In this dystopian mashup of history, mythology and omniscient AI, anything can happen – and it does
In post-Brexit Britain of the late 21st century, ambient electronic surveillance is total, for the good of the people. An omniscient AI called the Witness knows and sees all, ensuring the success of the System as a whole: a society of permanent direct democracy, in which everyone votes on everything all the time. Everyone is fitter, happier, more productive. What’s not to like?
Regrettably, of course, some sub-optimal citizens will occasionally be obliged to undergo involuntary interrogations by the Witness police, who use mind-reading technology. But this is rare and benign – until one woman, a refusenik called Diana Hunter who somehow lives off-grid, dies during her police interview. That’s not supposed to happen. Enter Witness inspector Mielikki Neith, a true believer in the panopticon utopia. She plays back the recording of the interrogation, to experience Hunter’s own feelings and to try to understand what happened.
It reads like the first draft of what might have been a tighter 400-page book rather than a rambling 700-pager
Of all the characters, the most interesting is actually the least human, and the one after whom the novel is named
Continue reading...via Science fiction | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2inEfud
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