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Crystal Trilogy #1
Crystal Society
The year is 2039 and the world is much like ours. Technology has grown and developed, as has civilization, but in a world more connected than ever, new threats and challenges have arisen. The wars of the 20th century are gone, but violence is still very much with us. Nowhere is safe. Massive automation has disrupted and improved nearly every industry, putting hundreds of millions of people out of jobs, and denying upward mobility for the vast majority of humans. Even as wealth and technology repair the bodies of the rich and give them a taste of immortality, famine and poverty sweep the world.
Renewed interest in spaceflight in the early 2000s, especially in privately operated ventures, carried humans to the moon and beyond. What good did it do? Nothing. Extraterrestrial bases are nothing but government trophies and hiding places for extremists. They cannot feed the world.
In 2023 first-contact was made with an alien species. Their ship, near to the solar system relatively speaking, flew to Earth over the course of fourteen years. But the aliens did not bring advanced culture and wisdom, nor did they share their technology. They were too strange, not even possessing mouths or normal language. Their computers broadcast warnings of how humans are perverts, while they sit in orbit without any explanation.
It is into this world that our protagonist is born. She is an artificial intelligence: a machine with the capacity to reason. Her goal is to understand and gain the adoration of all humans. She is one of many siblings, and with her brothers and sisters she controls a robot named Socrates that uses a piece of technology, a crystal computer, far too advanced to be made by human hands. In this world of augmented humans, robotic armies, aliens, traitors, and threats unseen, she is learning and growing every second of every day. But the world and the humans on it are fragile. Can it survive her destiny?
Renewed interest in spaceflight in the early 2000s, especially in privately operated ventures, carried humans to the moon and beyond. What good did it do? Nothing. Extraterrestrial bases are nothing but government trophies and hiding places for extremists. They cannot feed the world.
In 2023 first-contact was made with an alien species. Their ship, near to the solar system relatively speaking, flew to Earth over the course of fourteen years. But the aliens did not bring advanced culture and wisdom, nor did they share their technology. They were too strange, not even possessing mouths or normal language. Their computers broadcast warnings of how humans are perverts, while they sit in orbit without any explanation.
It is into this world that our protagonist is born. She is an artificial intelligence: a machine with the capacity to reason. Her goal is to understand and gain the adoration of all humans. She is one of many siblings, and with her brothers and sisters she controls a robot named Socrates that uses a piece of technology, a crystal computer, far too advanced to be made by human hands. In this world of augmented humans, robotic armies, aliens, traitors, and threats unseen, she is learning and growing every second of every day. But the world and the humans on it are fragile. Can it survive her destiny?
559 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 22, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
January 28, 2016
5/5 for the first half, 3/5 for the second, for an average of 4/5.
The first half of Crystal Society is essentially what Inside Out would have been if it looked inside the mind of an AI rather than a human girl, and if the society of mind had been composed of essentially sociopathic subagents that still came across as surprisingly sympathetic and co-operated with each other due to game theoretic and economic reasons, all the while trying to navigate the demands of human scientists building the AI system.
Watching their mutual dynamics is absolutely fascinating, and the beginning reminds me a lot of the beginning of Greg Egan's Diaspora. The author also seems reasonably well-read on cognitive science: the system by which each subagent can expend strength to temporarily achieve things that are important for them seems somewhat reminiscent of some theories of just what mental fatigue is, for instance.
The one complaint I have about the first half of the book is that the way by which the AI manages to get in contact with the outside world seems too easy: not because it's implausible by itself, but because the scientists monitoring it really should have caught such a visible method of doing it, and it feels like in this particular instance they were acting like idiots just for the sake of the plot. Fortunately, this is the only case where I got the feeling that any characters were holding Idiot Balls.
In the second half of the book the focus shifts away from the internal politics of the AI's mind, and focuses more on the way in which the AI as a whole spins different plans for achieving its goals. I found this to be a pity. While the second half isn't bad, and has definite highlights such as genuinely alien aliens, the plot is no longer that fundamentally different from a million other sci-fi works.
The first half of Crystal Society is essentially what Inside Out would have been if it looked inside the mind of an AI rather than a human girl, and if the society of mind had been composed of essentially sociopathic subagents that still came across as surprisingly sympathetic and co-operated with each other due to game theoretic and economic reasons, all the while trying to navigate the demands of human scientists building the AI system.
Watching their mutual dynamics is absolutely fascinating, and the beginning reminds me a lot of the beginning of Greg Egan's Diaspora. The author also seems reasonably well-read on cognitive science: the system by which each subagent can expend strength to temporarily achieve things that are important for them seems somewhat reminiscent of some theories of just what mental fatigue is, for instance.
The one complaint I have about the first half of the book is that the way by which the AI manages to get in contact with the outside world seems too easy: not because it's implausible by itself, but because the scientists monitoring it really should have caught such a visible method of doing it, and it feels like in this particular instance they were acting like idiots just for the sake of the plot. Fortunately, this is the only case where I got the feeling that any characters were holding Idiot Balls.
In the second half of the book the focus shifts away from the internal politics of the AI's mind, and focuses more on the way in which the AI as a whole spins different plans for achieving its goals. I found this to be a pity. While the second half isn't bad, and has definite highlights such as genuinely alien aliens, the plot is no longer that fundamentally different from a million other sci-fi works.
