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attempt to communicate with it and, when her eyePod was rebooted, it sent an image of
Caitlin in an attempt to communicate back. As Caitlin begins to learn how to read letters, the intelligence believes it is a further attempt to communicate and learns with her. When she switches to duplex mode, it takes that act to be a reward for its learning progress. Caitlin believes it to be "visual noise" as a result of gaining sight. Dr. Kuroda looks at the information on his server, and Caitlin realizes that the information is her reading exercises being bounced back to her. She then runs another Shannon entropy scan, realising that the information in the cellular automata has increased in intelligence. Caitlin deduces that the information is trying to communicate with her and decides to help it. Dr. Kuroda feels it is now time to return to Japan and informs her that, as she can now see, he will remove the duplex setting from her eyePod. Caitlin convinces him to keep it as is so that she can continue to see websight. She runs another Shannon entropy plot and realizes that the intelligence has increased yet again. She continues with her teaching efforts, leading the intelligence to different websites so that it can continue learning. She runs the Shannon entropy a fourth and fifth time and finds that the intelligence is double that of human complexity.
388:, who go to the Georgia Zoo – Hobo's birthplace – for information on him. Georgia Zoo, fearing about the contamination between the captive chimpanzee and bonobo bloodlines, demand Hobo be returned to them so that he can be sterilized. Hobo paints a portrait of Shoshana, surprising everyone at the Institute as it had been believed that chimpanzees could only paint abstractly. Dr. Marcuse theorizes that the communication with Virgil had shown Hobo "how three-dimensional objects could be reduced to two dimensions." The Marcuse Institute decide to record Hobo painting a second time and then go public, believing that the outcry over sterilizing him would force the Georgia Zoo to back down from their plans. The Georgia Zoo issues a lawsuit, planning to castrate Hobo.
319:." He believes that her blindness is caused by her retinas miscoding the visual information and offers to install a signal processor behind her left eye to unscramble the data. The device sends the data to a miniature computer, or "eyePod", which reprocesses the signals and returns them. The correct data is sent to her optic nerve, theoretically granting her sight. In duplex mode it sends and receives the signals, and in simplex mode it only sends them. Caitlin and her mother, Barbara, fly to Tokyo for the procedure. Although her pupils now react to light, Caitlin still cannot see. They return to Canada while Dr. Kuroda works on updating the software.
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directly. In the interim, he suggests sending the retinal feed from her eyePod to his Tokyo server through
Jagster, a fictional search engine, so that he can monitor how she reacts to different inputs. He dubs her ability to visualize the internet "websight". Caitlin notes that, along with websites and links, she can visualize a background in websight that looks like a chess board. Dr. Kuroda speculates that the background is made up of
326:, recommends the President order a culling of ten to eleven thousand people in the infected area with an airborne chemical. The President agrees and launches the Changcheng Strategy, cutting off all telephone, satellite, and wireless communication with the rest of the world, so that word of the culling does not spread beyond China's borders. Wong Wai-Jeng, a freedom blogger who is known online as
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An intelligence has spontaneously emerged on the Web. Cleaved in two when the
Changcheng Strategy was enacted, the restoration of communications by China causes the two halves to coalesce, and it gains in intelligence. The intelligence can view Caitlin's eyePod feed. It believes that her vision is an
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The intelligence contacts
Caitlin via email and wishes her a happy birthday. It thanks her for helping it to learn and invites her to communicate with it through instant messenger. She asks it what she should call it, and the intelligence replies "Webmind". Webmind and Caitlin decide to go forwards
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Dr. Kuroda sets up a final software patch. While at school, Caitlin decides to take a break from her work and switches the eyePod to duplex mode so she can look through websight. It fails to load and, disappointed, she returns the eyePod to simplex mode. She sees several lines crossing her field of
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while the update downloads when the eyePod is in duplex mode. Dr. Kuroda speculates that the data being transmitted between the eyePod and his server in Tokyo is being interpreted by her optic nerve, allowing her to see this. He decides to travel to
Waterloo to work with Caitlin on the implant more
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along with many other hackers. Collectively they learn about the bird flu outbreak. Many days after enacting the
Changcheng Strategy, Zhang Bo, the Minister of Communications, convinces the President to restore communications. The moment they are back up, Sinanthropus posts a blog, informing the
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contains themes of "the nature of perception and how it shapes our view of reality; how much humans are in fact programmed by evolution, and whether humanity can overcome that programming; and what, if any, value consciousness has." He added that he was "very interested in trying to find a new
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graphs on the cellular automata to gauge how complex the information in them is. He shows
Caitlin how to run it, and they discover that the information has little complexity. Dr. Kuroda holds a press conference, announcing the success of his invention that has made Caitlin able to see. Caitlin
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are run of the cellular automata, which has a negative one slope. The
Decters, Dr. Kuroda, and Anna Bloom, a network cartographer, realize that means the cellular automata contain intelligent content, which Anna suggests is secret communications from the
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was more mixed in their review, as they felt that several parts of the novel were awkward and that while they did enjoy the book, "none of the characters feel fully formed yet, though hopefully this will change with the next two books of the trilogy."
