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A review by thatgirlinblack
The Game of Lives by James Dashner
4.0
The world-real and virtual-is a mess. Besides Kaine's body-stealing efforts, the VNs is not the trustworthy organization is was through. Rescued from prison by a group of Tangents in human bodies, including Michael's nanny Helga, the trio of tech-savvy teens are understandably full of questions.
The good Tangents from the VirtNet are here to stop Kaine's world-domination-by-computer-programs plan, but they've paid a high price to do so: inserting themselves into human bodies for their time in the real world. The reassuring discovery is made that the body-stealing Kaine is doing-what Helga and the friendly Tangents have copied-has a reverse button, that it's possible to remove the Tangent intelligence back into the VirtNet, and replace the mind originally in the body. But now it's not just Kaine that they're up against. Who's calling the shots? Agent Weber? The VNS? Someone else?
Whoever is calling the shots, they're making the world go crazy. First regular citizens in isolated incidents, and now influential leaders of business and government, are regularly acting strangely or even violently, driven by their replaced minds. Devastated by a loss they may never recover from, Michael and his friends press on to discover the truth, and stop whoever is behind this madness.
Swimming in and molding visual manifestations of the strings of letters and numbers that is the code that makes up everything in the virtual worlds. Fleeing and fighting, both in the Wake and in the Sleep, the agents of the real bad guys and the AI bad guys. A small group of friends working behind the scenes to save the world that isn't aware of a fraction of what's going on. Yeah, it's explosive.
And as usual, Dashner inserts philosophical conversions into the story. What does it mean to be human? How can you know if the world you're in is real? (For that last one, we might have to wait till virtual reality gets a bit more advanced ;-) )
But the question of humanity is a weighty one. Obviously, though we're not to the point described in this series, Artificial Intelligence is making great strides. Both Michael and Kaine are Tangents, "strings of code" that became self-aware and thus gained humanity. It's mentioned in the book that the human brain is just a complex computer, but that's only partially true. Only in the last few decades has science come up with computers, artificial intelligence, robots, and presenting human characteristics though inanimate objects. But how humanly smart some modern robots are--some modern cars are, even--is certainly unnerving. Can computers become human?
For all the achievements and technology in this series, one thing that stands out is that computers DON'T have all the answers. Michael, Bryson, Sarah, and their friends are constantly Lifting out of the VirtNet in order to hide or fight in the real world, both of which can be done more safely and/or efficiently with a real human body. When you're connected to the world-wide Web, it's too easy to be spotted, targeted, pursued, and even destroyed. Plus, Kaine, Helga, the VNS - they're all terrific at this mind sweeping or swapping thing, but they can't make a body. No one can--no human, no computer. That's something only God can do. And no matter how good he's got it in the virtual world, humanity is something Kaine craves. Even in defeat, he pleads to be allowed to keep the last version of his intelligence in a human body. To be a person. That's something unique, something that we don't really appreciate sometimes. God designed our bodies, made us in His image, and gave us minds better than the most sophisticated computer. He truly is the Master Designer.
The good Tangents from the VirtNet are here to stop Kaine's world-domination-by-computer-programs plan, but they've paid a high price to do so: inserting themselves into human bodies for their time in the real world. The reassuring discovery is made that the body-stealing Kaine is doing-what Helga and the friendly Tangents have copied-has a reverse button, that it's possible to remove the Tangent intelligence back into the VirtNet, and replace the mind originally in the body. But now it's not just Kaine that they're up against. Who's calling the shots? Agent Weber? The VNS? Someone else?
Whoever is calling the shots, they're making the world go crazy. First regular citizens in isolated incidents, and now influential leaders of business and government, are regularly acting strangely or even violently, driven by their replaced minds. Devastated by a loss they may never recover from, Michael and his friends press on to discover the truth, and stop whoever is behind this madness.
Swimming in and molding visual manifestations of the strings of letters and numbers that is the code that makes up everything in the virtual worlds. Fleeing and fighting, both in the Wake and in the Sleep, the agents of the real bad guys and the AI bad guys. A small group of friends working behind the scenes to save the world that isn't aware of a fraction of what's going on. Yeah, it's explosive.
And as usual, Dashner inserts philosophical conversions into the story. What does it mean to be human? How can you know if the world you're in is real? (For that last one, we might have to wait till virtual reality gets a bit more advanced ;-) )
But the question of humanity is a weighty one. Obviously, though we're not to the point described in this series, Artificial Intelligence is making great strides. Both Michael and Kaine are Tangents, "strings of code" that became self-aware and thus gained humanity. It's mentioned in the book that the human brain is just a complex computer, but that's only partially true. Only in the last few decades has science come up with computers, artificial intelligence, robots, and presenting human characteristics though inanimate objects. But how humanly smart some modern robots are--some modern cars are, even--is certainly unnerving. Can computers become human?
For all the achievements and technology in this series, one thing that stands out is that computers DON'T have all the answers. Michael, Bryson, Sarah, and their friends are constantly Lifting out of the VirtNet in order to hide or fight in the real world, both of which can be done more safely and/or efficiently with a real human body. When you're connected to the world-wide Web, it's too easy to be spotted, targeted, pursued, and even destroyed. Plus, Kaine, Helga, the VNS - they're all terrific at this mind sweeping or swapping thing, but they can't make a body. No one can--no human, no computer. That's something only God can do. And no matter how good he's got it in the virtual world, humanity is something Kaine craves. Even in defeat, he pleads to be allowed to keep the last version of his intelligence in a human body. To be a person. That's something unique, something that we don't really appreciate sometimes. God designed our bodies, made us in His image, and gave us minds better than the most sophisticated computer. He truly is the Master Designer.