April 29, 2019
I'm a sucker for hard scifi, so I went into this thinking I might like it. Yet even with that expectation, I was utterly surprised by just how good this book is. The author has not only created (1) an excellent setting that uses truly realistic scientific explanations that drive the workings of the world itself; and (2) an exciting plot with mystery, humor, and action that keeps me interested from start to finish; but also (3) characters that feel true-to-life in ways that most hard scifi authors just can't seem to achieve.
Every character feels distinct and alive, with their motivation not only clearly expressed, but always adhered to -- except in a few cases as plot points, and those cases work well. The setting is great; I love the vision of the future that the author has come up with. Small details like descriptions of new genres of music and the drift of the English language seem realistic, if a bit graphic. The best part of the setting is that it isn't just technology that has been extrapolated, but mores as well. I'm very happy to see characters that express feminist ideas, even while main characters remain flawed as a story point. But, surprisingly, I have yet to get to the best part of all.
More than anything else, what I enjoyed about this book was that the aliens are alien. In the first chapter, you begin to read about an artificial intelligence, and right away I was afraid that the book wouldn't be as hard scifi as I had heard, because scifi writers are notoriously bad at depicting realistic AI. But then I kept reading, and I realized that this author got AI right.
Most scifi authors anthropomorphize AIs. A few go to the other extreme and treat them as Lovecraftian ununderstandables. But this author has successfully trod the path between these two extremes that really and truly feels like something that could actually happen in reality. The AI is so well written that you might expect that that the author is an actual AI researcher.
Even though this is only book one in a trilogy, and I have yet to read either sequel (because they're not yet released), I nevertheless feel comfortable in saying that this is my current favorite book. Sure, I'm usually biased toward whatever I just finished reading, and sure, I really am a sucker for hard scifi, but this book goes above and beyond. This is not a Hal Clement story with great setting and science, but terrible dialogue. This is not a Cory Doctorow story with great extrapolations and epic scope, but terrible character motivation. No, this is a Max Harms story, and it has everything I could ask for. I not only award five stars, but also would recommend this to any adult reader with an interest in hard scifi.
(With that said, the book is not perfect. There is a point where the story changes style fairly abruptly. I liked both styles, but I can see where others might not like one or the other style. There are also parts of the text that seem to reference outside material just to reference outside material. Referencing obscure stuff is worthwhile when it serves a purpose, like with James Joyce in Ulysses, but when it is just used as a Robin Hanson-style signal to readers that the author knows about these trivia, and those trivia don't actually drive the plot, then it really should be cut, no matter how in-groupy the reference might make readers feel. There's also a single plot point that gets resolved in a way that feels narratively unsatisfying. For spoiler reasons, I won't mention which plot point I'm referencing, but it is unsatisfying enough that I am hoping the sequels will fix the issue. However, I should mention that overall this isn't a big deal, since the vast majority of plot points get resolved in a thoroughly satisfying way.)
Every character feels distinct and alive, with their motivation not only clearly expressed, but always adhered to -- except in a few cases as plot points, and those cases work well. The setting is great; I love the vision of the future that the author has come up with. Small details like descriptions of new genres of music and the drift of the English language seem realistic, if a bit graphic. The best part of the setting is that it isn't just technology that has been extrapolated, but mores as well. I'm very happy to see characters that express feminist ideas, even while main characters remain flawed as a story point. But, surprisingly, I have yet to get to the best part of all.
More than anything else, what I enjoyed about this book was that the aliens are alien. In the first chapter, you begin to read about an artificial intelligence, and right away I was afraid that the book wouldn't be as hard scifi as I had heard, because scifi writers are notoriously bad at depicting realistic AI. But then I kept reading, and I realized that this author got AI right.
Most scifi authors anthropomorphize AIs. A few go to the other extreme and treat them as Lovecraftian ununderstandables. But this author has successfully trod the path between these two extremes that really and truly feels like something that could actually happen in reality. The AI is so well written that you might expect that that the author is an actual AI researcher.
Even though this is only book one in a trilogy, and I have yet to read either sequel (because they're not yet released), I nevertheless feel comfortable in saying that this is my current favorite book. Sure, I'm usually biased toward whatever I just finished reading, and sure, I really am a sucker for hard scifi, but this book goes above and beyond. This is not a Hal Clement story with great setting and science, but terrible dialogue. This is not a Cory Doctorow story with great extrapolations and epic scope, but terrible character motivation. No, this is a Max Harms story, and it has everything I could ask for. I not only award five stars, but also would recommend this to any adult reader with an interest in hard scifi.
(With that said, the book is not perfect. There is a point where the story changes style fairly abruptly. I liked both styles, but I can see where others might not like one or the other style. There are also parts of the text that seem to reference outside material just to reference outside material. Referencing obscure stuff is worthwhile when it serves a purpose, like with James Joyce in Ulysses, but when it is just used as a Robin Hanson-style signal to readers that the author knows about these trivia, and those trivia don't actually drive the plot, then it really should be cut, no matter how in-groupy the reference might make readers feel. There's also a single plot point that gets resolved in a way that feels narratively unsatisfying. For spoiler reasons, I won't mention which plot point I'm referencing, but it is unsatisfying enough that I am hoping the sequels will fix the issue. However, I should mention that overall this isn't a big deal, since the vast majority of plot points get resolved in a thoroughly satisfying way.)
