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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.
377:, 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.
308:." 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
315:, 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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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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277:Learn how and when to remove this message
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476:. The book was followed by two sequels,
602:"SF Signal Interviews Robert J. Sawyer"
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367:named Virgil in the first interspecies
31:Cover of the Canadian first edition of
901:"Robert J. Sawyer: Mapping the Future"
574:"Robert J. Sawyer: Mapping the Future"
209:Sawyer developed the initial idea for
1274:Novels first published in serial form
931:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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628:Sawyer, Robert J. (9 December 2009).
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1309:Novels about artificial intelligence
1264:Cellular automata in popular culture
653:Sawyer, Robert J. (3 October 2011).
853:"REVIEW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer"
705:Sawyer, Robert J. (7 April 2009).
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903:. Locus Magazine. 10 January 2011
576:. Locus Magazine. 10 January 2011
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1279:Canadian science fiction novels
851:DeNardo, John (21 April 2009).
683:Analog Science Fiction and Fact
183:Analog Science Fiction and Fact
120:, paperback), audiobook, e-book
600:DeNardo, John (9 April 2009).
515:has been mostly positive. The
16:2009 novel by Robert J. Sawyer
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655:"Finished with the WWW books"
444:Colossus: The Forbin Project
321:Internet censorship in China
248:This article's plot summary
217:nominee in the category for
1254:2009 science fiction novels
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707:"Wake audio book released"
409:into a novel to be called
174:and the first book in his
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1124:Von Neumann neighborhood
347:National Security Agency
936:Official author website
711:Robert J. Sawyer's blog
659:Robert J. Sawyer's blog
511:Critical reception for
419:Dial F for Frankenstein
93:April 7, 2009
460:Analog Science Fiction
1294:Novels set in Ontario
972:Conway's Game of Life
929:title listing at the
1284:Postcyberpunk novels
1259:2009 Canadian novels
830:"WWW: Wake (review)"
755:"Review: WWW: Wake"
302:Perimeter Institute
128:354 (first edition)
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1114:Moore neighborhood
1093:Life without Death
880:The Globe and Mail
828:Jones, Michael M.
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429:Sawyer noted that
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976:cellular automata
806:Review: WWW: Wake
759:Publishers Weekly
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733:Jennifer Van Dyck
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493:Audible Frontiers
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1192:Richard Guy
1187:Bill Gosper
1177:John Conway
1045:Spacefiller
855:. SF Signal
548:(2009, won)
480:(2010) and
398:Development
369:webcam call
338:packet loss
177:WWW Trilogy
62:WWW Trilogy
1248:Categories
1170:Key people
1153:Video Life
1060:Still life
1035:Replicator
1015:Oscillator
1010:Methuselah
983:Structures
809:. Booklist
716:14 October
690:7 November
664:14 October
613:14 October
561:References
553:Hugo Award
436:The Matrix
394:together.
354:chimpanzee
342:Zipf plots
340:. Several
219:Best Novel
215:Hugo Award
97:2009-04-07
1050:Spaceship
1030:Reflector
832:. SF Site
607:SF Signal
524:SF Signal
507:Reception
489:audiobook
474:WWW: Wake
407:Shed Skin
365:orangutan
167:WWW: Wake
118:hardcover
78:Publisher
1208:LifeWiki
1201:Websites
1107:Concepts
1083:Highlife
1040:Sawtooth
484:(2011).
462:and Fact
50:Language
990:Breeder
635:12 July
518:SF Site
450:Release
257:Please
250:may be
116:Print (
95: (
53:English
1000:Glider
538:Awards
482:Wonder
470:Viking
425:Themes
415:Clarke
361:hybrid
358:bonobo
200:Analog
195:Wonder
152:
108:Canada
58:Series
40:Author
1225:Bloom
1140:Golly
1098:Seeds
1088:Lenia
1055:Spark
907:3 May
885:3 May
859:3 May
836:3 May
813:3 May
789:3 May
764:3 May
580:3 May
478:Watch
411:Skins
189:Watch
150:Watch
125:Pages
68:Genre
20:Wake
1232:Wake
1025:Rake
926:Wake
909:2014
887:2014
861:2014
838:2014
815:2014
791:2014
766:2014
737:Wake
718:2011
692:2008
666:2011
637:2011
615:2011
582:2014
513:Wake
497:Wake
455:Wake
438:and
431:Wake
403:Wake
290:Wake
231:Plot
211:Wake
161:Wake
134:ISBN
33:Wake
1005:Gun
468:'s
296:to
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645:^
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590:^
306:V1
227:.
964:e
957:t
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