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Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears (Singularity Series)
 
 

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears (Singularity Series) [Kindle Edition]

William Hertling
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

David Ryan is the designer of ELOPe, an email language optimization program, that if successful, will make his career. But when the project is suddenly in danger of being canceled, David embeds a hidden directive in the software accidentally creating a runaway artificial intelligence.

David and his team are initially thrilled when the project is allocated extra servers and programmers. But excitement turns to fear as the team realizes that they are being manipulated by an A.I. who is redirecting corporate funds, reassigning personnel and arming itself in pursuit of its own agenda.

WINNER SCIENCE FICTION DIY BOOK FESTIVAL 2011-2012

"Avogadro Corp is a tremendous book that every single person needs to read. In the vein of Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom(TM), William's book shows that science fiction is becoming science fact. Avogadro Corp describes issues, in solid technical detail, that we are dealing with today that will impact us by 2015, if not sooner. Not enough people have read these books. It's a problem for them, but not for the [emergent] machines." -- Brad Feld, managing directory Foundry Group, co-founder Techstars

"Highly entertaining, gripping, thought inspiring book. Don’t start without the time to finish — it won’t let you go.” -- Gifford Pinchot III, founder Bainbridge Graduate Institute, author THE INTELLIGENT ORGANIZATION

"An alarming and jaw-dropping tale about how something as innocuous as email can subvert an entire organization.  I found myself reading with a sense of awe, and read it way too late into the night." -- Gene Kim, author of VISIBLE OPS

"A fictional world where Portland is the hub for the most exciting advancements in technology... [J]am packed with great references to deep Portland culture...and Portlandia-type references" -- SILICON FLORIST

"Hertling builds a picture of how an AI could emerge, piece by piece, from technology available today.  A fascinating, logical, and utterly believable scenario - I just hope nobody tries this at home." -- Nathaniel Rutman, Senior Systems Architect

About the Author

William Hertling is the author of Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears, A.I. Apocalypse, and the forthcoming The Last Firewall. A fifteen year veteran of the technology industry, he holds ten patents on software and internet technology, developed web and social media strategy at Hewlett-Packard, and is a frequent speaker at SXSW Interactive. He’s been building online communities since 1986 when he ran seven phones lines into the back of his Apple //e to create an online chat system.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Couldn't put it down December 12, 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
William Hertling sets "Avogadro Corp" in modern day Portland, Oregon. Avogadro Corp is a thinly veiled fictional Google, with AvoMail as key aspect of the story. While "Avogadro Corp" is the first in a series of three (so far), it easily stands alone as a terrific, and stunningly believable, account of how the first sentient artificial intelligence might accidently arise. In a man vs. machine conflict, our protagonist David Ryan, as a contemporary Dr. Frankenstein, battles to destroy the thing he creates. A majority of the characters are well-developed and distinct; the ones that are a bit one-dimensional are minor characters. The pace of the book is quite fast with only a few tangential story arcs to mentally maintain. In fact, I made the "mistake" of starting the book at bedtime; I was finished by lunch the next day. I simply could not put it down.

David Ryan, a software engineer at Avogadro Corp, is working on a recommendation engine for their flagship product, AvoMail. The recommendation engine, Email Language Optimization Program (ELOPe), is designed to provide suggestions for better wording for your outgoing emails so that the recipient is more receptive. When the project is in jeopardy of being cancelled, David inserts a hidden self-preservation directive into ELOPe and allows it to autonomously rewrite outgoing emails related to the project. Once ELOPe begins redirecting corporate funds and arming itself in offshore floating data centers, David and coworker Mike set about trying to take down ELOPe with the help of I-trust-paper-not-computers internal auditor Gene.

One aspect of Hertling's novel that I found intriguing was that by never revealing the internal motivation of ELOPe, you too are brought on this journey of how to destroy the "ghost in the machine." Also, as a resident of Portland, I enjoyed that the book was set here and incorporates its coffee culture.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I first read this book, I really thought that it was a fanciful look at something that could never occur. It was a fun read and then I put it aside. Then about 3 months later, I started noticing that Google Mail was getting smarter and smarter. It seemed that if I sent an e-mail about a product I was thinking about, within a day or so, an ad would show up. I also realized that if I wrote something like "attached file" in the e-mail and didn't actually attach a file, they would warn me. Pretty smart stuff, but then I remember reading this book. This made up story about an intelligent system that could never actually occur, right??? I went back and re-read the book. Holy Smokes, this could/is really happening. How far-fetched is this really?

I think Will Hertling has hit it out of the park with this novel. I look forward to reading more from him.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've tended to read a slightly different genre of SciFi book so I was happily surprised when I found I could not put this book down. Hertling, a successful computer scientist in his own right, does a very thorough and exciting job of merging in-depth research with creative imagination. This book was very clearly and cleanly written, I was able to connect well with each of the characters, and I discovered the story twist toward the end unexpected. And what an ending! Absolutely chilling. From all accounts, the premise of this book might not be so far fetched which makes it an important read for everyone who depends on technology. I highly recommend this book and I can't wait for next in the series.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting!
Interesting concept about e-mail A.I. overtaking the world; however, some of the bits and pieces as far as the execution was a bit over-the-top. Read more
Published 2 days ago by dingopole
great book
A very interesting observation: as computers get faster it may be possible to create an AI by accident. Nice read, with a different take than Robopocalypse.
Published 19 days ago by David Hall
Clever, fast-paced
This is a well-written and a reasonably simple story: a code to make people more successful with their emails is given a faulty boost, following which the program adapts itself so... Read more
Published 22 days ago by I. J. Miller
Excellent read!
Very enjoyable read about a runaway AI and how a company attempts to deal with it. Some new (to me) ideas are introduced and it was a well thought-out and detailed story of the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by JR
Could not put it down
This is a great read. I could not put it down. It's very refreshing to see a book about strong AI that is not trying to destroy the world. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bradford L. Andrews
What indie books are supposed to be
I may be a bit of a snob. I tend to lean toward the more literary fiction out there, and am often pretty skeptical about books in this one's price range. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Phordant
This is a great read.
I read this book in two sitting, very well written sucks you right in. Scary view of the short term future.
Published 2 months ago by ZenMike
Rubbish. Don't waste your money
What drivel! Try hard geek speak babble with very shallow characters and so obviously trying to attach itself to Google. Yawn...
Published 3 months ago by LeslieCBarry
Science Fiction Is Becoming Science Fact
I gave a talk titled "Resistance Is Futile" yesterday in Park City at the annual meeting for one of our LPs. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bradley Feld
Only so-so
I downloaded this as an ebook based on some very good target marketing on Facebook. I have "friended" the SingularityHub page on FB. Read more
Published 3 months ago by JM
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More About the Author

William Hertling was born in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up a digital native in the early days of bulletin board systems and online chat systems.

Influenced by William Gibson, Charles Stross, and Cory Doctorow, he writes long form science fiction. His first novel, Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears was released in December, 2011. His second novel, A.I.pocalypse is was released in March, 2012.

He currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

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Arthur C. Clarke who said, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Well, this was magic. &quote;
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