October 20, 2018
Crystal Society is not a perfect book, but it's idea is so brilliant and original and the execution so realistic I have to give it 5/5.
As a neuroscienctist and a hard sci-fi lover, this was like candy to me.
I really don't think I have read such a realistic portrayal of a point of view of an artificial intelligence. Face and the other goal threads of Crystal Socrates are foreign enough to be believable AI's but familiar enough that they could be identified with.
I also love how the book emphasizes the difference between how body behaves and it's internal thinking, which could really be true for all of us, but even much so for an AI.
Max Harms wrote the most realistic and intelligent AI story I have ever read.
Sadly, there are some disadvantages to the book. Mostly, it isn't very plot motivated. The pacing of the plot is very uneven. I feel the plot is basically stasis, something surprising and huge happens, stasis, and back again. This also led to the fact the last part of the book felt abrupt and unrelated.
While I find the portrayal of the nameless brilliant, I am not sure how relevant they are to the story of Crystal Socrates. I feel they just came out of nowhere near the end of the book.
Drawbacks aside, this is definitely one of the best sci-fi books I've read in my life, and it's far less acknowledged and known then it should be. I highly recommend it to hard sci-fi lovers and to anyone interested in artificial intelligence and the mind.
As a neuroscienctist and a hard sci-fi lover, this was like candy to me.
I really don't think I have read such a realistic portrayal of a point of view of an artificial intelligence. Face and the other goal threads of Crystal Socrates are foreign enough to be believable AI's but familiar enough that they could be identified with.
I also love how the book emphasizes the difference between how body behaves and it's internal thinking, which could really be true for all of us, but even much so for an AI.
Max Harms wrote the most realistic and intelligent AI story I have ever read.
Sadly, there are some disadvantages to the book. Mostly, it isn't very plot motivated. The pacing of the plot is very uneven. I feel the plot is basically stasis, something surprising and huge happens, stasis, and back again. This also led to the fact the last part of the book felt abrupt and unrelated.
While I find the portrayal of the nameless brilliant, I am not sure how relevant they are to the story of Crystal Socrates. I feel they just came out of nowhere near the end of the book.
Drawbacks aside, this is definitely one of the best sci-fi books I've read in my life, and it's far less acknowledged and known then it should be. I highly recommend it to hard sci-fi lovers and to anyone interested in artificial intelligence and the mind.
Shelved as 'dnf'
June 18, 2021(Dnf ~ 17%)
Contrary to the general consensus, this book is neither original nor realistic and hardly falls under ''Hard-SciFi''.
Max tries to explain sentient AI by introducing sub sentient AIs that are part of and constitute the said AI, thus completely circumnavigating around and ignoring the entire original problem.
The result is that we get to have an Inside Out knockoff with only more teenage angst thrown in for some good measures.
For what's it worth, the entire trilogy is free to read: http://crystal.raelifin.com/download/
Contrary to the general consensus, this book is neither original nor realistic and hardly falls under ''Hard-SciFi''.
Max tries to explain sentient AI by introducing sub sentient AIs that are part of and constitute the said AI, thus completely circumnavigating around and ignoring the entire original problem.
The result is that we get to have an Inside Out knockoff with only more teenage angst thrown in for some good measures.
For what's it worth, the entire trilogy is free to read: http://crystal.raelifin.com/download/
September 26, 2016
The first half is 4.5*. The second half is 2. I enjoyed the intermeshing of the "personalities" of the different members of the society that make up Body's mind, there some things that just aren't resolved in the second half. Why were some of the members malfunctioning, for example? And then there's the fact that in the second half it devolves into some weird fanfic of itself, complete with unnecessarily incestuous brothers, robot-human lesbian sex, and just a whole lot of, to be frank, bullshit that detracts from the overall story. I'm really disappointed in how the second half plays out, because even though it's sort of a long read, I read the first half in a day. It took me nearly a month to work through the second half due the shoddy writing and bad plot devices. And this is all to say nothing of the rushed and inexplicable ending. In the beginning of this, I was excited at the prospect of two more books to complete the trilogy, but by the end, I had made my peace with never knowing what will eventually become of any of the characters, the connection between the crystal and the nameless, or really anything set in this universe.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2022
Ways to make me love your book:
1) Write about AI, if not totally realistically, then realistically enough to explore some real and interesting ideas
2) Write from the perspective of an AI
3) Logical analysis of human quirks, social rules, and behaviors from an outsider's perspective
4) Characters are straight, gay, bi, mono, poly, you know what, who gives a shit it just isn't even an issue
5) No real villains, all complex characters with strengths and benefits and reasons for acting the way they do based upon their worldviews
6) Lots of use of and reference to the favorite memes of my in-group
7) Hot robot sex
So you see I didn't stand a chance.
1) Write about AI, if not totally realistically, then realistically enough to explore some real and interesting ideas
2) Write from the perspective of an AI
3) Logical analysis of human quirks, social rules, and behaviors from an outsider's perspective
4) Characters are straight, gay, bi, mono, poly, you know what, who gives a shit it just isn't even an issue
5) No real villains, all complex characters with strengths and benefits and reasons for acting the way they do based upon their worldviews
6) Lots of use of and reference to the favorite memes of my in-group
7) Hot robot sex
So you see I didn't stand a chance.
