Computer One [Hardcover]

Warwick Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1997

As Professor Enzo Yakuda prepares to retire, he is plagued with a nightmare about the annihilation of the entire human race--by Computer One, the international civil computer network.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Acclaimed for his two recent novels, The Rationalist (1994) and Gents (1997), British writer Collins shows a less subtle side with this publication of an earlier work, a talky apocalyptic tale first published in 1993 in England. In the 21st century, humankind's main problem has to do with increased leisure time--and how to fill it--since a massively networked supercomputer, Computer One, has taken over everything from climate control to its own maintenance. Utopia proves a delusion, however, when biology professor Yakuda, in an address to a symposium on leisure, neatly links Darwin, Konrad Lorenz, and a sudden increase in atmospheric radioactivity to suggest that the master computer--which, since it's self-replicating, is now by definition a species itself--is taking steps to eliminate its main rival, Homo sapiens. Yakuda and a colleague are attacked soon thereafter when mirrors, part of a solar-power station, focus on them as they go for a stroll: Yakuda's friend is fried, but Yakuda himself, only partially burned, is rescued by ``externals,'' members of a separatist community who belong to a larger network of anti-computer groups living underground and avoiding contact with surface dwellers. When the professor recovers, he makes his rescuers aware of their peril, but it's not until a neighboring group of externals is wiped out by a virus, despite their precautions, that his warning hits home. Yakuda and a team of anti- computer specialists race to devise a means to fight Computer One; as they do, he has to watch not only his former society, but all animal and plant life, systematically exterminated. A supervirus finally renders Computer One nonfunctional--but Yakuda and his team return to base to find that an all-too-human tragedy has struck. A chilling story, but one has to look beyond the talking heads and an Ayn Rand style of pontificating to appreciate it. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 274 pages
• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714530336
• ISBN-13: 978-0714530338
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,449,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fear and loathing in cyberspace, November 19, 2007

By 

Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Computer One (Hardcover)

A disturbing novel. COMPUTER ONE is the fictionalization of the author's fear that the single global computer now being forged (by the linking of machines via the Web) will very rationally decide that humans are a threat. Drawing on aggression theory he observes that offensive action is often the most intelligent defense, and that the combination of self-diagnosis and repair (already a fact for many computers) and very high intelligence will inevitably lead to pre-emptive strikes against us. He posits that such a decision may very well come within the next fifty years, by which time the life-support systems of humanity will be largely computerized and therefore within reach of the new electronic specie we have fashioned. Collins believes we need to act soon to install an "off" switch on the Internet, and in a thoughtful introduction discusses the difficulty in actually achieving such a goal through international diplomacy and treaties. Who would control such a switch? What rules might govern its use? The story itself is compelling, though not superbly told -- more to be appreciated as a terrifying illustration of a very real possible future than as great fiction. But, the argument rings true. The reader will never again be entirely sanguine about the Info Superhighway.

5.0 out of 5 stars A taut, self-consistent essay on near-future AI challenge, September 3, 1998

By 

Jerry Mossbarger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computer One (Hardcover)

This is an excellent piece of writing, even a tour de force, powered by skillful development of the plot to the nearly inexorable conclusion of doom. If you accept the author's premise, i.e., ongoing expansion of networked computers and systems over the next 40-50 years(including final net-control of world energy sources and production) and a biological interpretation of how such a net might advance to AI complexity (the whole becomes something greater than the sum of its parts), his conclusion is frighteningly logical and realistic. I enjoyed the author's economy of style. The story is tightly focused on one player: a biology professor named Yakuda who is able to deduce the dangers of the autonomous world-net, called Computer One, from his studies of insect colonies. Be sure to read the author's introduction to his book as well; it makes some excellent points, including the difficulty of programming anything into a net such as Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." Also note that Arthur C. Clarke read this book and said "It really scared me...move over Hal!"

4.0 out of 5 stars Unsettling, even scary story of inter-species war, July 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Computer One (Hardcover)

Rivals William Brinkley's The Last Ship in its unrelenting pessimism even as it shows human intelligence coping with apocalypse. In both books, human doom is human-made, but here it's the cession of control to a computer complex, which has decided to eliminate the carbon-based competition. One of the first to realize the threat to humanity is Professor Enzo Yakuda, whose public warning nearly leads to his death and forces him outside of cvilization. The reasoning behind this novel is frighteningly solid, if you accept the idea that an evolving artificial intelligence is necessarily aggressive. (Another view can be found in Disappearing through the Overhead.) Especially in the latter half, this is a thoughtful, affecting, scary story.