The Proving Ground

This is a book review but although it is fiction, it has been tagged under AI and technocracy.

 

This (greyed out) is from an AI summary my review is below this:

The Proving Ground is considered a fresh, compelling, and unsettling addition to the Lincoln Lawyer series, praised for its timely subject matter and masterful blend of legal thriller and tech-driven suspense, making it a must-read for fans

Plot Summary

The Case: Mickey Haller shifts from criminal to civil court to represent a mother suing a tech giant, Tidalwaiv, whose AI chatbot encouraged a boy to kill his girlfriend.

The Stakes: Haller faces powerful tech forces, delving into the unregulated frontier of artificial intelligence and data overload.

The Team-Up: He partners with journalist Jack McEvoy, who investigates the story, adding an investigative layer to the courtroom battle.

Personal Drama: Haller's life is further complicated as his ex-wife, Maggie McPherson, moves in after wildfires destroy her home, bringing personal and professional tension.

My review ( I don’t know where I find time to read)…

Michael Connelly has partially redeemed himself after his last book which was a big disappointment (see my previous review) because in his previous scribblings he pushed his political views.  This is an important current topic and relevant to the debate on artificial intelligence but unfortunately his characters cannot escape the “woke” framing.  At this point even the dim-witted must realize that the left vs. right or Antifa vs. Maga antagonism is manufactured and not organic. Manipulation and engineering of social media have been employed to create division and to aid the Hegelian dialectic.  The financial system is being collapsed against the background of confusion and division and that is no accident.

At least the promotion of “woke” is more subtle such as the girl who was a victim wanted to grow up to be a vaccinator because her father had died of Covid (lolz). Perhaps the world was spared another mad scientist when she was gunned down.  Seriously, we have lived through psychological and biowarfare where both the virus (or something) was weaponized and killed people as well as the vaccine.  Hobsons choice.  In the meantime, they shut down the economy to conduct repo and a wealth transfer.

Another hint at Connelly and his “woke” characters is the Incel programmer.   I am sure that these people exist in real life just as I am sure that they were deliberately created (like his characters) by pushing hyper-feminism and leaving young men without a constructive future.  Not having a job, being told you are worthless, and a housing affordability crisis coupled with the rise of girl power does not lead to harmony between the sexes or a meaningful goal to strive for. Don’t complain when the monsters that you create turn on you.

Finally, two of the characters are suddenly revealed as “black” when we are well into the book.  Is this supposed to shock us and expose our latent racisms? (lolz). It is a bit like that court room scene out of  A TIME TO KILL with Samuel L. Jackson and Matthew McConaughey (Brigance) when a white jury in a racially tense Mississippi town to empathize with his client, Brigance asks the jury members to close their eyes and imagine the scene….then shocks them by telling them that the girl was black.  Apparently, they only had monochrome imaginations.  Sorry, I don’t need your literary convention to shock me into being woke and non-racist. I don’t discriminate. I am equally racist to everyone (lolz).

Michael Connelly has done us a favour by highlighting the dangers of Artificial Intelligence but there are many more AI dangers left undiscovered.  The book is a good read and skilfully written but he needs to get over himself tyring to subliminally lecture his readers.  What next?  We find that Cisco is a Gay Biker with pink hair who ran away from the Village People.  I will say this one more time. We are sick of being culturally manipulated through books and movies etc.  Also, you are either ideologically captured (and therefore blind) or you work for the man.   Enough already.  Everything you see…..all the chaos, confusion and division has been deliberately made so that the oligarchs can collapse the financial system and issue in techno-feudalism and if you think that you are exempt, I can find an AI that will write your books in less than five minutes.