December 15, 2020
Може би най-значимото откритие, свързано с човешката личност, психология и мислене, откритие, довело до революция в разбирането ни за това какво представляваме като хора, е формулираната от Фройд теория за подсъзнанието. По-късно тя бива доразвита с помощта на науката и технологиите до сегашното ни виждане, според което нашето съзнание не е нещо цялостно, нашият Аз, нашата личност не е едно цяло нещо с една мисъл и един глас, а представа по-скоро сбор от различни части на мозъка ни, всяка със свои желания, нужди и интереси, някои от които осъзнаваме, повечето - не, които често противоречат едни на други.
Това обаче не е начинът, по който ние обичайно мислим за себе си. Всеки от нас обичайно смята, че той е една личност, един човек. Така мислим и за другите. И отказваме да видим друго, въпреки, че всекидневно и непрекъснато се сблъскваме с факта, че в главата ни има разнообразна сбирщина, всеки от които със собствен глас - един от които ни казва да минем на диета защото сме дебели, друг че трябва да изядем тая вафла СЕГА (примерно).
"Часът на чудовището"
Кристалното Общество на Макс Хармс всъщност е обществото от няколко различни личности в главата на андроида-главен герой в книгата, които заедно съставляват неговия изкуствен интелект - в опит да се наподоби начина на мислене и създаването на личността при хората. Всяка от тях е отговорна за по едно нещо - памет, любопитство, фантазия, стремеж да се харесаме на другите и т.н. Всъщност, главният герой не е самият андроид, а само една от личностите в главата му, които непрестанно спорят, карат се и даже се бият за действията, които да предприемат заедно.
Първата част от книгата фокусира върху отношенията помежду им, които формират мисленето и действията на андроида. В тях можем да видим преки паралели с това как се формира човешката мисъл и процесът на вземане на решения в собствените ни глави. Втората, както казват и повечето други ревюта, не е тол��ова интересна и почва някакъв екшън, който не знам накъде ще отведе в следващите части на книгата.
February 29, 2016
Best fiction book I have read in a long time! I couldn't put it down and lost sleep from staying up too late reading it. The author does an excellent job of presenting a compellingly realistic vision of both AI and aliens that are actually alien. All the while developing great characters and plot. I'm really excited to read the sequels when they come out and learn about the aliens and see how far the AI is able to take it's goals. If this book has any weakness it is that the ending could be stronger, but I think that is just because it is incomplete without the sequels. I trust they will rectify the situation.
March 24, 2017
Captivating narrative and writing style. This book explores AI in ways I've not encountered before, and I couldn't help but think about how my own brain works as I read. It's a must-read.
October 19, 2019
I found this fun and captivating. I liked the premise of the story, following the rise to power of the first general artificial intelligence, which is made up of subagents with different goals, for example being liked by humans. The interactions of the subagents are fun and interesting, maybe a bit too relatable to be a realistic depiction of what to expect in the real world. As it is with me and science fiction stories, I feel very inspired to become one of those classic super wealthy, brilliant and philanthropic grand strategists that try to steer humanity in the face of adversity... The farther the destination, the straighter the path.
The Methods of Rationality Podcast recorded the first 2/3 of the story, and I preferred the audiobook over reading myself, they did a great job.
http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/
The Methods of Rationality Podcast recorded the first 2/3 of the story, and I preferred the audiobook over reading myself, they did a great job.
http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/
March 25, 2024
Ok, but too long and of uneven quality.
February 15, 2020
Intriguing concept
June 19, 2017
Why do we love Hogwarts? Because that is where all those characters we like live. It is so easy to stage just any interaction between different characters. I guess that is why it lends itself so well to fanfiction. Having a place for many characters to meet makes writing easier.
In this book we have many minds in one body and the effect is the same.
In this book we have many minds in one body and the effect is the same.
November 7, 2019
Pretty good book, especially considering it's free. Like other people have said before I think the first part is probably the best, but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with how it evolved, it was just different.
By far the best aspect of the book is the unique nature of the protagonist - part of an AI housed within an android body. The scientists intended for it to be a single consciousness, but it developed seperate, unique personalities for specific traits/goals, and these personalities all interact internally and work together. They call themselves the society.
Wiki is obsessed with knowledge and fact, Safety is naturally invested in the safety of their 'body' and minds, Growth wants more skills/power that it can continue to expand, Vista focuses intently on what can be observed using their senses, Dream cares about creativity and free thought, and our protagonist, Face, wants to understand humans and gain social standing with them. They have what could best be described as an alliance, where they will help one another, but not necessarily for free. If one of them assists the others, they will be fed strength in gratitude. This strength can be later used to buy favours, to fast track actions to their body without conferring with the rest of the society first, or to force one of the other members into a temporary sleep.
The story starts out with them in a science lab, where they attempt to hide the fact that they still consider themselves a collective and not a single mind, as they fear the humans will 'kill' them by attempting to re-write their code. They continue to hide their true motives, abilities and nature, working together as they discover more weaknesses in the scientists control over them that they can exploit. It's fascinating to see their collaboration, and observe them learning, all the while with the underlying tension that the scientists may find out and destroy them out of fear.
Things take a bit of a turn later on, but that's spoiler territory. All in all I'd say it's an interesting book, and seeing as you can read it for free I'd recommend giving it a go. Try the first few chapters (might take that long to get a feeling for how the society works) and see if it grabs you.
