annotation: Sunrise on the Reaping

[matsushima]

It's so hard to annotate books I enjoyed, especially when I enjoyed it in a fangirly way? … which feels like a weird thing to say about a book in which ~47 children die violent deaths at the hands of the state but, like, you know what I mean.
… but I did want to share this one (non-spoilery) little snippet:

[Plutarch Heavensbee] sighs when he mentions the tools that were abolished and incapacitated in the past, ones deemed fated to destroy humanity because of their ability to replicate any scenario using any person. "And in mere seconds!" He snaps his fingers… "I guess it was the right thing to do, given our natures. We almost wiped ourselves out even without them, so you can imagine! But oh, the possibilities!

It's interesting to me (as a Luddite and a hater of so-called "AI") is that 1) this is put in the mouth of Plutarch Heavensbee, of all characters, and 2) it draws a direct line between so-called "AI" deepfake makers (Midjourney, et al.) and, like, Skynet. I don't necessarily think that's where we're going… I hate so-called "AI" for aesthetic and moral reasons but it's interesting.