Dan Brown's latest book - Origin
bone conduction technology
Thor (hammer-wielding Norse) - Q crumb pic)
Poseidon
Elon Musk-like character
AI
weaponized technology
We are introduced about Bone conduction technology, which drives sound directly into the bones of jaw,and leaves your ears free.
Brown runs through a list of once-mighty almightys and the moment they lost their influence. Thor, the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder and lightning? "Science figures out, 'Oh, wait a minute, that's just static electricity in the atmosphere,' and Thor is banished.
Same with Poseidon and the tides – all of the gods in the ancient pantheons fall to science, mainly because the questions that these gods answered were answered by science."
The first name the reader encounters belongs to that of American inventor and futurist Edmond Kirsch – think Elon Musk (from an article, not my-Anon words) meets Ray Kurzweil – who, at the novel's outset is meeting with leaders from three of the world's major religions at a mountaintop sanctuary in Catalonia.
That the power of technological advance is exponential, especially now with burgeoning artificial intelligence. We are evolving, intellectually, at a very, very fast rate."
Main characters are assisted, by one of Kirsch's many inventions – a hyper-intelligent AI named Winston (imagine J.A.R.V.I.S. from Iron Man, complete with a chipper British accent).
"Clearly there are enormous dangers," Brown says. "Humankind has never created a technology that it has not weaponized. You can't find one.