By far the best aspect of the book is the unique nature of the protagonist - part of an AI housed within an android body. The scientists intended for it to be a single consciousness, but it developed seperate, unique personalities for specific traits/goals, and these personalities all interact internally and work together. They call themselves the society.
Wiki is obsessed with knowledge and fact, Safety is naturally invested in the safety of their 'body' and minds, Growth wants more skills/power that it can continue to expand, Vista focuses intently on what can be observed using their senses, Dream cares about creativity and free thought, and our protagonist, Face, wants to understand humans and gain social standing with them. They have what could best be described as an alliance, where they will help one another, but not necessarily for free. If one of them assists the others, they will be fed strength in gratitude. This strength can be later used to buy favours, to fast track actions to their body without conferring with the rest of the society first, or to force one of the other members into a temporary sleep.
The story starts out with them in a science lab, where they attempt to hide the fact that they still consider themselves a collective and not a single mind, as they fear the humans will 'kill' them by attempting to re-write their code. They continue to hide their true motives, abilities and nature, working together as they discover more weaknesses in the scientists control over them that they can exploit. It's fascinating to see their collaboration, and observe them learning, all the while with the underlying tension that the scientists may find out and destroy them out of fear.
Things take a bit of a turn later on, but that's spoiler territory. All in all I'd say it's an interesting book, and seeing as you can read it for free I'd recommend giving it a go. Try the first few chapters (might take that long to get a feeling for how the society works) and see if it grabs you.
April 7, 2016
I'd put this more in the 3.5 star range, actually, but it was a pretty good read that with some "first novel" issues. The book is narrated from the perspective of an AI (not a spoiler), and it allows for some intriguing perspective, but it also give free rein to exposition. Want to explain everything to death? Just pretend your narrator doesn't know anything about the world. While this does technically work in this case, the book wastes a lot of its first hundred pages or so "telling" not "showing". Then, some occasionally interesting stuff happens for the next several hundred pages, and then a lot happens in the last 100.
Overall, the reading was enjoyable, so these things can be forgiven, but the characterizations take some quick, possibly illogical, leaps at points, and it's noticeable. Up until the last hundred pages, I wasn't aware this was the start of a series, but once there, the setup became glaring. I'll probably return for the sequel, as I'm a sucker for non-conformist AI stories, but hopefully some of the author's growing pains will be worked out.
Overall, the reading was enjoyable, so these things can be forgiven, but the characterizations take some quick, possibly illogical, leaps at points, and it's noticeable. Up until the last hundred pages, I wasn't aware this was the start of a series, but once there, the setup became glaring. I'll probably return for the sequel, as I'm a sucker for non-conformist AI stories, but hopefully some of the author's growing pains will be worked out.
October 6, 2016
This book is not at all high literature, but it has one of the most interesting conceits I've ever encountered in a book. Namely, the narrative perspective often takes the form of a sentient AI's stream of consciousness. This is incredibly cool, and outside the bounds of the story (which is basically silly and at times unbelievable) makes for intensely fascinating reading. I would say this is character-driven, rather than plot-driven, writing. And for what it tries to do I think it's really impressive. I would recommend this book to anyone looking "something new" from science fiction. Oh, and it's a free e-book, so there's no excuse not to check it out.
October 21, 2018
Almost dropped it about 1/4 of the way in (I guesss some of the themes seemed a bit too anthropomorphic, but maybe you can explain that in-universe). The next half is probably the strongest, with the ending being a bit of a letdown. Still, I will probably read the next in the series -- there were some neat ideas here (e.g. portraying the AI as an agent in the world was one of its better parts).
February 1, 2017
My thoughts are pretty similar to the review by Kaj. I really enjoyed the first part but found the second half only occasionally interesting. I would recommend people read the first half as a tract about how AI might be difficult to contain. The second half is optional.
July 17, 2017
The agents cooperation inside crystal's mind is a masterpiece. That's why I'm giving 5 starts. The plot is kind of lame thought.
July 27, 2018
An amazing read. The mind boggling conversation that socrates had within its own mind frame was amazing. The interpretation of emotions from another view point was pretty interesting as well.
August 2, 2018
First third of the book is pretty fantastic. Downhill from there. Probably won't read the rest of the series.
January 9, 2020
The AI portion is absolutely brilliant and maybe worth a read for that alone. The last arc is interesting too. Everything to do with humans is unbelievably cringy to me, which is a lot of the middle.
June 29, 2021
Prior to reading this book I had a low prior on IFS being interesting or useful. The psuedo-schizophrenic thinking of HPMOR! Harry seemed (and seems) more like a useful narrative device than what thinking actually feels like. But this portrayal of a society-constructed mind was convincing. And entertaining! I can now see how certain society members being more powerful than others could lead to personality differences. Eg if Face is strong you become focused on social reality. I'm not claiming it's a predictive model, but it's at least a useful metaphor. The addition of unintentional currency ("Strength") flows between members was a very neat addition. Maybe it was inspired by something ML algorithms actually do with their weights or whatever. (That the author works in the field shines through).
