Colossus, D. F. Jones
Colossus, D. F. Jones
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
Club: $8.49

Colossus

Author: D. F. Jones

Narrator: P.J. Ochlan

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/09/2017

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

Charles Forbin has dedicated the last ten years of his life to the construction of his own supercomputer, Colossus, rejecting romantic and social endeavors in order to create the United States' very first Artificially Intelligent defense system.

Colossus is a supercomputer capable of in-taking and analyzing data rapidly, allowing it to make real time decisions about the nation's defense. But Colossus soon exceeds even Forbin’s calculated expectations, learning to think independently of the Colossus Programming Office, processing data over one hundred times faster than Forbin and his team had originally anticipated.

The President hands off full control of the nation's missiles and other defense protocols to Colossus and makes the announcement to the world that he has ensured peace.

However, the USSR quickly announces that it too has a supercomputer, Guardian, with capabilities similar to that of Colossus.

Forbin is concerned when Colossus asks—asks—to communicate with Guardian. The computer he built shouldn't be able to ask at all . . .

About D. F. Jones

D. F. Jones was a British science fiction author and a naval commander in World War II. His writings dealt with the ongoing battle-both physical and philosophical-between man and machine. He is perhaps most famous for his Colossus series, which was translated to the big screen in 1970 for the film Colossus: The Forbin Project, which was well-received by critics, and was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1971.


Reviews

"I am the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours." Colossus: The Forbin Project, which is based on this book, is one of my go-to sci-fi movies. It isn't a classic, but it's also isn't bad. It certainly i......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Wonderful, overblown, dated doomsday story. The flap says Jones "was a commander in the British Navy throughout WW II" and worked as a radio operator, bricklayer and gardener. And it shows. Judging by the book, he'd never heard an American speak, and it hurts to read ostensibly American characters r......more

Goodreads review by Pam

I hadn't realised when I saw 'The Forbin Project' on TV many years ago that it was based on this book published in 1966. The book opens at the point where a huge project (The Forbin Project headed by Prof Forbin) is about to reach fruition with the turning on of Colossus, a super computer that is ab......more