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Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears (Singularity Series Book 1) by [Hertling, William]

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears (Singularity Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by William Hertling (Author)

588 customer reviews

Book 1 of 4 in Singularity Series (4 Book Series)

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"Chilling and compelling" -- Wired

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
FOREWORD REVIEWS SCIENCE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2011

"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 The Phoenix Project

"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

Kindle Feature Spotlight

Length: 302 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled

Complete Series

Singularity Series (4 Book Series)

William Hertling

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Product details

File Size: 2336 KB
Print Length: 302 pages
Publisher: Liquididea Press; 2 edition (January 9, 2014)
Publication Date: January 9, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B006ACIMQQ
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,239 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #475 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Technothrillers
- #536 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #576 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Cyberpunk

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C. Hill

Avogadro Corp is a diabolically clever insight into accidental A.I.

March 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

Effective Communication is everything. And despite spellcheckers, grammar checkers and auto-correct, there is not yet a way to automatically improve the appeal of your message to a recipient. There is not yet an algorithm to reword your message; to step past questions, step past doubt, to achieve an ends, to coerce with uncannily perceptive persuasion.

So what happens when an email algorithm to help human collaboration, takes on a mind of its own; goes beyond its purview and skips past every check and balance in its way?

Avogadro Corp is a diabolically clever insight into accidental A.I.; and a very real warning in an increasingly digital world where we rely on electronic communication for everything from finance to job prospects, from corporate commands to governmental orders.

Hertling deftly maneuvers through a complex scenario where human greed and desperation manifest an unchecked algorithm that grows at an exponential rate, stopping at nothing to build itself larger, to amass more data, growing in power and ability as the unthinkable starts to unfold.

With a fascinating idea, this story pulled me through, despite sometimes slow pacing, and awkward dialogue. The idea made up for it, and I am intent to read more.

A.I. by email. Who knew?

Watch your inbox.

Visit my blog at cliftonh dot com for more book reviews and info on my own writing.

4 people found this helpful

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D. Wolf

How the Singularity Might Happen! (Unintentionally!)

March 6, 2017

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This is a solid, authentic near-term science fiction novel that takes us through the accidental creation of -- something akin to Artificial Intelligence. One of the great things about this book is the way the author (and his main characters) refused to take credit for the creation of an intelligent, self-aware entity, but stuck to the practical application of expert systems. And since the main characters David and Mike were responsible for its creation, they were able to make the entire series of events completely plausible and frightening. The way they developed the program, their intentions and motives--were very clear and understandable. And their attempts at averting possible disaster as they work with the various departments within their vast Google-like organization are also quite believable. In fact, for all we know, this has already happened somewhere! (Except for the parts that made the news.) I was engaged by the characters, entertained by the various corporate types they encountered, and totally caught up in the plot as various events reveal the growing powers of the entity. As an author myself, working in the same arena with an artificial intelligence, I was very familiar with many of the issues Hertling brought up, and was fascinated to see how he addressed them.

4 people found this helpful

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Lone Star Girl

Great Story... Grounded and Realistic.

January 12, 2018

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Great and frightening story. In particular, I like how Hertling grounded the story in the ordinary day of his main characters. Good Job! I particularly like Sci-Fi that feels real. This author has accomplished that task very well. My day job is in IT. As a project manager for a large multinational corporation, I appreciated the verisimilitude he used to ground the more fantastic parts of the story. Writing Sci-Fi is about coming up with an entertaining story that has something to say. His characters are believable, and as I am a novelist myself, "Phoenix Republic, The Lone Star Gambit," & "Sovereign’s Journey," I don’t have time for stories that don’t feel realistic and are without a point.
While reading the novel I kept thinking how one would prevail in a similar real-life situation. I believe that a technological singularity is coming, and likely, it is coming fast. Already today there is no such thing as privacy, and every convenience we embrace only accelerates that process. Be very careful what you wish for.

Suffice it to say that I plan to read the rest of the series.

Danielle Wedgeworth

3 people found this helpful

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Jay Batson

Accidental AI

July 30, 2016

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In books about AI being written in the mid-201x's, there is an increasing attention to the question "If a super-intelligent AI is created, will it be nice to us humans?" For background, search the web for the good 2-part discussion about this on waitbutwhy.com.

This book - Avogadro Corp - explores a fictional, but possible path about how such an AI might be created, and the eventualities that emerge. Well written, suspenseful, believable, and credible, it serves as a good read for coders flirting with AI software, hopefully encouraging them to consider the What Ifs suggested here.

Four stars based on this scale:
- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again
- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas/characters/plot points”, but you know you will never read it again
- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant
- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book so you don't.
- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins.

3 people found this helpful

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Gabriela Mistral

Careful what you wish for...

September 18, 2017

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OMG, this story blew my socks off! Scary and closer to reality than we probably imagine. How technology evolves and given the right cocktail combination who knows what it can be created. I am not very educated in matters of computer technology but i know enough to understand the ramifications of technology applications to make our lives easier? Let's be careful of what we wish for. If we think we are not being watched, this will make you think twice about it. At least ELOPe was a good created AI, but if you have not read AI Apocalypse, be prepared; " The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears". If you are not a science fiction fan i would recommend to anyone to read this story anyway as it is closer to what is going on in the world than anything that could be fiction imagined. I am starting on book 3 " The Last Firewall" can't wait. Thank you Mr. Hertling for writing these thought provoking stories.

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