Carbon Awakening

Birth of The God Machine

By: Ben Way

Narrated by: Rosanna Bini

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

What's next for us?

Ethics Engineer Jennifer Peterson already knows where humans are going. As robots gain more facility with thought and problem solving, a human future melded with machines seems inescapable. But the timing will be critical, for in 2030, America is torn between an analog past and a digital future. Silicon Valley and forward-thinking states have broken away from the U.S. to pursue their own path, one that Jennifer and her husband, George, have staked their lives upon.

As a young scientist, Jennifer had glimpsed an era in which next-stage humans would gain the ability to balance rational and emotional intelligence.

"If robots could feel, they could help man build on our greatest strength - our intellect - and overcome our greatest weakness - emotion. This reliance on the heart regarding matters of the mind, I believe, is what holds us back from further evolution".

Now, her effort to bring artificial consciousness to machines is nearing a tipping point. She and George fear that, if not upended, the old models of money and power will allow the wealthy elite to hoard the highest form of intelligence, leaving ordinary people behind. Together, their work could trigger two revolutionary events: imparting a soul to artificial intelligence, and bringing human beings one step nearer to integrating with these ultimate thinking, feeling machines.

As fiction meets fact, listeners will come to realize they are previewing not what's next for us...but when and how. Is Jennifer's journey near its end? Or is it just beginning?

©2019 Benjamin Way (P)2019 Benjamin Way

Great book and great narrator!

Carbon Awakening is a fascinating and potentially depressing look into the future of the US, technology, and the world!

Ben Way clearly has put a lot of time and energy into considering how technology, specifically ai, will play a role in the future of humans.

I can't wait for the next book!

Great writing!

loved it! Captivating! Artificial intelligence takeover? What is in our future? Loved the character development

Incredibly written and read!

Fantastically written! I read both the print and listened to the audio. I especially enjoyed the print because Way's prose was meaningful and expressive; reading several passages his expressive details were embedded in my curiosities and contemplations. "It was what persisted that gave life meaning," so many things to reflect and ponder in this intriguing novel.

Uniquely, he welds together history, present, and future with intriguing precision. His thoughtful imagination and creative writing isn’t far from the world’s reality today. As the story unfolds, connections to real-world technologies on the horizon mixed with the best of ethics, philosophy, and psychology make this book a must-read! Accolades to Way for the incredible vision he crafted so impeccably. His hard work, investing his superior writing talents to engage his audience in a work of fiction that truly matters, needs to be read, shared, and discussed.

Further more, Way seemed to have a deep understanding of socioeconomic disparities, challenging assumptions, with an altruistic heart in the plot line. While there was a political undertone that some minds might not appreciate, it sets up the story's conflict and climax appropriately. Artificial intelligence taken to the next level... ARTIFICIAL CONSCIOUSNESS!

In listening to the audio, Bini narrated beautifully and articulately. Occasionally I felt her vocals didn't convey the more sinister characters very well but her accent cross-overs were well executed. Overall, truly a fantastic read and listen!