Yeah, I read this book in 4 days.
If you asked me what I was likely to give this book 3/5 through the novel, I would probably have said 5 stars. Unfortunately, the plot sort of bogged down towards the end. It made the resolution phase of the end of the novel less exciting than the discovery phase in the first half of it. I won't ruin anything for you by giving the plot itself away, but things kind of came together in a too tidy fashion for my taste. At some points, our protagonist's group seemed remarkably silly. They allowed variables to run around that could have been very easily controlled with minimal effort. It seemed hard to believe that military people might be so.. well... dumb and trusting. Especially people who can read minds, discover secrets of those they link with, and have a sort of gestalt intelligence.
Oh, there were also some anachronisms that of course look silly. Like the lack of tracking through camera systems, the reliance of paper copies of things, the limited use of cryptography, the rarity of wireless networks, blah blah whatever.
But, really, these are minor quibbles. The big deal was the idea of linking human beings together into a single intelligence. That is a fascinating idea. I usually read sci-fi because I like to expose myself to new ideas: this book delivered in spades. You could almost say that the plot, characters, and all were simply built around the need to explore one idea. From here on in, I will call it gestalt (I think the book specifically mentioned this was not the correct word, but we will use it anyway).
In gestalt, you achieve a immediate intimacy with the person or persons you are gestalted too. You can basically read each others feelings and thoughts, and can also experience each others memories. Lying is impossible in gestalt. It was not clear whether other peoples memories are directly accesible in gestalt, or only the current memory is viewable. It is done with electronics by installing a jack into the back of peoples heads, people connect to a router of sorts, where they enter a gestalt together.
It is addictive. This I would believe with minimal justification. One of our most advanced human traits and quite possibly the main reason for our success as a species is that we are ridiculously social animals. Look at people hunched over their phones, checking their facebooks or whatever. All the time, in all places, we love being connected to other people. People will dedicate substantial portions of their lives for fleeting interaction with other people. Imagine if you were able to truly connect with someone, in a way more intimate than anything else. It is not love, it is not sex, it is simply the merging of two or more people for a period of time. You and they can communicate without speech, you would know someones true character, you could probably even see the blind spots they have about their own self. It would be maddeningly addictive. i don't think any metaphor could really communicate how attractive that would be.
Lets say that this gestalt thing existed, what would the implications be?
Would marriage or even friendship survive? If you can connect in a most intimate (although, to re-iterate not amorous or sexual) way with someone else, would everyone be equally "close" to you? What would a friend mean in that case? I suppose that it might just mean someone who you had been gestalted too a great deal? Or perhaps it would be more like a favorite song? I really don't know.
What would it do to the sense of self? Part of having a self involves having the choice to present your inner vs outer self. The gestalt would seem to reduce these two concepts down to self. On one hand, having no ability to have a inner self might be liberating, but what would it mean? Would people follow Caesar if they knew that Caesar was just a man behind those eyes? I think part of the mystic of leaders is that we feel they are somehow more than us. If we could follow their minds like a script, then could they lead? Is the ability to have a inner and outer self necessary for many human endeavors? Moreover, if we lost that ability to the gestalt, could we still rightly be considered human?
Would you actually be able to hurt someone else? To judge someone else? If you can understand why someone does something, if you can fully see in their mind, would you actually be able to judge? Similarly, if I know the pain that my hurting someone will cause, would I ever choose to inflict pain on others. Finally, would I still be capable of self sacrifice? Would the group ever expect sacrifice of the individual?
Jokes would no longer be funny. I could see the punchline as they are telling the joke.
Would we retain language at all? When I think, I don't usually actually verbally state something in my head. I think. If I can "think" a message to someone else, is there any reason to learn to talk? Would the ability to talk just atrophy in humanity? Chomsky says that language is fundamental to the way we think, what would happen if none of us developed a language? Would we must become a collection of idiots who "emotion and ape action" to each other, without the ability to form the metaphors that language allows? Would that make us closer or further from the notion of the autistic individual?
How much would we loose? What art, poetry, or just depth of human interaction might we loose by having no barriers? There is something attractive in the two lovers, both wanting each other, but not able to actually literally know that the other wants them as well. It is tenuous, it is faith at some level. If you have immediate knowledge of these things, it makes experiences based on uncertainty impossible.
Human beings would probably also rapidly loose the ability to "read" other human beings from their physical appearance. Might forget that tears may mean sadness or rapture, that laugher can be forced, etc.
Ok, enough navel gazing. I thought this book was great, really gives you something to think about. As this is the main reason I read sci-fi, I strongly recommend it. The plot, in my mind, was a little messed at the end, but it hardly matters, the ideas were golden.