Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Besides having a huge mouthful of a title, “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race” by Nicole Perlroth is a truly monumental study of an incredibly mind-boggling issue. Now approaching my 82nd birthday, I’m obviously a product of un-wired, non-digital Dark Ages – or perhaps they were really the ages where it was understood that intelligence, of all varieties, existed primarily in the human brain. Yes, my generation DID know about electricity, radio waves had been discovered, and television was likewise being developed via the manipulation of Cathode Rays, in a glass tube invented by Ferdinand Braun in 1897, 42 years before my birth. When I was 30, the first Moon Landing occurred. I believe the “computing power” that accomplished that feat (think of the movie “Hidden Figures”) used room-sized punch-card computers with less computing capability than in everyone’s smart phones today, let alone laptops or “Clouds”. However, having been a devotee of dystopian and science fiction novels for years, I’m very familiar with the basic concept of computers and “Webs” taking over the world. As human consciousness explores the frontiers of Artificial Intelligence and develops ever more powerful cyber technology, the potential for catastrophe expands as exponentially as does the deployment of that technology. Without the application of the necessary degree of ethical and rational control, any combination of possible disasters is not only possible, but likely inevitable. This is the point that Perlroth’s book explores with depth and incredible detail. She discusses both the history and the lack of limits of “hacking” in as straight forward and practical way as possible. This is a journalistic tour de force, a sober warning, and a nuanced tale of intricacies beyond imagination. Whether or not solutions are possible, the author makes the problem terrifyingly clear. This is a book which requires serious consideration if the survival of human society is a real objective.