Book club selection (via Lon; session held 28 April 2019).
This wasn't one of my favorite books - lots of action, but rather in an "I (the author) am hoping for a movie deal" sort of way; characters not very credible (though that might be chalked up to the strange drugs they take?)
The book does cause one to think, if just a bit, about how far and how fast we might go in terms of enhancing human intelligence, permitting folks to share their thoughts, etc.
I'm no expert but I think current experiences with "driverless" cars indicates that in our lifetimes, we won't come anywhere near the technologies described in this book.
Author confuses what I consider intellectual horsepower - compute power - with wisdom. Folks like Kade, Samantha, the Chinese post-human - had they lived a lot? read a lot? learned a lot? developed judgment and experience to go along with compute power? Somehow they're supposed to exercise all this power wisely?
Lots of blather about the ecstasy of sharing another's thoughts - what's that about? Why is it so great? No real limits on sharing here - yet people have forever exposed themselves gradually to others, for good reason, and often call a halt. Understanding is a lengthy process. Somehow these wonder drugs are supposed to short-circuit what humans have evolved in terms of communication, and this is great?
I'd say the drones were the coolest tech in the book.
Naivete of the lead characters re dangerous uses of the "nexus 5" drug was unbelievable.
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