Social media has its discontents, but it's not such a departure from older modes of communication - or is it? Here we have Adam Roberts taking on social media through the lens of the German philosopher Hegel, plus the usual Roberts assortment of puns and clever flights of imagination.

In the near future, The This is the name of a new social media app. A seed is injected into the roof of the mouth, and sends tendrils into the brain. You the user can now read and write to Twitter without using your phone, no big deal! Except we know what's next: no person has ever left The This voluntarily. The network, normally indifferent to whether a particular person joins, is unusually interested in recruiting an ordinary man named Alan Rich.

In the farther future, humanity is under subtle attack by Hive Mind θ, a collective, immortal network of brain-linked humans. Adan, a man who's down on his financial luck, puts his beloved phone, sorry, "Phene", into storage and joins the war. Turns out he may have Hive-defeating powers. Is his story linked to Alan's?

I don't know enough about Hegel to follow how the old guy relates to the story. The Hive Mind does not see a distinction between subject and object, since they are both subject and object. Also, it seems that spirit is everything. God, or actually Roberts, provides some explanation near the end. There's one chapter that imagines the farther future of Orwell's 1984, and various amusing speculations on our fascination with our smartphones. And don't forget the bits about reincarnation.

Despite being a bit hard to follow, the book is quite refreshing, and unlike anything else I've encountered. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2022/05/review-of-this-by-adam-roberts.html ( )