Computer One

Warwick Collins

ISBN 10: 187406119X / ISBN 13: 9781874061199

Published by No Exit Press, 1994

About this Item

Spine creased and some marking to the page edges. Shipped from the UK in recyclable card packaging.

Seller Inventory # cb88-526-0647

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Computer One
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 187406119X
• ISBN 13: 9781874061199
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Books > Fiction > Science Fiction & Fantasy

About this title

Synopsis

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

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.