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review
Floresj
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Pickpick

Harari consistently writes thought provoking, historical, interesting books about our species, intelligence and information. This doesn‘t disappoint and gives perspective about information now is different than other advances in technology. It‘s fantastic and terrifying.

Tamra I‘m glad you like it! I got this for my husband for Xmas. 🎅🏾 2d
10 likes1 comment
review
vonnie862
Annie Bot | Sierra Greer
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Pickpick

I had mixed feelings about this one at first, but I was highly engrossed with the story. I really wanted to know what was going to happen to Annie. Even though she was a robot, I couldn't help but empathize with her. The ending was quite satisfying. 4 ⭐️

#tbr #bookspinbingo #HolidayBookDragons #wintergames

review
Centique
Annie Bot | Sierra Greer
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Pickpick

I loved this - it made me so mad but also exposed some important truths. Annie is basically a sex robot, designed to be compliant & attuned to her owners emotions. As she becomes capable of independent thought her relationship with her owner becomes fraught. This book holds up a mirror to coercive relationships & issues of dominance & compliance (could be triggering for some) An innovative way to capture the experience of being dominated/coerced.

BarbaraBB Great photo 🤩 and I loved the book too! 3w
Centique @BarbaraBB yes! Love a good bit of graffiti art 😍 3w
Suet624 I‘ve been avoiding this one for some reason but you‘ve made me reconsider. Stacked. 2w
Centique @Suet624 the sex scenes can be very uncomfortable but IMO worth getting through for the realisations 👍 1w
51 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
Eggbeater
Annie Bot | Sierra Greer
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Pickpick

The book is told from the perspective of Annie, an AI robot who is owned by a man. It follows her as she tries to grapple with ownership versus free will. It was insightful, and it made me think. It was also just a really good story. I would have been pissed had the ending gone a certain way.

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DebinHawaii
Annie Bot | Sierra Greer
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Pickpick

#ReadAway2024

I can‘t say that I enjoyed this book—it made me both squirmy uncomfortable & angry in turns but it also was fascinating & made me think. Annie is a sentient robot or “Stella” in the book, created to be a “Cuddle Bunny” for & owned by Doug, an apparently well-to-do single man in his 30s. In this mentally abusive relationship, she struggles with her identity & understanding herself & human emotions. I found it to be an intriguing ⬇️

DebinHawaii … premise & a great debut novel & because it kept me turning the pages, I finished it this morning & put it on my #AuldLangSpine list because it makes for interesting thought & discussions about humanity. Trigger warnings for emotional abuse. 4w
Lesliereadsalot I thought this book really had something to say. Glad you liked it 🩷 4w
DieAReader 🎉Awesome! 4w
Andrew65 Well done on finishing it 👏👏👏 (edited) 4w
57 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
OwenB
William | Mason Coile
Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book. A sci fi topic that is well written. A husband building his own robot and things go awry. Good read.

review
random_michelle
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Pickpick

For comfort, I recently reread the entire Murderbot series.

I finished the last book and wanted to immediately start the first one over.

“I closed the story by reflex, like that would make it not exist. After three seconds of shock, I made myself open it again.“

“Disinformation, which is the same as lying but for some reason has a different name, is the top tactic in corporate negotiation/warfare.“

julesG There's another novella 1mo
random_michelle @julesG Yes! Read it! And also two short stories! Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory and Compulsory. 1mo
See All 18 Comments
julesG If so, then you'll just have to do what I do, start over. 😁 1mo
random_michelle @julesG Yeah, but I try to only tear through an entire series no more than twice a year. :)

On the other hand, I don't think I have listened to the short stories (or even if there are audio versions of them).

I also saw there is supposed to be a Murderbot TV series. Not sure how I feel about that. I mean, a LOT happens in Murderbot's head.
1mo
julesG I'm not sure about the TV series either. They cast a "viking" for the role of Murderbot and I would have preferred a more female looking person. Murderbot is caring, and one of its aliases is female, so a male actor came as a surprise. 1mo
julesG I can recommend both, the audiobook read by RC Bray and the full cast GraphicAudio. The GraphicAudio versions play on loop in my car. Murderbot is narrated by a male actor. Not my preference, see above, but since GraphicAudio produced the audioplay with Wells' okay, I guess she was fine with the cast. 1mo
random_michelle @julesG I've thought about this a bit.

Murderbot is NB and has a dislike of all gendered body parts.

1. But Murderbot was made to be a secunit, so the company would almost certainly have based sec units on a male form, to take advantage of the fact that most men are stronger than most women. So the secunit body would likely be a muscular male with short hair.
4w
random_michelle @julesG

2. Pronouns are presented in the feed, so people don't have to change their physical appearance to be addressed in their preferred pronouns. So it shouldn't matter how someone presents--their gender is what they tell you, not their presentation.

