"Walkaway" by Cory Doctorow - A Science Fiction Book Review

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“Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.”
– Ayn Rand –

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I've enjoyed Cory Doctorow's science fiction for many years.

Some time ago, I read his "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom," gaining an appreciation of Doctorow's awareness of the Maker Movement and insights into its possible future.

And so I was pleased when his recent novel, "Walkaway," showed up at our public library.

"Walkaway" by Cory Doctory
Image captured by @creatr

Walkaway is a fast paced novel,

picturing a not terribly distant future in which a sizable portion of humanity has had more than enough of the regimentation and coercion of modern government.

Idealistic youth, in particular, observe the materialistic motivations of their parents and peers, and reject it. They are appalled at the prospect of production facilities that could easily supply the basic needs of the population, simply shut down and idle due to political reasons or out of what appears to be simple greed.

Rather than rebel in conventional ways—engagement in politics, subversion, or outright rebellion and revolution—they choose to walk away from "normal" society. Hence, the title of the book.

Employing the use of amazingly advanced descendants of today's 3D printing technology, mesh networks, encryption, and cloud storage, the walkaways develop their own habitats beyond the fringes of "civilization." In some cases, they repurpose abandoned urban areas. In other cases, they lead nomadic lives in the wilderness, while enjoying the comforts of highly advanced technology.

This quote from one of the book's characters offers a capsule summary of their reasoning:

"Why should the world go on when its system doesn't need people any more? Our system should serve us, not the other way around. Look at walkaways: if you show up in walkaway, there will be things you can do to make room for yourself. Walkaway is based on the idea anyone should be able to pitch in with her work and provide everything she needs to live well, bed and roof and food, and extra for people who can't do so much. In stable walkaway places, the problem is there aren't enough humans."

The walkaways put a very high value on human life and ability.

Sadly, however, simply by existing,

walkaways are a threat to the powers that be. As a result, the novel is rather dark. Just when it seems that those who have walked away are succeeding wildly, having created a culture of abundance, The Man hunts them down. Government and its minions destroy whatever the walkaway community has built, while murdering them all to boot.

Sound familiar? If you've had any experience with anarchy, resistance to government, or speaking out against such aberrations of humanity, you know that the last thing human government is willing to do is simply leave you alone.

But there is much more to the story.

The book also explores fascinating concepts involving uploading of personal identity into computer storage. It explores the possibility of resurrecting the dead by running those uploaded personalities on high-powered computers. These ideas have been dealt with in science fiction for a long time, but Doctorow takes them about as far as any Sci-Fi author I've ever read.

Along the way, as a reader, I couldn't help but contemplate fundamental philosophical questions. What is human consciousness? What constitutes identity? Can there possibly be a continuity between a dying or dead human and a captured snapshot of their mental state, even if it were captured perfectly? What would it be like to "wake up" and discover you are forever part of a computing machine, sans body?

Although in my opinion the book goes unnecessarily overboard in depicting a few interpersonal physical relationships, overall I feel that it is a most worthwhile read. Doctorow's treatment of the subject matter in the Maker realm and in the realm of identity and consciousness of machine intelligence is well worth contemplating.

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~FIN~

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