Daemon * Freedom(TM)
Every once in a while a science fiction book unleashes a vivid, important alternative vision of the future that has not been fleshed out before. Daniel Suarez does that with Daemon, a fasted-paced thriller about a world in which a virtual bot takes over. Sort of a digital Armageddon, only worse. It's a techno-thriller more informed than a Tom Clancy novel, more plausible than The Matrix, more graphic than War Games, and more thought-provoking than Neuromancer -- yet it introduces a science fiction future new to all of them. Here the ghostly bot upends the world by using technological blackmail to take control of more everyday infrastructural systems. Suarez, an information technology and security consultant in real life, makes this scenario entirely plausible even to a technology booster like myself. In fact his scenario is now being seriously considered by the intelligence and security agencies. In a stroke of genius, Suarez shows why this takeover by the bot might be something we choose to allow! The story is not a bit academic or abstract. Instead it is an action-packed made-for-Hollywood script. Warning: the ending is a cliff-hanger, concluded in the second book, Freedom(TM).
Gragg's script also installed a keylogger, which gave him account and password information to virtually everything the user did from then on, sending it to yet another compromised workstation offshore where Gragg could pick it up at leisure.
What sort of idiot hung the keys to his business out on the street- and more than that, broadcast a declaration from his router telling the world where the keys were? These people shouldn't be left home alone, much less put in charge of peoples' investments. Gragg cleaned up the router's connection log. More than likely the scam wouldn't be detected for months, and even then, the company probably wouldn't tell their clients. They'd just close the barn door long after the Trojan horses were gone. So far, Gragg had a cache of nearly two thousand high-net- worth identities to sell on the global market, and the Brazilians and Filipinos were snapping up everything he offered.
*
But Decker was in no hurry. He finally placed his hand on a dis-connected rack server sitting on the nearby counter. "They tell me this computer killed two men earlier today." The shock took a while to work through Ross. He had expected some sort of child pornography ring, or a credit card scam.
"Killed? How?"
"I was hoping you could help us explain that."
*
Larson pointed to a network port in the side of the black box, then traced his finger to a smaller circuit board attached to it. "Check this out: it's a Web server on a chip. It's got a tiny TCP/IP stack. They're used for controlling devices like doors and lights from an IP network. I checked. They've got them all over the building." Larson slid his hand along a CAT5 cable extending from the board into the darkness. "This box is linked to their network, and their network is connected to the Internet. It's conceivable that someone with the right passwords could have activated this switch from anywhere in the world."
"Could the switch be set to activate when a certain person swiped their access card at the security door?"
"Probably. I just don't know enough about these cards yet."
"How long has the switch been here?"
Greer looked at the back of the enclosure. "It was covered in dust when we got to it."
"So that vestibule door has probably been used thousands of times without incident-then suddenly today it kills someone. ."
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A cool tool is anything useful that is superior to comparable items. If you think this tool is inferior suggest a better one. You are welcome to insult a tool, but comments containing insults to individual people will be deleted. Corrections of fact are always welcomed, if stated politely. Recommendations of better tools are dearly wanted and may be elevated to the front page.
What again?
What is it with you? Cool Tools please like the title says!! Not Cool Books.. COOL TOOLS!
CT Reader
WTF ? tools please.
EyePulp
Books are tools for your mind; Without them, you risk becoming a tool yourself, and not a particularly cool one.
But yeah, books aren't what put bums in the seats @ Cool Tools. C'mon KK. =)
Thermidor
I agree with the previous comments. It's a huge stretch to include speculative science fiction under the "Tools" category. If the definition of a tool is really that flexible, then I'd like to nominate The Empire Strikes Back, or last night's episode of Reno 911. Also, the song "Killing Me Softly" by Roberta Flack. Almost forgot that one.
christopher
I'm starting to think the comments capability is not panning out.
I'll probably put the book on my wish list, but the hyperbolic touts are a bit much.