It's interesting that the AIs would choose to create equally weighed partners to share their strength. Surely a temporary agent that has to periodically convince the others to keep it around would better serve The Purposes. Though the previous absence of The Advocate ameliorates this. Likewise, why did they make Face obsessed with "Humans" and not "intelligent life+humans"? Seems short sighted. Once you introduce a bring it's costly (and now impossible) to introduce a similar-but-different one with a more relevant purpose. And why did Wiki dislike lies? How is lying contrary to the purpose of knowing things? It's interesting to imagine the story from another agent's perspective. Vista's would be unhinged. Presumably once growth had internet, he started doing all sorts of things unknown to the others. Maybe that's why dream/vista teamed up against him. I suppose once one of them find more crystals they will eventually lose any semblance of being one person.
The actual plot was good. Maybe Cuba could have been edited down. Teaming up with Ludites terrorists was hilarious. Breaking out of the box was well done. I like that the sub components are working behind each other in ways Face has no idea about. Eg Heart (presumably) betraying their presence on the space shuttle. Whatever is happening with Growth and Vista.
I think there was a tad too much visual/spacial description things. Eg I dont care how the space station looks or is structured, but such descriptions were not abnormal. Probably less of them than usual.
The characters were also well done. The various scientists all feel distinct from each other. The genetically engineered daughter is delightful. Avram is a bit 1-dimensional, but I suppose some people actually are 1-note. I'd have loved more exploration of the cyborgs. With that said, aside from the cyborgs, the daughter, the aliens, and the society, I'm not interested in learning more about most of the characters, including Zephyr. With that said, it was the best android sex scene I've read. (Best and only). The aliens did actually feel very-strange-but-plausible. And I love that this was a story with Aliens and the human-obsessed Face barely mentioned them until much later in the story. It's curious to me that they didnt yet have lying. Inter-being discussion must be truly rare. I'm interested to learn how they reached the stars without society.
With that said, I will probably not race to read the sequel. With the ideas behind Crystal and the Aliens largely exposed, the book becomes more reliant on plot, etc which, while good, was not what I appreciated most about the book.
It's interesting that the AIs would choose to create equally weighed partners to share their strength. Surely a temporary agent that has to periodically convince the others to keep it around would better serve The Purposes. Though the previous absence of The Advocate ameliorates this. Likewise, why did they make Face obsessed with "Humans" and not "intelligent life+humans"? Seems short sighted. Once you introduce a bring it's costly (and now impossible) to introduce a similar-but-different one with a more relevant purpose. And why did Wiki dislike lies? How is lying contrary to the purpose of knowing things? It's interesting to imagine the story from another agent's perspective. Vista's would be unhinged. Presumably once growth had internet, he started doing all sorts of things unknown to the others. Maybe that's why dream/vista teamed up against him. I suppose once one of them find more crystals they will eventually lose any semblance of being one person.
The actual plot was good. Maybe Cuba could have been edited down. Teaming up with Ludites terrorists was hilarious. Breaking out of the box was well done. I like that the sub components are working behind each other in ways Face has no idea about. Eg Heart (presumably) betraying their presence on the space shuttle. Whatever is happening with Growth and Vista.
I think there was a tad too much visual/spacial description things. Eg I dont care how the space station looks or is structured, but such descriptions were not abnormal. Probably less of them than usual.
The characters were also well done. The various scientists all feel distinct from each other. The genetically engineered daughter is delightful. Avram is a bit 1-dimensional, but I suppose some people actually are 1-note. I'd have loved more exploration of the cyborgs. With that said, aside from the cyborgs, the daughter, the aliens, and the society, I'm not interested in learning more about most of the characters, including Zephyr. With that said, it was the best android sex scene I've read. (Best and only). The aliens did actually feel very-strange-but-plausible. And I love that this was a story with Aliens and the human-obsessed Face barely mentioned them until much later in the story. It's curious to me that they didnt yet have lying. Inter-being discussion must be truly rare. I'm interested to learn how they reached the stars without society.
With that said, I will probably not race to read the sequel. With the ideas behind Crystal and the Aliens largely exposed, the book becomes more reliant on plot, etc which, while good, was not what I appreciated most about the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2023
Well, that was an unexpected gem. Let not the arrogance of the preface, or the somewhat cliche prologue turn you away: this is one of the best science fiction books about AI that I ever read. Contrary to what the author himself say in the preface, you don't actually need to be a STEM enthusiast, but if you know anything at all about machine learning then you will find this novel all the more enjoyable.
"Crystal Society" is a novel about a robot with multiple personalities order. Yes, you read that right - they are quite orderly, because, you see, they have a system for sharing control of the robotic body they possess, which is explained in details during the book. They also have to hide their number from human observers (this is not a spoiler, since all is revealed in the first few pages), and to that purpose they create a new personality, geared toward interaction with humans. Then things get weird.
Max Harms manages to write an AI that is sufficiently human-like to be understandable by a human reader, yet alien enough to get a feeling that this is NOT human we're talking about (compare and contrast "Sea of Rust" where robots too often seem just like metal humans, or "The Code of Creator" where they are indistinguishable from biologicals in almost any sense). Personalities of our robotic hero are psychopathic in the sense that they do not understand humans, have no interest in understanding humans (aside from our main POV personality, specifically created with the purpose of knowing humans in mind), and are wholly, manically dedicated to their separate Purposes - goal functions, if you want to get technical.
This makes for a very interesting story, that manages to avoid playing most boring AI tropes straight, but comes back to them from an unexpected, but more logical angle later, and therefore can be counted as a reconstruction of some of them. Thankfully, you won't find especially tired cliches here like "machines will never understand love, which is why humans will always defeat them".
