Burning Bright (Peter Ash #2)(121)

For those who’d like to learn more, Once a Warrior Always a Warrior by Charles W. Hoge, MD, is a hands-on manual for those suffering from post-traumatic stress, or for anyone whose loved one may be suffering. I also recommend The Evil Hours by David L. Morris, both a memoir of post-traumatic stress and a deep exploration into its causes and remedies.

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MOST OF THE TECHNOLOGIES presented here are very real, although not necessarily in the form I’ve given them. I thought I was writing ahead of the curve, but the curve is catching up fast.

Cognitive computing and machine learning are revolutionizing how we interact with the world, from voice recognition in our devices to facial recognition at our borders to industrial robots teaching themselves to solve physical challenges.

IBM’s Watson, a “cognitive computer” once best known for beating three human Jeopardy! champions simultaneously, now aggregates and summarizes diffuse information for IBM clients.

As I write this, a large technology company is testing a solar drone that can stay aloft for three months at a time, designed to provide Internet access to remote parts of the globe. By the time this book is in print, those drones may well be in use.

Our ever-advancing technologies can have the effect of leveraging our mere human efforts into something greater. We can learn more, know more, build more, do more—and that’s wonderful. But access to these tools is not limited to those with good intentions. A small determined group can do a lot of damage. Large institutions, both public and private, operate with few controls in a fast-changing environment.

For some reason, I don’t find this entirely comforting.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Thanks as always to Margret and Duncan for putting up with me during the process of writing this book, and to the rest of my friends and family for their support and enthusiasm and constant salespersonship. If you’ve ever met a member of my immediate family, especially the women I’m lucky enough to be related to by blood and marriage, the odds are good that you now own at least one of my books.

Thanks again to Barbara Poelle for being my hotshot New York agent, and to Heather Baror-Shapiro, for getting Peter in print overseas. Thanks as always to Sara Minnich for her lapidary eye and ear, and to the other readers and editors who have made this book far better than it would be otherwise. Thanks to the design team who made this book so beautiful, and to Putnam for believing in the last book, and this book, and the next two to come.

Thanks to the Putnam publicity and marketing mavens, including (but definitely not limited to) Stephanie Hargadon, Ashley McClay, and Arianna Romig, who help get books into the hands of readers, and keep me talking to interesting people. You didn’t get any credit on the last book, because I had no idea how important your work is and how much it contributes to the success of every book. Please consider this thanks retroactive and extending indefinitely into the future.

Thanks especially to all those great local booksellers who stock my books and press them into the hands of readers, most especially those who have invited me into their stores. Book people rock. Local bookstores rock. (Boswell Books in Milwaukee totally rocks.)

Thanks to Richard Preston, whose book The Wild Trees rekindled my interest in redwoods and the people who climb them. It’s a fascinating true tale about the men and woman who have spent their lives learning about the biology and ecology of these giant trees—you should read his book next, if you haven’t already. Peter’s climb was inspired by Preston’s account of Steve Sillet’s far more challenging and risky first ascent of a redwood. Any errors I’ve made about trees and tree-climbing technology are entirely my own.

Thanks to Todd Schultz, friend, neighbor, and mechanical genius, for information how to roll an old Subaru and drive away, not to mention the ongoing repairs to my own cancerous POS pickup. You don’t know it yet, but I’m going to need your help on the next book, too.

The Subaru scene was inspired in part by the experience of family friends who were forced off the highway at high speed by a drunk driver. Although their Subaru rolled multiple times, thankfully they walked away from the accident with no significant injuries. I don’t own a Subaru, but as testimonials go, this is a good one.

Thanks to Paul Horvath, MD, emergency room physician in the Mayo Clinic network. Paul helped with crucial medical details, providing me with just the right amount of physical harm to our heroes.

John Schatzman, CLI, helped me with ways and means of finding people. John wears a white hat, but he also knows how the black hats operate—he really should have his own TV show. I didn’t use nearly enough of John’s expertise in this book, but I promise to use more in the future.

Thanks to National Public Radio’s Planet Money, whose series on Belize and pliable corporate identities got me started down that particular rabbit hole. Thanks to MIT’s Technology Review, which amazes me on a regular basis.

Last but not least, thanks to Steve, Jan, and Karina Lochner, for putting me up, keeping me amused, and reminding me how beautiful Northern California can be, especially with good company. For the record, I was present when Steve’s car was hit by a falling drone at a campsite on the California coast.

I shit you not.