Could the Internet take over the world?

Everyone knows that the Internet is a vast network of information. It connects people to each other, and is designed to make everything in our world easier and more accessible.

But, if the Internet were to be controlled by one person, place or thing, what would happen to the world as we know it?

In Robert J. Sawyer’s most recent novel – Wonder – an all-seeing, all-knowing program named Webmind has the ability to monitor, influence and interact with every aspect of the Internet simultaneously. Through Webmind’s Twitter account, email address, website and instant messaging systems – all of which he set up himself – he can literally control every single thing that is on the Internet.

A pretty scary concept when you really think about it…

Wonder is the final novel in a three-part series about Webmind. The creator of the program is a 16-year-old formerly blind girl named Caitlin. She desperately wants Webmind to continue to exist, even when the US Government makes it clear they will do anything possible to destroy her invention.

At the heart of the novel is one, important question: Could the Internet take over the world if it becomes too powerful? It is a question that seems terrifying to consider, but one that becomes very real after reading Wonder.

He looks fun...

Science fiction writer and futurist Robert J. Sawyer has been interviewed over 250 times on radio, over 250 times on television, and countless times in print. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

Sawyer is one of only seven writers in history — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the world's top Science Fiction awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Follow Sawyer’s blog by clicking here, and don’t forget to follow him on both Twitter and Facebook. We’re proud to have him at THIN AIR 2011, and can’t wait to hear what we know will be an entertaining presentation!