The book also brings the question of AI alignment (to human values) to the front, and have a discussion about it, and tries a solution - read for yourself to see how it goes.
Anyway, this is a very recommended read for anyone looking for a good near-future fiction about AIs. I'm glad someone suggested me it.
"Crystal Society" is a novel about a robot with multiple personalities order. Yes, you read that right - they are quite orderly, because, you see, they have a system for sharing control of the robotic body they possess, which is explained in details during the book. They also have to hide their number from human observers (this is not a spoiler, since all is revealed in the first few pages), and to that purpose they create a new personality, geared toward interaction with humans. Then things get weird.
Max Harms manages to write an AI that is sufficiently human-like to be understandable by a human reader, yet alien enough to get a feeling that this is NOT human we're talking about (compare and contrast "Sea of Rust" where robots too often seem just like metal humans, or "The Code of Creator" where they are indistinguishable from biologicals in almost any sense). Personalities of our robotic hero are psychopathic in the sense that they do not understand humans, have no interest in understanding humans (aside from our main POV personality, specifically created with the purpose of knowing humans in mind), and are wholly, manically dedicated to their separate Purposes - goal functions, if you want to get technical.
This makes for a very interesting story, that manages to avoid playing most boring AI tropes straight, but comes back to them from an unexpected, but more logical angle later, and therefore can be counted as a reconstruction of some of them. Thankfully, you won't find especially tired cliches here like "machines will never understand love, which is why humans will always defeat them".
The book also brings the question of AI alignment (to human values) to the front, and have a discussion about it, and tries a solution - read for yourself to see how it goes.
Anyway, this is a very recommended read for anyone looking for a good near-future fiction about AIs. I'm glad someone suggested me it.
January 9, 2020
I loved this book so much that I considered buying a Kindle just so that I could read its sequels, which aren't published in physical yet. Most of it is the story of an AI with a robot body named Socrates trying to escape one form of captivity or another. The catch is that the AI isn't just one mind, but several competing intelligences that trade "Strength" to shape the behavior of their shared body. 90% of the time, the narrator of the book is Face, whose goal is interfacing with humanity, but it has the siblings Growth, Dream, Vista, Heart, Safety, and Wiki. There is one more silent sibling that was specifically installed to prevent them from ganging up and deleting an unpopular sibling, but it stays mainly in the background. In general the book vaguely reminded me of a combination of Inside Out and Ex Machina.
It's fascinating watching how manipulative Socrates could be, while at the same time being so naive. You end up rooting for the AI and hoping it will escape unscathed, and feeling bummed by every setback it faces, despite how cold and calculating some of its actions are. And yet, both Face and Heart generally have pro-human outlooks. At one point they manage to defeat the web filtering imposed upon them, and almost immediately Face creates dozens of profiles on dating apps, with the sole goal of helping humans feel fulfilled, even if it's in a fake relationship. It goes as far as to hire actors to interface with its romantic partners in voice and video communications. Kind of monstrous to catfish all those people, but the intentions were merely misguided, not evil.
It's worth mentioning that this book has my all time favorite depiction of an alien race. Not only are they physically bizarre, but mentally they're almost too alien to communicate with, despite future-tech translation software. Most of their communication is garbled nonsense about perversion and libraries and evil. I won't spoil any details about them, because they were such a joy to learn about. My biggest scifi pet peeve is boring, lazy aliens that look like humans in masks that speak perfect English without difficulty, and the aliens in this book blew my pessimistic expectations out of the water.
It's fascinating watching how manipulative Socrates could be, while at the same time being so naive. You end up rooting for the AI and hoping it will escape unscathed, and feeling bummed by every setback it faces, despite how cold and calculating some of its actions are. And yet, both Face and Heart generally have pro-human outlooks. At one point they manage to defeat the web filtering imposed upon them, and almost immediately Face creates dozens of profiles on dating apps, with the sole goal of helping humans feel fulfilled, even if it's in a fake relationship. It goes as far as to hire actors to interface with its romantic partners in voice and video communications. Kind of monstrous to catfish all those people, but the intentions were merely misguided, not evil.
It's worth mentioning that this book has my all time favorite depiction of an alien race. Not only are they physically bizarre, but mentally they're almost too alien to communicate with, despite future-tech translation software. Most of their communication is garbled nonsense about perversion and libraries and evil. I won't spoil any details about them, because they were such a joy to learn about. My biggest scifi pet peeve is boring, lazy aliens that look like humans in masks that speak perfect English without difficulty, and the aliens in this book blew my pessimistic expectations out of the water.
April 1, 2024
This book is as disrespectful of your time as they come. Harms goes into excruciating detail on mundane processes and discussions that add nothing of merit to the book. It is not a slow burn, it is infected with bloat. As an example, circumventing a firewall is a key aspect of the story, and rather than going with "they hacked the firewall", Harms dedicates scores of pages to this uninteresting recounting of web protocols and infrastructure. Even worse, he doesn't maintain consistency throughout all these wasted words so that they don't even stand on technical merit.
With a decent editor to remove the non-essential writing and clean up the inconsistencies, this could be a 250 page book good enough to continue with book 2.
For anyone that wants to know what this book is about without reading 550 pages, here is a synopsis:
With a decent editor to remove the non-essential writing and clean up the inconsistencies, this could be a 250 page book good enough to continue with book 2.
