Book Review: Precipice by Scott Bollens

Reviewed by Elizabeth Zender

An enthralling exploration of the lives we could lead if we allow AI to run unchecked

In 2032, chip implantation has been approved, and computer-human integration may proceed. The supercomputer “interconnect,” with its flawless algorithms and nonstop connectivity to citizens, is heralded as the next step toward a utopian future. It is deemed a “major lifestyle advance.” 

Jared Rohde, our narrator and an increasingly cynical academic, notices a change with his students first. Not only is he dissatisfied with his professional life, but Rohde feels he is part of an endless cycle of desire and disappointment. He dreams of feeling like his idealized real man: a warrior, someone who is admired. As things trend toward the worst, Rohde elects to get his chip implanted.

The immediate results? Rohde’s confidence soars. He notices an improvement in his teaching, a general sharpening of the mind, and a lack of need for stimulants like coffee. But as time goes on, he feels simultaneously empowered and lacking control. As he so concisely puts it: “Complete, but subordinate.” 

After another outburst in class, Rohde connects with a student to gain understanding. It seems that interconnect provides an incessant barrage of othering groups, ones that Rohde, a political and urban science professor, hasn’t even heard of before. Here, the hallucinations of artificial intelligence seem to be difficult to separate from reality.

In this moment, what Scott Bollens is doing becomes crystal clear: Precipice: When Algorithms Triumphed plays out the worldwide reality of the chronically online and the easily influenced. Maybe like our own reality, the chipped citizens become prey to hate-filled messages on interconnect and take stances similar to those who have fallen into groups like QAnon. Rhodes’s student explains that many of his friends can’t seem to pull themselves back to reality, that they are trapped and influenced by these hateful messages. 

As rage, tragedy, and fighting grow, Rohde feels his vulnerability increase. He encounters a small group of individuals who know the trouble that has been unleashed upon the human populace, that the machine entered society before anyone knew how to manage it. Rohde becomes a warrior in the search for truth, hope, and the freedom from interconnect.

Bollens uses Rohde as a lens through which we can view the problematic nature of being constantly connected to the online world. For example, Rohde attends a meeting about troubles in the neighborhood only for it to break up early due to disagreements seemingly beyond reconciliation. It is here that he sees how powerful interconnect truly is, that it can influence humanity without anyone seeing that it is doing just that. Bollens’s astute commentary on the increasing interconnectedness between humans and technology in this novel brings our current state of affairs to the forefront of the reader’s mind. Today, it’s social media, but tomorrow? How close are we truly to something as influential as interconnect?

Bollens pulls no punches in this novel. He does not shy away from sharing just how ugly the world can be when AI runs unchecked. Journey with Rohde through his moments of psychosis and of heroics; the road is as unsettling as it is compelling. You will not regret reading this.

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