Nexus, Ramez Naam

It was only a matter of time; I started reading the first of Naam's trilogy, Nexus, couple of months after I finished the last book in the series, Apex! Whereas, I had made up my mind about the main characters' past life, in Nexus I read Naam's version. The most striking difference, was Samantha Cataranes'. I would have never guessed she had such rough childhood, and by nature of living that life she had become a fighter. Of all characters in Naam's book, and Naam is a prolific character creator, Sam is the one I like to follow the most. She is neutral, and has the least to gain from investing in, believing, or promoting the human brain augmentation technology. She is making up her mind, as events unfold, and present her with evidence to take side.

 After reading two of the three books, I still have not made up my mind. That if intervention in evolution is unavoidable; and that, it is only a matter of time that we become one with technology; should we embrace it and make it available to all, regulate it, or squash it?! Naam's Nexus and Apex, doesn't want to, or doesn't know how to take a clear stance on this. What it does take clear stance on is violence is necessary, that many will perish. In the end there doesn't seem to be a clear winner --only a power shift. One thing is very clear, regardless of which category Naam's character fall in: normal-, augmented-, trans-, or post- human, they are all easily manipulated. They can easily become slaves of other's ideas and motives!

Apex, by Ramez Naam

APEX, independent of what led to it, (events of Nexus and Crux), builds a story based on connection of minds through the NexusOS. Through this soft layer one human mind can feel and see the other's. In addition Nexus OS enhances the natural ability to think, learn, memorize, problem solve, and focus.

It is year 2040, and unrest is a dominant and recurring theme; the government of China, India, and USA are involved in secretly boosting their power position by enhancing NexusOS while publicly denouncing it.

In US, post a series of suspicious deaths of high ranking government officials, leaked government documents show it's involved in crimes post-human's are accused of committing.
In China a post-human, Su-Yong Shu, has been tortured so badly that has led her to create a cloned software that when activated will set the path to destroy all human life on earth.
In India, government officials bribe Chinese scientist to get a hold of part of the AI technology behind Su-Yong Shu.

Where there is evil, there is good. And in this story, the goodness comes into play quite often to defeat the bad. It's the author's belief that only compassion and peace can stop war and devastation.

What stood out for me, were meditation and concentration and how he used them in his story. It inspired me, to think what if? What if peace could be reached in the world if those of us who believed in it meditated?
However, I would have appreciated a bit of out of the box thinking for the governments of the imaginary year of 2040. Intentionally or inadvertently the political part of the story closely follows the happenings of past couple of decades.