as sentient living beings, thus the current conclusion is that our body aging/failing is directly a result of cellular breakdown & mutation. Basically our parts wear out, and the parts that control the replacement of those parts wear out... and we grow old & die. As these parts could all be replicated by manufacturing facilities at an atomic level, we could live until accident, murder or mental/spiritual weariness decided otherwise.

If you want more info, "Engines of Creation" is a fascinating book that is technologically sound (well I assume the physics lecturer who recommended it to me has a clue).
It even goes into the social ramifications of the technology- and in my view: most importantly, outlines a few social changes that can be implemented to help negate the threat this technology represents.

Anyone who assumes nonotechnology is a pipe-dream had better wakeup & take a look at the pace technology is advancing. You cannot stop that advance, you can only (at best) guide it into the most beneficial channels

Sorry this turned into such a rant, but this was a book (EoC, not Prey) that gave me real hope for the future of humanity, if only different societies could let go of the granfalloons they cling to .

This rant isn't aimed at you, BiggusGeekus- sorry if it seems personal. It's just one of my "buttons".

Edit: Book's full name/author:
KE Drexler Engines of creation: the coming era of nanotechnology,
Anchor Press 1986.
Do a check for it on Google- it's reasonably famous.

 

[s/LaSH]

I would think that alchemical transmutation would be very difficult for nanotech to perform - you actually have to rip apart atomic nuclei to change the element type, and that's really only possible with high-energy reactors to the best of my knowledge. I don't think a nanite would carry enough power to do so, unless they had antimatter power onboard (say an antihydrogen atom or two). It's possible (although you might have to fiddle around with Schrodinger's uncertainty principles), don't get me wrong, it's just a few technological generations on from, say, biological immortality.

I haven't read either book myself, but nano is a tech that scares and excites me more than just about anything else. We live in an age when people can draw stick figures with atoms, when you can buy shirts that iron themselves on a molecular level, etc etc. I reckon the 21st century will be the era when people make the greatest breakthroughs in complex application, not basic principles - we know how molecular and atomic forces work, but putting them together will be interesting.

This paragraph discusses nano intelligence with reference to the novels Prey, Diaspora (Greg Egan) and Ventus (Karl Schroeder).

Spoiler

BiggusGeekus makes an interesting comment about the nano having hard drives. That seems implausible to me. Either use a technique from Diaspora (coding information into the quantum spin of neutrons - not up/down/up/down or whatever, but a binary data stream; it was used for a message in the book, but could just as easily be used for an OS), or from Ventus (teleological intelligence - one nanite is dumb, the networked nanites in a blade of grass might be able to compute like your desktop box, the networked nanites in an entire forest are smarter than some gods). I think the teleological model is probably more feasible.

Anyway, I think that nano will eventually attain the heady heights of alchemical promise that have been predicted. It just won't happen soon, and it may happen in an unusual way - look at the most sophisticated molecular data/replication technology on the planet right now.

It's you.

 

[Dreeble]

Heya:

I enjoyed Prey when it first came out and I assume I'll enjoy the inevitable movie. A popcorn book and a popcorn movie.

Question about nano-tech: Cars are awesome devices. It's amazing being able to drive down to the store, get some food, and drive back. Without gas it's not happening. What powers those little nano-bots? They have little solar panels or what? Also, that many little machines all doing stuff, whirring away, won't that generate TONS of heat? I'd think they'd melt themselves.

Take care,
Dreeble

 

[Look_a_Unicorn]

Heya:

I enjoyed Prey when it first came out and I assume I'll enjoy the inevitable movie. A popcorn book and a popcorn movie.

Question about nano-tech: Cars are awesome devices. It's amazing being able to drive down to the store, get some food, and drive back. Without gas it's not happening. What powers those little nano-bots? They have little solar panels or what? Also, that many little machines all doing stuff, whirring away, won't that generate TONS of heat? I'd think they'd melt themselves.

Take care,
Dreeble

Spot on Dreebel!
Lots of heat is generated, that is true- that's why in the designs EoC talks about, a portion of the "nanites" are programmed as heat-sinks, and others are programmed as fuel cells.
Of course the author talks about automated engineering as the only realy way these very-futuristic designs can come to pass: Not true AI, but expert machines with knowledge of all the "rules" that can simulate millions of different molecular arrangements a second to devise the most practical method of achieving the stated objective (building a space-ship, dissipating heat & what-have-you).

In answer to where does the energy come from? The Sun.

I'm sure many people will now pop-up saying "solar power is infeasible for X reasons", with all those reasons being valid given today's technology... all I'll say is The Book (capitalisation intended) answered every question that occured to me as I read through it, but I cannot myself do it justice, but would just be poorly mimicking it's arguments.
Is it obvious I'm strongly advocating anyone with an interest in technology to read this book?
On a similar note, another book (actually textbook for an engineering course) called "Factor Four" deals with possible implementation of existing technology. It too, while outlining potential disaster, illustrates practical methods of avoiding or delaying it.

Go, read. Is good.

 

[Null Boundry]

Heya:

I enjoyed Prey when it first came out and I assume I'll enjoy the inevitable movie. A popcorn book and a popcorn movie.

Same here, I bought it on holiday after managing to lose the books I meant to read. It was that or those airport thrillers whose covers feature snakes, skull, women in bikinis or all three.

I was pleasantly pleased with it.