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For anyone who doesn't follow I assume your reference to the "Jackpot" is a reference to the William Gibson novel "The peripheral" and its sequel where a vague,

For anyone who doesn't follow I assume your reference to the "Jackpot" is a reference to the William Gibson novel "The peripheral" and its sequel where a vague, not disclosed to the reader series of disasters wipes out most of Earth's population in the 21st century. In the novels human society seems to have gotten too complex to be run by humans without such disasters. The only solution may be to create benevolent A.I. to run things for us.

NoGravitas 5y ago
Mmmh, no, the Jackpot (in the Peripheral) was mostly climate-related, not due to excessive social complexity. The series of disasters is left vague because no one disaster by itself was very important. AI isn't very important to the story, either; the post-Jackpot society is run by kleptocrats.
- anotherman554 5y ago
  I'm pretty confident they never indicate The Jackpot is mostly climate related in The Peripheral. It's a number of vague things like disease and climate change and war-- not any single thing. Also there's a review of the second book in the series, Agency, which convincingly argues the theme of the latter book is, given increasing human social complexity, we need an A.I. to tell us what to do. I think it was this review that I read which argues it: https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-a-superintelligent-ai-on-wiliam-gibsons-agency/ https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-i-learned-to-sto... "What we lack in the present moment is what Fredric Jameson called a cognitive map of the world. Such a map would be a guide to our world’s vast, ever-increasing complexity, so that reality might again be grasped and understood. This is what Eunice provides. She supplements human consciousness with the ability to understand our immense world and thus act intelligently within it. Finally, here is someone who knows what she’s doing. In this sense, superintelligent AI is a huge relief." Also, per the second book kleptocrats aren't really running things, the A.I. enhanced "post human" character Lowbeer is the only one keeping things stable. She can expand her lifespan through technology for a while but not indefinitely. When she's gone one day things are bound to get ugly. Even in the first book The Peripheral it's pretty clear the Kleptocrats are using predictive A.I. to prevent any threats to their power.

NoGravitas 5y ago

Mmmh, no, the Jackpot (in the Peripheral) was mostly climate-related, not due to excessive social complexity. The series of disasters is left vague because no one disaster by itself was very important. AI isn't very important to the story, either; the post-Jackpot society is run by kleptocrats.

anotherman554 5y ago
I'm pretty confident they never indicate The Jackpot is mostly climate related in The Peripheral. It's a number of vague things like disease and climate change and war-- not any single thing. Also there's a review of the second book in the series, Agency, which convincingly argues the theme of the latter book is, given increasing human social complexity, we need an A.I. to tell us what to do. I think it was this review that I read which argues it: https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-a-superintelligent-ai-on-wiliam-gibsons-agency/ https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-i-learned-to-sto... "What we lack in the present moment is what Fredric Jameson called a cognitive map of the world. Such a map would be a guide to our world’s vast, ever-increasing complexity, so that reality might again be grasped and understood. This is what Eunice provides. She supplements human consciousness with the ability to understand our immense world and thus act intelligently within it. Finally, here is someone who knows what she’s doing. In this sense, superintelligent AI is a huge relief." Also, per the second book kleptocrats aren't really running things, the A.I. enhanced "post human" character Lowbeer is the only one keeping things stable. She can expand her lifespan through technology for a while but not indefinitely. When she's gone one day things are bound to get ugly. Even in the first book The Peripheral it's pretty clear the Kleptocrats are using predictive A.I. to prevent any threats to their power.