I was eagerly waiting to grab a hard copy of this book since the day I heard about it. I had to wait quite a long time to read this since I’m not very fond of digital copies. This is not a proper review of Yudhanjaya’s work, just a rambling of my thoughts about the book.
This book felt more real than dystopian because we already live in an era of social media where everyone measures their happiness and life worth by social media fame. Number Caste captures this basic concept and turns it to a social system that rewards and downgrades people according to the data and behavior. The plot is very exciting and scary at the same time. I would not need another tech god to dictate humans on how to live their life which would become worse than the religions and current social cultures.
Number Caste makes you think about the impact of this technology for society and humans rather than the technology itself, unlike other sci-fi books. I was very curious to know more about the technology, but I ended up analyzing the social impact and how close we are, of this concept of ruling our lives by a mere number, to become a reality. Sometimes I agree with Patrick and Julius when I think about the current political and social systems. We need something fairer and a balanced system without any corruptions. But then, when we depend too much on any system it eventually becomes the death row for humanity.
“Real people”, I got struck by Corky’s words when I was reading through the last part of the book. This is not something that only relates to future or Number Caste. It has already come to an age that we cannot separate the real and the fake people in our virtual life, sometimes in real life as well. We all, always judge and score everyone on our network, based on what they share with us. When I think more and more about this concept, it seems to me that we have already begun laying the first brick for the numberCorp, and it’s just a matter of time for someone to rise as the founder of that organization.
I wish there were further editing to the writing before it was published, but the story managed to keep my focus and wash away other disturbances. This book is not just for Sci-fi fans, I believe that anyone can enjoy reading this book. Especially, if you are interested in tech, futurism, or society, you will definitely enjoy this.
So, what would be your number?
Project Dragon 