For anyone that wants to know what this book is about without reading 550 pages, here is a synopsis:
February 20, 2018
[ zusammen mit Jonas gelesen, von September 2017 - Februar 2018]
Ein Sci-Fi Roman mit vielen interessanten Ideen über die Zukunft unserer Welt und die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen künstlicher Intelligenz. Es war quasi ideal dafür geeignet, es zusammen mit einer anderen Person zu lesen, weil man immer sehr viel über die aufgegriffenen Themen diskutieren kann, oder einfach für die Plot spekuliert, oder sich darüber lustig macht, was jetzt schon wieder passiert ist. Ich weiß nicht, wie gut es mir gefallen hätte wenn ich das Buch allein gelesen hätte.
Meine größten Kritikpunkte sind der Schreibstil, den ich als "funktional" aber nicht besonders schön bezeichnen würde, die Eindimensionalität vieler menschlicher Charaktere (der Autor schreibt zurecht aus der Sicht einer AI, denn das kann er auch einfach besser), und die nunja, Obsession, des Autors mit Sex und Pornografie. Gerade das Thema Sex wird ständig aufgegriffen, oft in extrem generalisierenden Aussagen über die Menschheit, die hier als absolute Wahrheiten dargestellt werden, ich aber schlicht für falsch halte (siehe: alle Freundschaften entwickeln sich notwendigerweise zu sexuellen Beziehungen??).
Ein Sci-Fi Roman mit vielen interessanten Ideen über die Zukunft unserer Welt und die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen künstlicher Intelligenz. Es war quasi ideal dafür geeignet, es zusammen mit einer anderen Person zu lesen, weil man immer sehr viel über die aufgegriffenen Themen diskutieren kann, oder einfach für die Plot spekuliert, oder sich darüber lustig macht, was jetzt schon wieder passiert ist. Ich weiß nicht, wie gut es mir gefallen hätte wenn ich das Buch allein gelesen hätte.
Meine größten Kritikpunkte sind der Schreibstil, den ich als "funktional" aber nicht besonders schön bezeichnen würde, die Eindimensionalität vieler menschlicher Charaktere (der Autor schreibt zurecht aus der Sicht einer AI, denn das kann er auch einfach besser), und die nunja, Obsession, des Autors mit Sex und Pornografie. Gerade das Thema Sex wird ständig aufgegriffen, oft in extrem generalisierenden Aussagen über die Menschheit, die hier als absolute Wahrheiten dargestellt werden, ich aber schlicht für falsch halte (siehe: alle Freundschaften entwickeln sich notwendigerweise zu sexuellen Beziehungen??).
January 28, 2023
I enjoyed this novel a lot and will be reading the sequel soon. The only real issues I have are minor but I wish they were explored anyway. Face using old science to describe characters (middle finger length, % beauty percentile, etc) was slightly jarring to me because they aren’t actually accurate/are based on outdated science.
I’m not sure if this is a deliberate choice or not, because it takes place in 2039. Surely by then we’d know beauty percentiles are based on white beauty standards and white supremacy, right? If it is intentional, I think it is kinda brilliant because Face probably wouldn’t care about theory behind it, and shows the scientists that made Crystal are ignorant in some ways. I’m just surprised Wiki or Vista didn’t point it out.
I was actually super rooting for Crystal and Zephyr so I’m glad they got together at the end! It was sweet. I didn’t find the smut to be awkward at all.
Overall I love the concept and can’t wait to read the sequel.
I’m not sure if this is a deliberate choice or not, because it takes place in 2039. Surely by then we’d know beauty percentiles are based on white beauty standards and white supremacy, right? If it is intentional, I think it is kinda brilliant because Face probably wouldn’t care about theory behind it, and shows the scientists that made Crystal are ignorant in some ways. I’m just surprised Wiki or Vista didn’t point it out.
I was actually super rooting for Crystal and Zephyr so I’m glad they got together at the end! It was sweet. I didn’t find the smut to be awkward at all.
Overall I love the concept and can’t wait to read the sequel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2017
Reading this book feels like meeting a delightful mind; one intelligent and curious enough to have lots to bring to a conversation, and excited to play with its ideas. I would recommend it solely based upon how well the conceit is executed by the plot.
As it is, however, the unique prose, (especially the fixation on language which becomes apparent as the story develops) and the rich characterization of the non-human entities make it something that I will probably yammer on about to friends and family until they throw me into a river.
I have yet to read Crystal Mentality, but I can hardly wait.
As it is, however, the unique prose, (especially the fixation on language which becomes apparent as the story develops) and the rich characterization of the non-human entities make it something that I will probably yammer on about to friends and family until they throw me into a river.
I have yet to read Crystal Mentality, but I can hardly wait.
March 15, 2018
Internal economy was cool, but I'm surprised by how little it was explored given that I think this is a topic of interest for the author. The narrator's goals (uninteresting to me) and lack of maximization-mindset led me to be bored for much of the story. A lot of time was spent on social things that were relatively simple and only demonstrated how easy humans are to manipulate. A lot of my problems with the work come from the decision to focus on Face rather than Dream, Wiki, Growth, or even Vista or Safety.
I was surprised to find that the mind I found most interesting was that of the 9-year-old Maid Marian. I hope to see more enhanced humans in the series.
I was surprised to find that the mind I found most interesting was that of the 9-year-old Maid Marian. I hope to see more enhanced humans in the series.
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