The Unincorporated Man (Sci Fi Essential Books) Review

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The Unincorporated Man (Sci Fi Essential Books) ReviewImagine this: Asia is obliterated. Space travel is possible. Cars fly (finally!). There is no war. There is no unemployment. And while you are imagining all of this, add in the fact that you are incorporated at birth, and that in order to get a job or an education, you must trade stock of yourself. Imagine also that you likely do not own the majority of your own stock, thus your investors decide where you can work and even where you can live.
Is this slavery? Or does it encourage a person to invest in others as a way of improving the whole? That is the question raised in THE UNINCORPORATED MAN.
Justin Cord is a brilliant businessman in the early 21st century, and his success is only matched by his sorrow to hear that he has cancer. Using his vast wealth, Justin constructs a cryogenic tomb and freezes himself.
When he awakens, slowly coming to realize that the cryogenic act was a success, Justin finds himself 300 years into the future. Although there are cosmetic and some technological changes as one would expect, he is more concerned by the future incorporation of mankind. After being bullied (but refusing) to sign an incorporation agreement, thereby no longer owning himself, Justin becomes a central figure in a sinister and complex political machine in the new incorporated world.
THE UNINCORPORATED MAN is a stunning debut. Truly. Forget the genre clichés of laser guns, spaceships, and journeys through black holes and the like. This book is part Heinlein, part Bradbury, and part Asimov. This is no space adventure but a socio-economic envisioning of the future. As such, it would easily fit alongside, say, 1984 or BRAVE NEW WORLD as a chilling and thought-provoking treatise on possible futures.
Brothers Dani and Eytan Kollin have crafted a world here that is at times technologically stunning and exciting and sometimes frightening. Throughout the pages of this novel, you will encounter well-detailed environs peopled with wholly lifelike people --- some are wonderful, others are downright villainous. They have deftly designed a book that will have you questioning the economic principles and the very nature of personal freedom and individuality.
Even if you are not a fan of science fiction per se, THE UNINCORPORATED MAN stretches beyond that genre and brings a hauntingly possible future to life.
--- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard
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Privacy Lost: How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy Review

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Privacy Lost: How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy ReviewWhen it comes to books and hype, there is not often a distinction when it comes to marketing. At least this is the case with Privacy Lost: How Technology is Endangering Your Privacy by David H. Holtzman (2006, 352 pages, Josey-Bass, ISBN 0787985112). The cover touts "A technologist, Former Security Analyst, and Military Codebreaker Tells You What You Need To Know About Your Privacy", and the forward is written by US Senator Evan Bayh.
All of this glitz does not cover the fact that the book does not break any new ground in privacy literature, and that the author does not necessarily break any new ground in the existing literature on privacy issues. However, the book does address one thing not covered with the focus of other books: protection of your on-line and real life personal brand.
Take by itself, readers will find the book enlightening if they have not read anything else on the topic. Holtzman begins by covering what he considers to be the seven sins against privacy (which is perhaps the strongest part of the book), and discussions of the collateral damage to society. He then covers why he feels technology is key to our loss of privacy. He endeavors to cover the context of our view of privacy and privacy law, but falls short in this area, He also goes on to discuss the existing and growing threats to our privacy. He talks about the invasion of our privacy by marketers (again, nothing new here). The book wraps up by talking about ways to fight back. One particular approach that I personally like is to be the curmudgeon, or fighting to not give up information when requested. Sure they may already have it, but at least one can sleep at night thinking they are fighting back.
As a whole, the book takes too superficial a look at the issues, without doing into adequate background and depth. This is where the book gets swallowed up in its own hype cycle and falls short of other privacy titles. There is no doubt that the author has background and experience. It just does not translate effectively in this book. It is also ironic that he was once the chief technology officer for Network Solutions, which makes customers pay extra to protect their private information.
Who Should Read This Book?
If someone has only a cursory interest on the topic, this book will be adequate. However, a book that is a much better read and covers the background, growth and tensions in privacy would be better served to read The Digital Person: Technology And Privacy In The Information Age by Daniel Solove.
The Scorecard
Par on an average Par 4 playing downwind.Privacy Lost: How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy OverviewWhile other books in the field focus on specific aspects of privacy or how to avoid invasions, David H. Holtzman--a master technologist, internet pioneer, security analyst, and former military codebreaker--presents a comprehensive insider's expos? of the world of invasive technology, who's using it, and how our privacy is at risk. Holtzman starts out by categorizing privacy violations into "The 7 Sins Against Privacy" and then goes on to explain in compelling and easy to understand language exactly how privacy is being eroded in every aspect of our lives.Holtzman vividly reveals actual invasions and the dangers associated with the loss of privacy, and he takes a realistic look at the trade offs between privacy and such vital issues as security, rights, and economic development.Praise for Privacy Lost"Whether we know it or not, we have all become citizens of the Digital Age. As such we need to take responsibility for our conduct, our safety, and our privacy. David Holtzman is deeply knowledgeable about the industry and passionate about the issues. Regardless of your political views, you will come away from this book better equipped to meet the challenges before us all."--Geoffrey A. Moore, author, Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution"Holtzman has drafted a blueprint all citizens of this great land ought to read if they desire to understand what privacy truly means, why it is important to both their everyday life as well as to their understanding of what it really means to be free, and what they can do to salvage what little privacy is left them. Privacy Lost needs to be readily available on the desks of all concerned citizens--heavily dog-eared and underlined."--Bob Barr, practicing attorney and former Member of theUnited States House of Representatives

