Influx
by Daniel Suarez · first published 2014
64% recommend36% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A fast-paced near-future techno-thriller about government AI and advanced technology. It is a page-turner and a fun, plausible tin-foil-hat read, suited to fans of Stephenson and Vinge.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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I think that velocity is the fascinating part. I remember being intrigued while reading "Influx" by Daniel Suarez (great tin foil hat thriller that is hitting scarily close to home these days) about the training of the various AIs that were used by the government. I wonder what happens once we…
on “Why AlphaGo Is Such a Big Deal” ↗Anything by Iain M. Banks. Start with "The Player of Games" and "Consider Phlebas". Anything by Vernor S. Vinge especially "Zones of Thought" series. "Daemon", "Freedom(tm)", "Kill Decision" and "Influx" by Daniel Suarez. "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Anything by Neal Stephenson, especially "Reamde: A Novel" and "Cryptonomicon". Anything by Hannu Rajaniemi, especially "The Fractal Prince".
on “What are your favourite sci-fi books?” ↗…to replace Stephenson. His books aren't great literature, and not as great as Stephenson when he was at his best but they are good page turners for near future tech. Daemon, Freedom, Kill Decision, Influx. http://www.amazon.com/Influx-Daniel-Suarez-ebook/dp/B00DMCPO...
on “Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read” ↗And if you don't, it is trivial for a motivated party to fabricate them in a realistic enough manner to fool a jury. Influx by Daniel Suarez comes to mind.
on “New Scandals Show How Pervasive Mass Surveillance Is in the West” ↗I just re-started this one recently too. If you enjoy those, check out one of Suarez's other: Influx. It's not a sequel but has some common threads.
on “Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?” ↗…of The Expanse. Fun series that takes place after we've colonized the solar system with infighting between Earth, Mars, and those who live out past the belt, when suddenly an alien artifact shows up. Influx (a large secret govt. sect suppressing technology breakthroughs and keeping it for themselves) and Kill Decision (autonomous killing drones) by Daniel Suarez were fun. I liked Deamon (a murder mystery…
on “Ask HN: What were the best science fiction books that you read in 2019?” ↗…won't want it to end. Other authors I happen to enjoy very much include David Mitchell (Thousand Autumns or Bone Clocks FTW), Cory Doctorow (Makers, Walkaway), Blake Crouch (Recursion), Daniel Suarez (Influx, Delta-V, Daemon), Robin Sloan (Sourdough, Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore). Just to wrap up and repeat what has no doubt been said elsewhere in the thread, fiction in particular is the gateway to empathy…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗Influx by Daniel Suarez comes to mind (though it has a slightly different spin).
on “January 1928: Dirac equation unifies quantum mechanics and special relativity” ↗Having just finished Influx by Daniel Suarez [1], your comment rang a little eerily. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Influx-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0525953183 -- TL;DR Synopsis -- Secret government agency with hyper-advanced technology (AI,…
on “Technology predictions” ↗…think this type of automation is that far off. Is that "AI"? To me it is and I suspect most people outside of HN will call it something along those lines. When some kind of AI like Varuna in the novel _Influx_ by Daniel Suarez hits the streets people will not give one shit if you call it AI or God... they will be very, very afraid of it.
on “How Far to AI Utopia?” ↗…category of law a place where the DoJ has intercepted enough sketchy conversations that they've got leverage against key Senators and Reps? That's all I can think of too after reading Daniel Suarez' "Influx." With the resources and information at their disposal I would not put it past them to take this approach. That raises the question of how we can change the system if we have to assume some sort of blackmail…
on “Proposed Info Sharing Legislation Could Worsen NSA Surveillance” ↗Sounds like the plot of "Influx" by Daniel Suarez.
on “The U.S. Government Has a Secret System for Stalling Patents” ↗That concept is used in Daniel Suarez's book 'Influx' to avoid AI systems doing facial recognition.
…I would just like to point out my appreciation for the many authors that spent the time to open the cans of worms and tell stories of their implications. This article makes me thinkof Daniel Suarez's Influx. And only a decade ago, I thought it was weird that Neal Stephenson's snow crash had an entire subclass of people delivering pizzas, but now with Uber eats and foodera, except that they deliver anything…
on “A Surveillance Master Dissects a Murder from the Sky [video]” ↗