WWW:WAKE

WWW:WAKE
by Robert J. Sawyer
published in 2009

WWW: WAKE is an interesting title. When I first saw this title, I thought of a web address. Reasonable enough because www. Is the way URL addresses start. As I read this book, I realized that the title simply restates the plot, something “wakes” up from the internet. This thing was a being that seemed to adapt through its perception of its existence. In previous blogs, I have already said that Robert Sawyer describes this entity at almost every chapter beginning. He shows that the entity has almost no perception of itself and questioned its existence at the beginning. Then with use of a different plot, Sawyer gives that entity an awareness of self being by having China unleash a massive firewall. This firewall makes the entity split, and the main identity, Sawyer is following, recognizes that the other is feeding data to it. By doing this the entity knows it exists because the other exists. Sawyer describes the growth of a very fast child in this book. It started out not knowing anything at all and ends knowing almost everything about human society.