Customer Reviews

Capacity

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was excited as I read the first half of Capacity. Ballantyne sets up an interesting, if not entirely original, future world. Seemingly benevolent AI's watch over mankind, guided by a semi-mythical chief AI, "the Watcher," which may be extraterrestrial in origin. Copies of human personalities live in processing spaces that mimic the real "atomic" world. Harmony and peace are ensured by "Social Care," who tend to every need both physical and psychological. If problems arise, they are dealt with by agents such as Judy, the main character - or characters, since the "atomic" Judy has 12 copies that patrol the virtual world. The Judies are hunting a virtual predator, Kevin, who has been torturing multiple copies of a woman named Helen. Meanwhile, halfway to the Andromeda galaxy, the AI's have encountered an alien threat that seems to feed off intelligence in any form. And it is heading our way. A promising set up. . .

By the end of the book, I was less satisfied. I understood the world as the backstory filled in, but the storyline remained enigmatic. Worse, the motives of the characters are too obscure for their actions to fully make sense. After spending 300 pages with Judy, I still don't get her. By the end of the book, I'm not sure who is on whose side, what they are trying to accomplish, and why. I don't need protagonists in white hats and villains in black, but if I'm to care, things need to be better defined than this.

Also, though the world is fairly well explained, it is not fleshed out. Ballantyne has about 10 characters in the book, which is enough, but they almost never interact with anyone else. We never see another agent, or Judy's boss, or neighbors, or passersby. There is not enough detail to bring the everyday world to life.

All in all, Capacity was worth reading. I imagine much will be cleared up in the sequel, so that it all makes sense. But I'm not sure I care enough to find out.

I read this book before reading 'Recursion' the first of the trilogy, thinking that 'Capacity' was a stand alone book. My head nearly exploded reading this book. There are a lot of different and cool concepts in the book dealing with multiple versions of people, plots which span for centuries, etc. A lot of the future tech is explained in the 'Recursion' and, the author doesn't slow down to explain things into detail. A reviewer mentioned that Ballantyne's descriptions is like reading a screenplay - very sparse which I agree with (sometimes more sparse than a script!) I just finished reading 'Recursion' and would have enjoyed Capacity more if I read it in sequence. So if you're thinking about jumping into this author's work, I recommend you read them in order. Definitely worth the read if you're looking for new perspectives and complex story lines.

I sometimes wonder what readers could possibly want. Here one is given a snapping literary style (is writing even an important element to folks anymore?), unforgettable characters, originality, a bold plot and lots of action. The book's real concern is the whole notion of freedom, choice, purpose and what it means to be human. Is a replicated pattern of electronic waves a "human being" like our carbone selves? If a machine can predict our actions does that mean we have no free will? Calvin must be jumping for joy.

I approach a novel, particularly science fiction, from the viewpoint of the entire package. Particularly I look for characterization and human relations - two areas that many sci-fi writers tend to overlook. In tales of the future most authors resort to having our descendents talk familiarly about our time (as if we sat around discussing the culture and society of the Aztecs, Ming Dynasty or Ghanian Empire). These authors can't seem to escape their boundaries - terrestrial and literary. One gets the idea that Ballantyne is having a little fun with his variations, alternate endings, simulataneous realities and interplay between the atomic and virtual worlds. This is NOT the usual "We are the Zeeboos from Planet X here to demand you stop your atomic testing" LOL

Yet, as complex and far-astride as the story reads, it was a blast. Only afterwards did I discover it was the sequeal to Divergence (that I am now reading). Even not knowing beforehand the X-file like mythology - Watcher, Eva, Mary, Social Care, DIANA - I found it a great read. Judy (in all here vairations) is a heroine for the new age. Helen disappoints in the end but Frances, the robot, almost steals the show with her achingly human tenderness and brilliant insights.