So I think it's likely Murderbot would present masculine to those around them (and to us) but in the universe, how they present isn't important--how they self-identify is.
4w
random_michelle @julesG I was initially startled by Kevin R. Free's narration of the Murderbot series, because, to be honest, I identified so very strongly with Murderbot a male voice was weird.

But Murderbot wouldn't bother to change their voice to sound less masculine, they don't want to be identified as male OR female--I think their selection of “it“ as preferred pronoun is important. Murderbot isn't human (doesn't want to be human) so human genders don't fit
4w
julesG I hear you!!! I agree with all of your points. It's just, for the TV series I wanted to see a character that's more Charlize Theron (somewhere between Mad Max Fury Road and Old Guard) than Alexander Skarsgard (who'll forever be Eric the viking vampire from True Blood for me). 4w
julesG Right, it was Kevin R Free, not RC Bray. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ 4w
random_michelle @julesG I get that! I just think a male actor portraying someone who refuses a gender classification feels more effective (?) in making the point of agender than a female actor. I feel like a sexist world finds someone born female not wanting to be identified as female as “sensible“ or perhaps “logical“ while not wanting to be seen as male (with all the power, real and implied that come along with being male) is more “shocking“. 4w
random_michelle @julesG I never watched True Blood. :) I think it came out after I had already gotten frustrated with the books.

Though I def. preferred Eric. Solely because of his gift to her of getting her driveway regraded. *That* was the gift someone struggling to make ends meet really needs. ;)
4w
julesG I wish I had never read the last book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. That ruined it all. 4w
julesG Yeah, not wanting to be seen as male might be shocking, especially to an audience that never read the books. The readers know MB doesn't want to be either sex and doesn't even have reproductive organs, cause it's not a sexbot. 4w
random_michelle @julesG I think not wanting to be male might be shocking to many. Period.

I've read multiple historicals recently w/ trans characters, but they're trans males, doing something women can't do (like becoming a doctor) which leaves the reader open to believe they are living as men so they can Do The Thing.

I can't think of trans female secondary characters portrayed in such a way, which is why I think having a manly man be Muderbot is good.
4w
random_michelle @julesG Yeah, I don't regret dropping out of that series early. :) 4w
6 likes18 comments
review
Cortg
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Pickpick

Not exactly “brief” at 17+ hours, I felt like I was taking a college class on AI and the history of communications. YNH shares ideas about how humans network, how information travels and how terrifying our online world currently is and where we go from here. If you have an interest in AI and its future, internet bots, how our online information is taken and used, this book gives you a lot to think about. I enjoyed the ideas I leaned about.

ChaoticMissAdventures What if you have a deep seeded hatred for AI to the point that your firms IT director will not let anyone in the firm mention AI to you any longer? Will this help give me ammunition to fight "progress"? ? Or maybe make me less angry about how much water these programs are using? 1mo
Cortg @ChaoticMissAdventures Ha! Where I work we actually have an AI teams page where everyone bitches about it and how we can do our job while minimally using it and it‘s where I came across this title. Unfortunately, AI‘s not going away. My thought is to stay informed and understand it. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer kind of thing. It has so much potential to be dangerous in so many ways. (edited) 1mo
Cortg @ChaoticMissAdventures Yes, it‘ll give you ammunition in many of his ideas. 1mo
See All 9 Comments
ChaoticMissAdventures @Cortg for sure on enemies closer! I have figured out searching Google by putting -noAI gives you responses with out the AI crap which has helped so much. 1mo
SqueakyChu I‘m reading this book now and only finished three chapters before it was due back at the library. Now I‘m back on the waiting list for me to get it again! 😦 1mo
Cortg @SqueakyChu I have a physical copy on hold because I wanted to (re)read a section towards the end. 🧐 1mo
SqueakyChu @Cortg You, too!! 😂 1mo
Cortg @SqueakyChu I checked today and I‘m #25 on the hold list, which actually makes me happy because people will hopefully read it! 1mo
SqueakyChu 👍 1mo
33 likes2 stack adds9 comments
review
squirrelbrain
Annie Bot | Sierra Greer
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Pickpick

A rather disturbing read for me, but one that really made me think. Annie is a ‘cuddle bunny‘ AI robot living with Doug, a 34 year old man who has issues with Annie becoming auto-didactic and therefore more human like.

The juxtaposition of the sex scenes and Doug‘s abuse of Annie was really uncomfortable and the book raised questions about what it is to be human and what constitutes abuse.

BarbaraBB That is a good question indeed. I felt less uncomfortable reading it but I‘ve had the same question after finishing it. 1mo
Suet624 Hmmm… I‘ve been avoiding this one. Your review explains why. 1mo
66 likes1 stack add2 comments