Infinite Detail - bookrastinating.com

paperback, 384 pages

Published March 5, 2019 by MCD x FSG Originals.

ISBN:: 978-0-374-17541-2

BEFORE: In Bristol’s centre lies the Croft, a digital no-man’s-land cut off from the surveillance, Big Data dependence, and corporate-sponsored, globally hegemonic aspirations that have overrun the rest of the world. Ten years in, it’s become a centre of creative counterculture. But it’s fraying at the edges, radicalising from inside. How will it fare when its chief architect, Rushdi Mannan, takes off to meet his boyfriend in New York City - now the apotheosis of the new techno-utopian global metropolis? AFTER: An act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the Internet. Global trade, travel, and communication have collapsed. The luxuries that characterised modern life are scarce. In the Croft, Mary - who has visions of people presumed dead - is sought out by grieving families seeking connections to lost ones. But does Mary have a gift or is she just hustling to stay alive? Like Grids, who runs the …

BEFORE: In Bristol’s centre lies the Croft, a digital no-man’s-land cut off from the surveillance, Big Data dependence, and corporate-sponsored, globally hegemonic aspirations that have overrun the rest of the world. Ten years in, it’s become a centre of creative counterculture. But it’s fraying at the edges, radicalising from inside. How will it fare when its chief architect, Rushdi Mannan, takes off to meet his boyfriend in New York City - now the apotheosis of the new techno-utopian global metropolis? AFTER: An act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the Internet. Global trade, travel, and communication have collapsed. The luxuries that characterised modern life are scarce. In the Croft, Mary - who has visions of people presumed dead - is sought out by grieving families seeking connections to lost ones. But does Mary have a gift or is she just hustling to stay alive? Like Grids, who runs the Croft’s black market like personal turf. Or like Tyrone, who hoards music (culled from cassettes, the only medium to survive the crash) and tattered sneakers like treasure. The world of Infinite Detail is a small step shy of our own: utterly dependent on technology, constantly brokering autonomy and privacy for comfort and convenience.

2 editions

SocProf reviewed Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan

Review of 'Infinite Detail' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

It's interesting that, like Robert Harris's Second Sleep, Infinite Detail takes as its premise the collapse of the Internet (here, as a result of cyber terrorism), to explore what's left in the wreckage of global capitalism. Where Robert Harris took England back to a theocratic monarchy, Tim Maugham gets us to some form of communautarism. We follow several characters who, before the collapse, were all involved in some ways with the designing of a local, decentralized, network they crafted to escape the ubiquitous surveillance society that David Lyon has written about for decades now. However, none of them can escape the collapse, the subsequent rise of half-baked governance and militias. The characters all take different trajectories: one decides to run the community the old fashioned way, one becomes a sort of revolutionary against the militias, while the designer of the local network runs in search of his US boyfriend. The …

It's interesting that, like Robert Harris's Second Sleep, Infinite Detail takes as its premise the collapse of the Internet (here, as a result of cyber terrorism), to explore what's left in the wreckage of global capitalism. Where Robert Harris took England back to a theocratic monarchy, Tim Maugham gets us to some form of communautarism. We follow several characters who, before the collapse, were all involved in some ways with the designing of a local, decentralized, network they crafted to escape the ubiquitous surveillance society that David Lyon has written about for decades now. However, none of them can escape the collapse, the subsequent rise of half-baked governance and militias. The characters all take different trajectories: one decides to run the community the old fashioned way, one becomes a sort of revolutionary against the militias, while the designer of the local network runs in search of his US boyfriend. The problem is that that's pretty much it. That's the book. This feels a bit light on content, which is a shame, with such a great premise.

jm3

rated it

April 4, 2021