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True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier Review

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True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier ReviewWhen I was starting out as a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence at Carnegie Mellon, it was made known to us first-year students that an unofficial but necessary part of our education was to locate and read a copy of an obscure science-fiction novella called *True Names*. Since you couldn't find it in bookstores, older grad students and professors would directly mail order sets of ten and set up informal lending libraries -- you would go, for example, to Hans Moravec's office, and sign one out from a little cardboard box over in the corner of his office. This was 1983 -- the Internet was a toy reserved for American academics, "virtual reality" was not a popular topic, and the term "cyberpunk" had not been coined. One by one, we all tracked down copies, and all had the tops of our heads blown off by Vinge's incredible book.
*True Names* remains to this day one of the four or five most seminal science-fiction novels ever written, just in terms of the ideas it presents, and the world it paints. It laid out the ideas that have been subsequently worked over so successfully by William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. *And* it's well written. *And* it's fun.
In my grad student days, we loved to sit around and discuss the implications of Vernor's ideas. Sixteen years later, I do research at MIT, and it's still fun to sit around and talk about how Vernor's ideas are coming to be.
(Amazingly enough, Vinge has done this not once, but twice: *Marooned in Realtime* contains ideas even more interesting than *True Names* -- all in the setting of a murder mystery that takes place 50 million years in the future.)
Vinge has subsequently written other, very popular and enjoyable books, such as *A Fire Upon the Deep* and his just-published *A Deepness in the Sky*. However, it's always been very frustrating to me that *True Names* has been essentially impossible to find. It's always out of print, and you have to know one of the elect who snapped up copies back when it was marginally possible -- and these copies are now jealously guarded. I won't let people read mine outside of my home. (The same goes for *Marooned in Realtime* -- seminal work; out of print.)
So I am really, really delighted that *True Names* is now back in print. I note that it is now fashionable to write books "explaining" the Net and the near-term future of our society to the layman -- books such as Negroponte's *Being Digital,* Gate's *The Road Ahead*, or Dertouzos' *What Will Be*. These books are a waste of time. If you would like to explore the implications and likely future of the computer revolution, I would recommend three novels, instead: *True Names* (Vernor Vinge), *Snowcrash* (Neal Stephenson), and *Neuromancer* (William Gibson).
Vinge and Stephenson are not only excellent writers, they are trained, competent computer scientists. *Neuromancer* is the best-written of the three; *Snowcrash* is the funniest and hippest; *True Names* -- well, *True Names* is the source.
-OlinTrue Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier Overview

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