I didn't understand the swipe against business - as if living under the "corporate yoke" was worse than the Big Brother Nightmare of the future. This authoritarian structure combined the worst from all political areas - the Right's moral purity crusade, the Left's devotion to collectivism over individuals and the middles complacency with increasing encroachment on the power of the State. Social Care controlled people "for their own good" - how many times have we heard this in history? What did not make sense was the unevenness - people lived no longer than today - they got arthritis for Pete's sake! Yetthere is FTL travel, nanotech, and the lives seemed magical from our point of view. Then one recalls the small conversation from the man who opined there was only so much "capacity" in the universe. In fact, the word "capacity" was used skillfully in several contexts throughout the story - another great literary ploy. My grade: A

The core ideas are interesting, but are not clearly defined. Reading the back cover, you think that the plot is supposed to be about real life vs. digital life. But in fact, it seems to be more about the balance between the good for all vs. the good for individuals - is societal control, for the good of all you understand, incompatible with freewill and individual well-being?

In Capacity, AIs have evolved to the point where they entirely control humans and have arguably neutered humanity, supposedly in order to keep it from its excesses. This is in contrast with Banks' Culture, where AI and humans live in a much more permissive, benign symbiosis. Perhaps Banks never did ask the right questions about AI motivations, and Ballantyne does? The difference is that Banks is an entertaining author.

Whatever the questions raised by Capacity, they are developed within a generally fractured and annoying storyline. A more experienced writer would have conveyed the same concepts with a more natural flow and enjoyable plot. I didn't empathize with any of the characters and found them all very hard to like. Justinian and his baby are perhaps the saddest and most poignant of the bunch, but I was irritated by Justinian's whining persona all the way to the end.

The author, while asking these questions, never does seem to take a position himself. And since Capacity ends with an unsatisfying partial conclusion, you are left with a number of unresolved threads, to be picked up in the sequel.

Last, and least: while novel, the whole Schrodinger box idea is unrealistic since quantum uncertainty collapses with larger scale objects, as I am sure the author is well aware of. Quoting Einstein: "Nobody really doubts that the presence or absence of the cat is something independent of the act of observation".

"Capacity," Tony Ballantyne's challenging sequel to "Recursion," brings in a new cast of characters, more and different challenges (and challenging ideas), but the same tripartite arrangement.

This time the stories involve Justinian Sibelius (heir to one of the dueling corporations in "Recursion,") who in 2223 is sent on a mission to a planet revolving around an isolated star near the M32 galaxy. He and his infant son have been manipulated there by AIs (he's accompanied by an officious robot named Leslie) to find out why AI's there have shut down their higher functions--AI suicide. This thread's a variation on the old SF "problem to be solved tale."

The other two threads, which take place 17 years after Justinian's expedition, both involve one of the prevailing nannystate councilors, Judy, who appears physically as the "atomic Judy," in one thread, while her virtual selves (they're called Processing Constructs") appear in what is called processing space. In the "atomic Judy" thread, Judy and her robot Frances are trying to track down a sociopathic construct in the virtual world named Kevin, and in the "Helen" thread the virtual Judys and the virtual Helen--a victim of Kevin's--do the same thing.

Lurking over all is the mysterious "Watcher" of "Recursion." Is it real (readers of that novel know, or maybe think they know, the answer), and what are its motives?

This tale is darker than its predecessor, lacking the bantering sense of humor and its references to genre fiction; but its ideas are if anything more challenging. And it's complete in itself. It doesn't leave you hanging, although surely you will want to proceed to "Divergence," the last of the trilogy. It's already published.

An interesting book that brings up some (almost) philisophical questions about identity and existence but never bothers to explore or answer them in any way. The book feels unfinished, and the ending only seems to end one of several plot threads (and they don't even say for sure on that one). Worse yet, the epilogue brings up a whole new set of questions and doesn't bother to answer them either! Enjoy the story, but don't look for a big finish.

I definitely enjoyed this book, but I was dissatisfied with the way it ended. Ballantyne's writing style makes heavy use of out-of-order revelation. We as readers are given the task of trying to construct a mental framework in which spotty details all fit, and we must continually revise that framework until all of the details are available. I enjoy this style, but details that were important to this book appear to have been held in reserve for the last book, "Divergence". I feel a need to rush out and purchase "Divergence" before the details from "Capacity" start to fade. In my opinion, the author left too many unresolved mysteries hanging for this book to stand well on its own.