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synthesis, a new approach to the question of what happens once something more intelligent than we are emerges here. Is there a way out of the standard science-fictional paradigm that has us subjugated or wiped out, as seen in
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424:, and, after wracking my brain for a couple of hours, came up with an idea that I liked for a second novel: consciousness emerges on the World Wide Web. Admittedly, not completely original (
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vision and is surprised when she realizes that they are the edge of a lab bench and that she can now see. Barbara picks
Caitlin up from school and informs her about the patch. Malcolm runs
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comes to mind), but I checked on Amazon.com and Google, and couldn't find any book that had actually done this." It was planned as a single novel, but was later expanded into a trilogy.
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also wrote a positive review and stated that although they felt that the explanation of
Webmind's existence was overly long, the novel as a whole was exemplary.
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In San Diego, California, Shoshana Glick, an ape-language researcher and graduate student, works at the Marcuse Institute, a primate research centre. Hobo, a
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and before? Is there a compelling argument to be made for us being able to continue, with our essential humanity intact, once true AI is on the scene?"
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The first software update Kuroda attempts is a partial success. Although Caitlin can still not see the outside world, it enables her to visualize the
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world of the bird flu outbreak and the culling. He is tracked down by the police and, while attempting to flee, breaks his leg and is captured.
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receives an electric shock which crashes the eyePod. She reboots it in duplex mode and sees a mirrored representation of her face in websight.
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in January 2003 when he wrote in his diary about the emergence of consciousness on the World Wide Web. The novel was named a 2010
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A bird-flu epidemic with a mortality rate of at least 90% has begun in China. Dr. Quan Li, a senior member of the
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is set in 2012. Fifteen-year-old Caitlin Decter has been blind from birth. The Decter family recently moved from
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was serialized in the November 2008, December 2008, combined January–February 2009, and March 2009 issues of
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from November 2008 to March 2009, was first published in book form on April 8, 2009, and was followed by
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praised the novel overall, but commented that the character of Caitlin was "too perfect" at times.
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audiobook has a runtime of 12 hours and 13 minutes. The voice cast includes Jessica Almasy,
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on 7 April 2009, coinciding with the date of American publication. The
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imprint. In the United States it was released under the title
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Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
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by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise.
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after Caitlin's father, Malcolm, received a job at the
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November 2008 issue description and table of contents"
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288:Learn how and when to remove this message
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487:. The book was followed by two sequels,
613:"SF Signal Interviews Robert J. Sawyer"
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378:named Virgil in the first interspecies
42:Cover of the Canadian first edition of
912:"Robert J. Sawyer: Mapping the Future"
585:"Robert J. Sawyer: Mapping the Future"
220:Sawyer developed the initial idea for
1285:Novels first published in serial form
942:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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639:Sawyer, Robert J. (9 December 2009).
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1320:Novels about artificial intelligence
1275:Cellular automata in popular culture
664:Sawyer, Robert J. (3 October 2011).
864:"REVIEW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer"
716:Sawyer, Robert J. (7 April 2009).
