WWW: Watch by Robert J. Sawyer
(sequel to WWW: Wake), Ace, $24.95, 368pp, hc, 9780441018185. Science fiction.
In WWW: Wake, we met sixteen-year-old Caitlin Decter, a mathematical genius who had been blind since birth. In that book, she was given a computer implant that allowed her to see the world, while transmitting the data coming through her eye across the internet to Doctor Kuroda in Japan, who developed the technology for her. That data transmission gave the emergent artificial intelligence later to be known as Webmind its first view of the real world. Caitlin, meanwhile, was the first to discover Webmind’s existence, and took on the role of midwife, teacher, and (to some degree) parent for it.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, a chimpanzee-bonobo hybrid named Hobo became the first known ape to paint a representational painting, and found himself at the center of a legal battle to move him away from the place he lives and sterilize him.
Book two of the trilogy, WWW: Watch, picks up moments after the first book ended. Indeed, it feels more like a continuation of the story, rather than a sequel. Unlike some of the most frustrating television (where the only tension is due to a character keeping a secret that no human would keep secret), Caitlin quickly realizes that keeping the secret of Webmind’s existence solely to herself would be a foolish choice, and she tells her parents that Webmind exists. Her parents, like their daughter, are smarter than the average person, and quickly test and accept Webmind as a true intelligence. Then they enlarge the circle of Wedmind’s correspondents, bringing in Dr. Kuroda for his expertise. But as limited as they try to keep the circle knowing of Webmind’s existence, they are not completely successful. This book introduces an adversary: the computer security branch of the US government known as WATCH (Web Activity Threat Containment Headquarters).
The people staffing WATCH aren’t evil; they’re doing a job they feel needs doing. Unfortunately for our unfolding story, one of the directives they’ve received is to do their best to terminate any emergent artificial intelligence on the web, and for very good and logical reasons. Tracing the activity of the web, they quickly twig to Webmind’s existence. And while it’s all well and good to say “you must destroy this”, it’s much harder to actually find a way to do so.
Meanwhile, in addition to learning to see, Caitlin is developing in other, perfectly normal teenage-girl ways. But having been blind since birth, she hasn’t been indoctrinated to society’s views of beauty and ugliness, and thus winds up making choices that seem strange to her friends. Nevertheless, those choices are correct for her, and we see Caitlin developing as both a person and a genius (and a mentor to the supergenius Webmind).
Sawyer is enough of an idealist (or enough of a Heinleinian) that humanity couldn’t possibly be threatened by the intellectual offspring of the super-brainy Decter family, and Webmind indeed does seem to be quickly developing as a benevolent AI. But it’s precisely that threat that provides most of the conflict in the book: the assumed threat that Webmind might pose.
There are other threats, some fleeting, some just ramping up. There’s the ongoing legal battle over Hobo (and his eventual interaction with Webmind, which I’ve been expecting since early in the first book). Caitlin’s celebrity status can only put her in greater danger if her relationship with Webmind becomes known. And the Decters’ position as US citizens living in Canada makes them targets of both countries’ governments when their involvement with Webmind comes to light. Add in boy troubles for Caitlin, father Decters’ autism, a bully who thinks Caitlin is his girl, and the intrigue seems to be bubbling along.
Caitlin and Webmind (and Caitlin and her other friends) have some fascinating, very in-depth discussions on religion, philosophy, and more, but they didn’t ring very true to me as I was reading. They didn’t feel right from a 16-year-old girl. Indeed, if I had written this review two weeks ago, I would have said Caitlin was far too advanced to be who she is. But then I had a visit from my 16-year-old cousin. We spent (among other things) a wonderful day wandering through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, talking about the art, and other things. And I realized Caitlin is entirely possible, because she reminds me quite a bit of my cousin.
As with many trilogies, this middle volume seems to have less of an ending than the first book (or than we expect the third book will). But the story contained within these covers is good and satisfying, so I don’t feel I’ve been left hanging. Sawyer’s books all seem to be very easy, fast reads: he doesn’t let flowery prose get in the way of telling a good story. Rather, he tells it simply and coherently, keeping the reader involved right up to the end. My biggest problem with this book is that I’ll have to wait another year to get the final chapter in this story.
After having been so caught up in the story, it’s only upon later reflection that I’ve started wondering just how soon we’ll have to deal with a real-world Webmind. Like the best science fiction, WWW: Watch may not be predicting the future, but it certainly is presenting potential scenarios that bear much thought and planning before they play out before us.