I have the be honest, I picked up this book for all the wrong reasons. That being the cover art. That being said, here are my thoughts!

The book is a little confusing at first, as we are introduced to different scenario's played throughout the private network. Humans are able to have personality constructs of themselves created in the virtual world, even if they are still alive in the 'atomic' world.

As it sets up, the story steadily progresses to the climax, and the ultimate question 'Does the Watcher truly exist?' however, the ending seems to be a bit rushed, leaving off at what could have been a well written battle between opposing sides only to drop off to a more calming ending.

In the end, even with that being said it was a good read and I recommend you either check it out at the local library or pick up a copy to read without the worries of a return date.

Capacity is a direct sequel to Recursion. but it is mostly independent of that book, though clearly set in the same future (and there are explicit references to events from the first book in the second).

These books are very much in the general mode of, say, Charles Stross (the Stross of Glasshouse most obviously). Capacity is set between 2223 and 2240. The Earth, the Solar System, and local star systems, are inhabited by a mix of humans and AI's. Many of the AI's are uploaded copies of humans, living in Processing Spaces. All is under the control of the Environmental Agency, and its arm Social Care, which keeps an eye on the psychological health of everyone. There is a persistent belief that the real power in the entire system is a super-intelligent AI called The Watcher, which may be of alien origin. All this points at the key questions addressed by these books: what is the difference (if any) between "natural" and "artificial" intelligence? How do we know we are conscious, and in control of our thoughts? Is AI dangerous?

This book is primarily told on two threads. One, in 2223, follows Justinian Sibelius, a human counselor who specializes in AI psychological problems. He has been taken to a planet just outside the galaxy M32, to try to find out what has been happening to the AIs on the planet -- each has committed a sort of suicide, reducing its intelligence radically. Other mysteries on the planet include Schrödinger Boxes -- which seem only to fix their position when an observer notices them; and Black Velvet Bands, which form at random locations and constrict about whatever they enclose. Justinian's problems are worsened because he has had to take his child with him -- his wife is a victim of the White Death, in which human intelligences cease to believe they are conscious.

The other thread follows Helen, an upload of whom was kidnapped and copied multiple times over decades in an illegal Processing Space called the Private Network, where people subject these illegal uploads to sexual slavery and such perversions. Helen is freed, and in company with a Social Care official, Judy, and several of her copies, the villains behind the Private Network are tracked down. But they have a different ethos -- they don't believe that AIs are sentient, and so what happened to Helen's copy in the Private Network is unimportant -- and when the primary villain is captured, he is happy enough to have that copy suicide -- it's not real, anyway, eh?

The two threads do eventually converge, although to my taste not in a terribly convincing manner. Indeed, the book as a whole failed to convince, nor to really involve me. Neither of the three viewpoint characters (Justinian, Helen, and Judy) really interested me. And the arguments advanced by the book, while certainly concerning interesting questions, never seemed very interestingly posed. Nor very coherently argued. In the end, some promising material seemed wasted on an uninteresting plot, unengaging characters, and unconvincing thematic arguments.

The author's ideas about AIs and simulated reality aren't really original. Dialogue with AIs always boils down to them messing with people's heads and their internal dialogue is just the author assuring us that they're thinking in 900 dimensions so it's too hard for him to explain. A very good treatment of extremely high intelligence is Iain Banks's Culture series. The novel Excession in particular focuses on that stuff. For a much better treatment of simulated reality, check out Permutation City by Greg Egan.

At one point the author suggests that disease and death might be a good idea because otherwise we would quickly (within a couple thousand years) reach the information capacity of the galaxy. This is so ludicrous it made me laugh out loud. First of all, the Milky Way is about a hundred thousand light years across. It would take a VERY intense, deliberate effort of hopping around FTL to even reach the entire volume of the galaxy with man-made radio emissions (which travel at 300 million m/s) in that time, let alone fill it with digital storage. The galaxy has ([...]) about 10^69 bits of information entropy not bound up in black holes. That's a billion billion billion billion billion billion hard drives.

Also Judy (the protagonist) is thoroughly uninteresting and unlikable. As are most of the characters, in fact.