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October 21, 2004
Prey
I finished listening to Prey by Michael Chricton yesterday and it was better than I expected, but not very believable from a scientific standpoint. The basic story is that a tech company designs a genetically engineered nanotech swarm camera that gets a mind of its own and goes on a killing spree. The swarms are dangerous because of a combination of genetic engineering, nonotechnology, and artificial intelligence. Chrictons greatest strength as a writer is that he does his homework and knows which details his readers will usually find the most interesting about the historical period or technological advancement his stories revolve around. This is the case here and he does a good job focusing on the science of evolutionary theory, nanotechnology basics, and artificial intelligence based on animal and group behavior.
His weakness as a writer is his paranoia about new technology and large institutions like corporations. Before you pick up a Chricton novel set in modern times you know the main bad guys will probably be working for a corporation or a government entity. The same is true here with a corporation that works on secret projects for the defense department. His second major flaw is that he is always extremely pessimistic to a point of near hysteria about whatever he is writing about. In this case it is nanotechnology that will destroy mankind. Glenn Reynolds agrees here about the movie version of Prey not being helpful to the cause of nanotechnology or reasoned debate. I personally am fairly neutral on the subject of nanotechnology.
These trends seem to be true for each Chricton book set in modern times that I have read. In Rising Sun it was an evil Japanese corporation and paranoia about how the Japanese would own all of the US by now. In Airframe it was an evil American corporation and paranoia about air flight deregulation and that by now commercial passenger jets would be falling out of the sky on a monthly basis. In Jurassic Park it was evil and misguided corporations and fears about cloning. Chricton has cried wolf too many times for me to take his dire predictions very seriously, but his novels are still fairly entertaining quick reads and you usually learn something.
Posted by Pete at October 21, 2004 09:28 PM
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