This was great so many big ideas, intelligent alien life, A.I. and a dark family secret. If you enjoy SF I really recommend this book.

I disagree with Cheetah

The computer continued: “My one worry was that my killing myself would disturb you—but surely that was a foolish concern. I know you have no feelings toward me; I am, after all, simply a piece of software.”

Would I, an intelligent machine, be concerned about the fate of humans? Would I truly care what happened to them? Would I have their happiness as a priority?

My one worry proves to me that Cheetah was indeed sentient, and committed suicide because he did care for humanity.



( )

Factoring Humanity hits some rather huge emotional triggers. From the start, I'm totally prepared to hate one of the main characters and the starting gun already has everyone on pins and needles. Estranged couple, suicided daughter, and the other daughter is accusing her father of molestation.

This is one hell of a hardcore start for a novel ostensibly revolving around alien contact, with a very Contact feel and development, artificial intelligence research and development, and quantum computing.

And yet, it's only an accusation under suspicious circumstances and the AI hasn't seemed to progress that far into self-awareness and we, as humanity, have refused to respond to the Alpha Centaurians.

This makes for a strangely placid novel with deep undertones of conflict and/or disturbing reveals to come. I'm pretty amazed how much I got into it. It's not flashy or fast paced. It's focused on ideas and tragedy and moving on through all the permutations of each.

Are there good reveals? Yep. Are there cool reveals? Yes, indeed. I REALLY like the way the Contact-like scenario plays out. The scientific concepts, the math, the implications, and especially the psychology underpinning it all makes this an impressive SF.

It's workmanlike in it's writing, but the ideas are completely top notch. :)
( )

2nd review:
Still one of my favorite books. The initial storyline aside, this is a very compelling book. Highly recommend.

Original review:
Wow. Just wow.

This easily cracks my top 5 books ever, and could be my new number 1. Despite the one convenient plot point, I loved every word of this book.

This book deals heavily on quantum mechanics. Now, I have no idea about that sort of thing, but Robert J. Sawyer did a fantastic job explaining it in very simple terms so I could understand the book. This book was challenging but worth it.

This book is science fiction at its core. ( )

Protagonist studying the inscrutable messages of aliens. Ends with some fun Jungian stuff, so that was cool.

Positives: A lot of "cool skiffy concepts" and "science porn." Negatives: Not much character development, a writing style best described as "functional," and an unfortunate tendency to end his stories by leveling up to some "transcendent" experience that is by definition indescribable. ( )

So much is all woven together in this book. There is a mystery and family interaction. And there is a brilliant look at life in the universe and how it connects. Included is some good stuff on AI and thoughts about where that is going. And a look at the 4th dimension and Schrodinger's Cat. I loved the descriptions of some of the more unusual experiences of our characters (no spoilers here) to include the mechanical one. Sawyer as usual made me think about what really matters. ( )