{"id":1460,"date":"2026-08-18T10:32:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T14:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/garthnichols\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2026-08-06T10:40:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:40:48","slug":"book-review-all-that-we-see-or-seem-k-liu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/garthnichols\/uncategorized\/book-review-all-that-we-see-or-seem-k-liu\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: All That We See or Seem (K Liu)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

A dark future worth looking at<\/h2>\n
\n

\u201cTheir knowledge was more in the realm of knowing how to ask machines to do things than in knowing how to do things themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I picked up Ken Liu\u2019s All That We See or Seem<\/em> on the recommendation of Anand Mahadevan, Executive Director of CAIS. He suggested it as a way to think more deeply about the darker possible futures of generative AI\u2014not through another research report, policy paper, or breathless prediction, but through fiction.<\/p>\n

It was an excellent recommendation.<\/p>\n

The book is part of Liu\u2019s Julia Z. series, and it works as a technological thriller. But what held my attention was not simply the plot. It was the world Liu builds around it: a world in which artificial intelligence has become so embedded in communication, commerce, creativity, security, and everyday life that people can no longer be entirely sure what is real, who is speaking, what they own, or whether they still understand the systems governing their lives.<\/p>\n

The book takes some of the signals already around us\u2014AI-generated content, surveillance capitalism, technological monopolies, misinformation, declining trust, outsourced thinking\u2014and stretches them forward.<\/p>\n

That is what makes it unsettling. It is also what makes it useful.<\/em><\/p>\n

You would be interested in this book if\u2026<\/h2>\n