Friday, August 05, 2005

Author/Book Review

I've just finished PREY by Micheal Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park. Michael is a very smart MD. I've read everything that he's written, including "A Case of Need" where he goes to great lengths to explain abortion as being OK for society by highlighting a fictional and anectdotal story of a girl who 'needs' an abortion. Whoever thought of marketing propaganda for a culture in the form of a fictional novel. Hitler was more honest with Mein Kampf.This book, in my book, has classified the author as a tool of society who is good at entertinaing the masses at the Circus. A tool I can still enjoy.

PREY passed the time, what little of it I have now. Half way through it I smelled a churned product to meet a contractural obligation with a publisher. It was mixed with same ingredients that concocted Jurassic Park and cast in the same mold.

After little character development, the main character was soon trapped at an isolated facility where a newly created entity was meanacing them. Rewind, repeat, yawn. Dinosuars have a certain thrill/cool factor that intelligent nanoparticles lack. Yawn, again.

Jurassic Park had a section where the science of cloning dinosaurs was explained in great detail. I found it the most intriguing part of the book. This book skimmed over the nanotechnology.

Micheal did do his research. Dozens of white papers on nanotechnology, nanomanufacturing, swarm intelligence, and aritificial intelligence are referenced at the end of this novel. I'm sure the potential exists to create a swarm similar to the one in the book and for that I give the author one small kudo for repeating the warnings of others in the form of a novel.

If you want to read something, go find something else or at least read the papers referenced in the book.

POSTSCRIPT:
I was surprised how hard I came down on Micheal. Ah, serves him right for writing a book with no (maybe one) surprises.