I see it as an example of the kind of story where the author has a really cool idea, but forces a pointless conflict onto it so that there will be a plot.
I would have liked to see the story’s end without the second AI (augmented individual). However, I did like the story as it was. The issue I found with it was that their conflict of values was artificial. Human value is more complex than what was depicted (aesthetic hedonism(?) vs. utilitarianism), and unless the author had some thesis that such an augmented human would simplify their values, I would have enjoyed seeing them cooperate to a better end, for Earth and for the protagonist. Their goals did not conflict in any way (unless the protagonist was a paperclipper for intelligence), and they could have achieved a result that had greater value through cooperation, with a faster utopia for Reynolds and an isolated echo chamber for the protagonist, as well as a possible form of society of superintelligences.
I agree that the conflict was implausible, but then the magnitude and speed of growth of the main character’s intelligence was already magical enough that I’d already put the whole thing into the “stories that should be judged based on the aesthetic, not anything remotely resembling plausibility” category.
I see it as an example of the kind of story where the author has a really cool idea, but forces a pointless conflict onto it so that there will be a plot.
I would have liked to see the story’s end without the second AI (augmented individual). However, I did like the story as it was. The issue I found with it was that their conflict of values was artificial. Human value is more complex than what was depicted (aesthetic hedonism(?) vs. utilitarianism), and unless the author had some thesis that such an augmented human would simplify their values, I would have enjoyed seeing them cooperate to a better end, for Earth and for the protagonist. Their goals did not conflict in any way (unless the protagonist was a paperclipper for intelligence), and they could have achieved a result that had greater value through cooperation, with a faster utopia for Reynolds and an isolated echo chamber for the protagonist, as well as a possible form of society of superintelligences.
I agree that the conflict was implausible, but then the magnitude and speed of growth of the main character’s intelligence was already magical enough that I’d already put the whole thing into the “stories that should be judged based on the aesthetic, not anything remotely resembling plausibility” category.