Blogging seems to be all the rage, so what the heck? I'll follow the lemmings over the cliff too! It probably won't get me elected President, but maybe some interesting discussions will come out of it... Beware, however: I speak my mind here, and I'm pretty frank and open. Some may be offended at the content and/or opinions. If you're easily offended, you might want to look elsewhere for reading material.

When/If you post a comment (and I hope you will!), be sure to put in a URL --- even if you just use mine (http://alan.batie.org/) --- if you don't, your email address will get put in as a link on your name, and you'll suddenly find yourself on Spam Central. Not my doing, I promise you! They scan websites for embedded email addresses. You've been warned --- I really don't wish spam on anyone (well, ok, maybe the spammers themselves)!

Finally, if you want to be notified when I post the this blog, signup on the lemmings mailing list.

July 09, 2005

Neal Stephensen's Interface

I just finished Neal Stephensen's Interface last night (ok, the not-so wee hours of this morning ;-) ). I've been reading it off and on on my Treo, and it got to the point where I just had to sit down and finish it. It's a little predictable, and a bit of a political fantasy into wishful thinking, but hooks you anyway.

The story is basically that the President decides the way to get the country out of its massive debt is to just cancel it (probably the most unbelievable aspect of the story, but it's the prime motivator, and once you say, "ok, what if..." and then go on with the story, it's much more believable). Some shadowy, mysterious power brokers who call themselves "The Network" who mostly manage vast investments stand to lose a lot, so throw their resources behind an Illinois governor who had a stroke. They push the final development of a neuro-implant which can be trained to replace the functions of the brain tissue killed off by the stroke, get the governor back to working order and use a radio link to it to feed him information in real time while campaigning for the presidency.

Among other things.

The first half of the book sets up a number of different threads, which get woven together into the campaign that makes up the second half. It's got a little bit of everything: interesting characters, a little neuroscience, social commentary, political cynicism... What more could you want? ;-)

Posted by abatie at July 9, 2005 01:23 PM
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