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The Billion Dollar Sugar Cube
In this sequel to The Pangaea Solution, David Blum once again battles the shadowy Global Futures Alliance and their plans for reshaping humanity. Partnering with fellow agent Tina Santini, the pair uncovers a diabolical new plot to integrate artificial intelligence with “The Sugar Cube,” a massive optical computer configured to experience artificial emotion. The GFA’s goal? Dissect the internal language of the brain and synthesize sounds that can drive people to extreme emotional states. As a colonel at the U.S. Army War College warns them, combining such signals with targeted social media could prove more profound to the future of global warfare than even nuclear weapons.
From London, Northern Virginia and Maryland, to Cuba and Honduras, the team pursues the scientists and operatives hell-bent on launching and winning the next world war. As the final seconds tick down, Blum must pit his mental strength against that of the Cube itself, knowing he might die in the process.
This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with DartFrog Books.
Book club questions for The Billion Dollar Sugar Cube by Charles Jacobs
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
Was Blum’s hesitation to kill Krieger driven by logic or emotion? Did it make him noble or weak in your opinion?
The scientists who work on the Cube regret how it has ended up being used. Are scientists responsible for misuse of a technology they develop, even if their objective was good?
Tanaka had hoped that the sounds being produced could be used to convince people to seek peace. Would it be ethical to sway opinions to make people nicer, happier, or less violent, perhaps against their will?
Colonel Donald believes we’ve moved beyond global battles for property, wealth, and resources. Do you agree we are now fighting a war for hearts and minds? If so, can anyone “win” such a war, or is the inevitable end a divided world?
Tanaka suggests the question, “What’s sadder—a baby crying for his mother, or a mother crying for her baby?” for the Turing test. What question would you ask?
Blum struggles with conflicting emotions and thoughts. Which should drive us? Is either, in isolation of the other, more likely to lead to good or bad outcomes?
Santini disobeys orders and contacts Blum while he is inside the lab, letting her emotion override a logical rule. This enables Blum to succeed, but does this make her a hero or a bad agent?
The Cube can feel emotions (unlike artificial intelligence). Is there a difference between feeling an emotion and simply recognizing an emotion in someone else and forming a logical response? Do you think computers will ever really be able to feel?
The sounds the Cube is generating can drive people to extreme emotional states. How do sounds affect you emotionally? Do you think there could be sounds that could control how you feel (regardless of what you observe at the time or your will to feel differently)?
The Billion Dollar Sugar Cube Book Club Questions PDF
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