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Sam Price is a cognitive psychologist who works for a company that assesses the merits and results of research projects as the “disinterested third party.” He’s sent to Nevada to a military testing facility to assess the training provided to the person who coordinates the use of a new type of unmanned aerial vehicle for use by the military. JACC, as it’s known, is an artificial intelligence capable of making its own determination as to who on the ground is hostile. While it can be operated by a pilot on the ground, it can also launch an attack based on its assessment without input from a human.
I’m beginning to wonder if Bruce Perrin has used some of the new mind research to read mine, because he keeps picking subjects that already scare me! This is his second book in the Mind Sleuth series. The first, Of Half A Mind, dealt with brain research, which has creeped me out ever since I saw the first news story about it. Mind in the Clouds deals with weaponized drones and drones in general are the bogeymen in my mind. I think both brain research and drones will end up being like splitting the atom—lots of good uses, but also many deadly ones. I believe both will drastically change our world just as splitting the atom did. From the first pages of Mind in the Clouds, I dreaded what was coming, and when it happened, I was totally caught up in the action and excitement. |