Carl-Johan Sveningsson
Come on people, I'm not one to tell if KK should have put this elsewhere, but does it really bother you enough to make the only comments about these extraordinary books that the post is out of category? If so, you're really boring.
Thermidor
@Christopher... a tout is a recommendation. So it's tough to figure out what you're saying.
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@Carl-Johan... There's no drama, just some people groaning that a fiction book doesn't belong under the heading "Cool Tools." KK named it that, I assume because he wanted to address the limited topic of "tools." Any complaints about this book (or others) come up because people who enjoy this site enjoy its focus on the practical, the real. Opinions of what is useful are subjective, but if the gate is open to creative woks that stimulate the mind, then myself and others are bound to speak up and respectfully protest. Plenty of things in this universe are "extraordinary." It's the tools aspect that regular readers have come to expect. If you're bored... sheesh. Sad for you, having such a finely tuned boredom detector. These are the comments, where people make comments. Like you did. So we're all boring, by that logic. No one is insulting you or KK.
How about just letting polite protest exist without turning it into an issue unto itself? It's called feedback. It's what makes tools better, in fact.
Mark
Well... if a book could help pry open a closed mind, wouldn't that make it a tool?
Thermidor
@Mark... That's the flipside of my point. Sooner or later you're going to have to either limit what a tool is, or admit that your definition is so open as to no longer *be* a definition. Sure, I can accept that a book of fiction is a tool, but if that can qualify for the purposes of this site, then surely a particularly meaningful song could, as well. Perhaps a painting, or a rose, or a conversation I had with a neighbor. Either you stick with an admittedly arbitrary definition or you accept that everything in the universe could apply for the term "tool."
If this were a music blog called Cool Songs, and tool reviews started appearing, you could expect similar objections. And sure, you might try to shove "music" into some gaseous abstraction like "music is anything that uplifts the spirit," but by that point you should admit you're repurposing the site and just openly admit it.
It's clearly more than a semantic issue, judging by negative responses.
Carl-Johan Sveningsson
@Thermidor Yeah, point taken, I just figured an objection to the objections was in place. Many others would not have a different blog to post the occasional diverging post, maybe KK does.
Obviously by the way, I am a huge fan of Suarez, which is why I was hoping to hear your comments on the books. The vision of what you can do with a well-built MMORPG with an augmented reality interface, plus how Suarez himself marketed the books is quite a bit of a game-changer. Or is it simplified too much, or off target, what do you think?
Thermidor
@Carl-Johan Sveningsson... Actually, other objections aside, that book sounds good to me. I haven't read a ton of in the speculative sci-fi genre. The last I read (and loved) was "Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow. His idea of "pinging woofie" is a pretty amazing and potentially transformative concept. I've never read anything by Suarez. I've saved it on my Amazon list, though!
smartalek
"introduces a science fiction future new to all of them [the named books / flix]"
But not new to the world, alas.
Or did "Eagle Eye" go straight to video?
ogg
This is a great tool for seeing just how far tech has come in the past decade. I hope it stays fictional but I doubt that it will.
Bob
"it introduces a science fiction future new to all of them" ...except that it doesn't. "The Matrix" is about a future where humanity gives more and more over to the robots until a tipping-point occurs and (some) humans decide to fight back - with the robots just wiping the floor with us in response.
SKYNET, in James Cameron's "The Terminator" also upends humanity through blackmail, really.
Ultimately, the book may contain some great NEW concept of an AI taking over the world. According to your review, however, this is not the case.
Dee Kane
I'm excited to read this novel, but I think I've found another sci-fi novel that is just as compelling and thought-provoking, James Knapp's State of Decay, a dystopic thriller. But, i agree, neither of this novels is a "tool".
Blake Cooper
I've been reading the Cool Tools website for quite some time now, and was thrilled to learn of these two books on the site. I've just finished the second of the two and they were both intense, gripping, and thought-provoking reads. I would love to see Mr. Suarez turn this story into a trilogy.
Who cares if the books are "tools" or not? Well, obviously, some of you do, but I say forget that useless debate and just read the damn books! :-)