Hi, Marc-Uwe! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’m a writer from Berlin. I make up stories, podcasts, songs, children’s books, dystopias, and occasionally trouble. Some people know me because of a communist kangaroo, who shares my flat. Others because I keep warning them about the future in funny ways (QualityLand).

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

Pretty early. As a kid I loved books because they allowed you to disappear into another world without having to pack a suitcase. Later I realized writing lets you build those worlds yourself. Which is basically playing with Lego, except with existential dread.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Probably something with pirates or dinosaurs. Or pirate dinosaurs. Memory is unreliable. Maybe something from Astrid Lindgren.
•  The one that made you want to become an author: Puh so many. I love Kurt Vonnegut. He showed me that books could be smart, absurd, philosophical, and hilarious at the same time.
•  The one that you can’t stop thinking about: 1984 by George Orwell. Unfortunately, it keeps getting updated by reality.

Your latest novel, Views, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Algorithms. Fear. Rage. Attention. Collapse.

What can readers expect?

A fast-paced thriller about digital outrage, manipulation, and the terrifying speed at which modern societies lose their minds online. Also: suspense, uncomfortable questions, and hopefully at least a few moments where readers laugh before realizing they probably shouldn’t.

Where did the inspiration for Views come from?

Mostly from observing the internet for too long. Social media platforms have become giant emotional amplification machines. I was interested in what happens when outrage becomes more profitable than truth and when people can no longer distinguish between reality, narrative, and performance.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I always enjoy writing the little moments the most. Interactions between the protagonist and her daughter. Office chatter. And of course the twists. I love the twists.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was keeping the story up to date. Technology and public discourse evolve so quickly that a dystopian story constantly risks becoming documentary.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on several projects simultaneously, which is either creatively productive or a symptom of complete mental disorganization. Possibly both.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

I’m always interested in speculative fiction that explores where technology and society are heading. Preferably books that are clever enough to scare me a little.

 Will you be picking up Views? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Marc-Uwe Kling, Author of ‘Views’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

I first heard about the notion of an internet ‘bubble’ at my first year of university many years ago. At the time, the prospect that purely off the basis of previous search histories and selections, I could type the exact same thing into a search engine (okay, Google) as someone else, and the results which come up could be completely different. For example, ‘Hong Kong’, could yield top results which discuss the current delicate political situation there, or recommendations for tourist spots. What’s worrying about this is that it means people are increasingly not exposed to anything that challenges their viewpoint. To flip that, it means that people are only ever shown things which tell them that their beliefs and views are correct. The arguable consequence of this can be seen in the increasing partisanship across society – the refusal to even try to see where someone with divergent political beliefs may be coming from.

But it’s difficult to explain this to many people. These are complicated concepts that are difficult to explain to people. Enter Qualityland. A novel that sits somewhere between speculative and science fiction (to better understand the difference between the two, see here), it was initially published in German in 2017. The book’s setting is a futuristic unspecified country where algorithms and major companies have free reign in determining the lives of people – who they date, what they buy (products are literally delivered to people on the basis of a predictive algorithm determining when somebody will want something, and what it will be), how they live – even how they will vote. As the reader becomes immersed in the story of Peter Jobless and the world of Qualityland, very contemporary concerns about insufficient regulation on data privacy and corporate reach become accessible.

Don’t worry – the book is very readable, and there is quite a bit of acerbic wit to keep the subject matter from becoming too heavy; one of the book’s pivotal items is a pink dolphin vibrator. This contrives to mean that the plot unfolds in a way that surprises, which is quite refreshing when dealing with storylines which create a cautionary tale about corporate overreach.

One of the other dominant themes within the text is about the creation of artificial intelligence that is so sophisticated as to be a individual rather than a very clever machine. This is less relevant to the concerns of 2019, but as technology becomes ever more complex (remember, there is an AI which has passed the Turing test), and AIs become ever-more present in everyday life, this is a question that we as a society will have to face at some point.

I’ll confess that I dragged my feet in reading the first few chapters, not certain where exactly they were heading, and equally uncertain that I was fully engaged. Peter Jobless initially seems a rather dull character who is wholly content to allow himself to be pushed around by algorithms that do him no favours, but as the story develops, it swiftly becomes apparent that there is more to Peter than a first glance would suggest. I guess that’s the point of the book; individuals are more complex than the sum total of their browsing history. As we move toward an increasingly digitised world, it’s important for us to remember this and to delineate clearly where the analogue world and its myriad complexities begins and ends, and to understand the limitations of simply trusting in google to always give us the ‘right’ answer. It’s one of the reasons I think this book is well worth the read, and likely why it’s currently being made into a series by HBO. It’s also why it’s probably going to pop up as a recommendation for me to watch at some point.

Qualityland is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of January 7th 2020.

Will you be picking up Qualityland? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets 1984. In the near-future, all decision-making is automated, until one man makes a brazen choice of his own, with global consequences.

Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of society. An automated matchmaking service knows the best partners for everyone and helps with the break up when your ideal match (frequently) changes. And the foolproof algorithms of the biggest, most successful company in the world, TheShop, know what you want before you do and conveniently deliver to your doorstep before you even order it.

In QualityCity, Peter Jobless is a machine scrapper who can’t quite bring himself to destroy the imperfect machines sent his way, and has become the unwitting leader of a band of robotic misfits hidden in his home and workplace. One day, Peter receives a product from TheShop he absolutely, positively knows he does not want, and which he decides, at great personal cost, to return. The only problem: doing so means proving the perfect algorithm of TheShop wrong, calling into question the very foundations of QualityLand itself.

The post Review: Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling appeared first on The Nerd Daily.