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Veteran
Posts: 112
Location: Las Vegas, NV | With the recent release of Ancillary Mercy, and the discussion I've had with a few others on another thread about her work, I thought maybe some of us would like to discuss Leckie, her books, and some of the controversies/hype surrounding her/them.
Edited by devilinlaw 2015-11-11 2:01 AM
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Uber User
Posts: 857
Location: The Wilds of Washington | What did you have in mind? One of the things which, I guess, might be controversial, is that her take on privacy issues makes our society look woefully unprepared, quaint really, in light of what's likely to come barreling down the pike at us. One can see hospitals and other med facilities, prisons, armies, all having this sort of connectedness as a standard. Were the whole concept of aloneness becomes foreign to some people or a crime. I think Gibson echoed the theme of pervasive, total, surveillance in his last book. Surveillance so pervasive that one just doesn't even notice it, since as long as you stay within the bounds, then it doesn't care at all. It judges not, until the bounds are reached.
I also like how she echoed Shirows work with a person having multiple bodies, and how, in time those bodies can grow away from each other, and begin to form their own Ghost, i.e., their own agenda. That's one of the basic plot points in GITS 2 and it's almost 20 years old now.
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Regular
Posts: 99
Location: Belgium | gallyangel - 2015-12-07 11:14 AM What did you have in mind? One of the things which, I guess, might be controversial, is that her take on privacy issues makes our society look woefully unprepared, quaint really, in light of what's likely to come barreling down the pike at us. One can see hospitals and other med facilities, prisons, armies, all having this sort of connectedness as a standard. Were the whole concept of aloneness becomes foreign to some people or a crime. I think Gibson echoed the theme of pervasive, total, surveillance in his last book. Surveillance so pervasive that one just doesn't even notice it, since as long as you stay within the bounds, then it doesn't care at all. It judges not, until the bounds are reached. actually this is just a matter of degree. in a way, we have this already atm, with cellphones recording our presence exactly always. the only thing that's really missing is voice recording, in video recording outside public urban spaces. | |
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Uber User
Posts: 857
Location: The Wilds of Washington | bleebs - 2015-12-11 4:36 AM
actually this is just a matter of degree. in a way, we have this already atm, with cellphones recording our presence exactly always. the only thing that's really missing is voice recording, in video recording outside public urban spaces.
Degree, yeah. But your cellphone doesn't know your mood, yet. Can't read your internal bodily state, and whisper into your ear without anyone else hearing.
All of that done without the profit motive in the novels. I can only shudder at that level of interaction/interference with a profit motive.
Edited by gallyangel 2015-12-11 4:42 PM
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Regular
Posts: 99
Location: Belgium | True. Mentioning the non-profit motive is interesting. in leckie the motives are ultimately imperialistic, and as such as profit driven, as in profits for the culture as a whole. I think Banks offers an interesting counterpart in the Culture: minds, drones, implants etc. offer similar privacy invasion, not for profit/imperialist, but hedonistic.
I guess levels of interaction/interference with a more profit motive (interaction/interference offered to voluntary consumers) would tend towards the same stuff (to enforce the hedonistic pleasures of the consumers). Would it be involuntarily and for profit (but non-violent), it would amount to mainly data gathering for personal & direct marketing. | |
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Ann Leckie