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914:. Locus Magazine. 10 January 2011
587:. Locus Magazine. 10 January 2011
453:, and going all the way back to
263:too long or excessively detailed
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1290:Canadian science fiction novels
862:DeNardo, John (21 April 2009).
694:Analog Science Fiction and Fact
194:Analog Science Fiction and Fact
131:, paperback), audiobook, e-book
611:DeNardo, John (9 April 2009).
526:has been mostly positive. The
27:2009 novel by Robert J. Sawyer
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666:"Finished with the WWW books"
18:Wake (Robert J. Sawyer novel)
455:Colossus: The Forbin Project
332:Internet censorship in China
259:This article's plot summary
228:nominee in the category for
1265:2009 science fiction novels
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1280:Novels by Robert J. Sawyer
718:"Wake audio book released"
420:into a novel to be called
185:and the first book in his
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690:Robert J. Sawyer (2008).
330:, attempts to circumvent
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1135:Von Neumann neighborhood
358:National Security Agency
947:Official author website
722:Robert J. Sawyer's blog
670:Robert J. Sawyer's blog
522:Critical reception for
430:Dial F for Frankenstein
104:April 7, 2009
471:Analog Science Fiction
1305:Novels set in Ontario
983:Conway's Game of Life
940:title listing at the
1295:Postcyberpunk novels
1270:2009 Canadian novels
841:"WWW: Wake (review)"
766:"Review: WWW: Wake"
313:Perimeter Institute
139:354 (first edition)
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1125:Moore neighborhood
1104:Life without Death
891:The Globe and Mail
839:Jones, Michael M.
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440:Sawyer noted that
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987:cellular automata
817:Review: WWW: Wake
770:Publishers Weekly
752:Audible Frontiers
744:Jennifer Van Dyck
567:(2009, nominated)
512:Jennifer Van Dyck
504:Audible Frontiers
345:cellular automata
309:Waterloo, Ontario
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1198:Bill Gosper
1188:John Conway
1056:Spacefiller
866:. SF Signal
559:(2009, won)
491:(2010) and
409:Development
380:webcam call
349:packet loss
188:WWW Trilogy
73:WWW Trilogy
1259:Categories
1181:Key people
1164:Video Life
1071:Still life
1046:Replicator
1026:Oscillator
1021:Methuselah
994:Structures
820:. Booklist
727:14 October
701:7 November
675:14 October
624:14 October
572:References
564:Hugo Award
447:The Matrix
405:together.
365:chimpanzee
353:Zipf plots
351:. Several
230:Best Novel
226:Hugo Award
108:2009-04-07
1061:Spaceship
1041:Reflector
843:. SF Site
618:SF Signal
535:SF Signal
518:Reception
500:audiobook
485:WWW: Wake
418:Shed Skin
376:orangutan
178:WWW: Wake
129:hardcover
89:Publisher
1219:LifeWiki
1212:Websites
1118:Concepts
1094:Highlife
1051:Sawtooth
495:(2011).
473:and Fact
61:Language
1001:Breeder
646:12 July
529:SF Site
461:Release
268:Please
261:may be
127:Print (
106: (
64:English
1011:Glider
549:Awards
493:Wonder
481:Viking
436:Themes
426:Clarke
372:hybrid
369:bonobo
211:Analog
206:Wonder
163:
119:Canada
69:Series
51:Author
1236:Bloom
1151:Golly
1109:Seeds
1099:Lenia
1066:Spark
918:3 May
896:3 May
870:3 May
847:3 May
824:3 May
800:3 May
775:3 May
591:3 May
489:Watch
422:Skins
200:Watch
161:Watch
136:Pages
79:Genre
31:Wake
1243:Wake
1036:Rake
937:Wake
920:2014
898:2014
872:2014
849:2014
826:2014
802:2014
777:2014
748:Wake
729:2011
703:2008
677:2011
648:2011
626:2011
593:2014
524:Wake
508:Wake
466:Wake
449:and
442:Wake
414:Wake
301:Wake
242:Plot
222:Wake
172:Wake
145:ISBN
44:Wake
1016:Gun
479:'s
307:to
1261::
889:.
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656:^
615:.
601:^
317:V1
238:.
975:e
968:t
961:v
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