Willkommen in QualityLand! In der Zukunft ist alles durch Algorithmen optimiert: QualityPartner weiß, wer am besten zu dir passt. Das selbstfahrende Auto weiß, wo du hinwillst. Und wer bei TheShop angemeldet ist, bekommt alle Produkte, die er bewusst oder unbewusst haben will, automatisch zugeschickt. Kein Mensch ist mehr gezwungen, schwierige Entscheidungen zu treffen - denn in QualityLand lautet die Antwort auf alle Fragen: o.k.
Trotzdem beschleicht den Maschinenverschrotter Peter immer mehr das Gefühl, dass mit dem System etwas nicht stimmt. Warum gibt es Drohnen, die an Flugangst leiden, oder Kampfroboter mit posttraumatischer Belastungsstörung? Warum werden die Maschinen immer menschlicher, aber die Menschen immer maschineller?
Marc-Uwe Kling hat die Verheißungen und das Unbehagen der digitalen Gegenwart zu einer verblüffenden Zukunftssatire verdichtet. Visionär, hintergründig - und so komisch wie die Känguru-Trilogie.
Die Geschichte ist spannend und immer wieder sehr witzig. Die Satire ist bissig und trifft häufig ins Schwarze. Wer die Känguru-Chroniken mag, dürfte hiermit definitiv auch Spaß haben. Für mich ist Qualityland sogar noch besser.
A very near future, in which social networks literally determine our social standing, online shopping purchases are made automatically based on our profiles, and almost every job has been automated by AI and androids.
Peter Unemployed (surnames are your parent's job at the time of our birth) is a low status second hand scrap dealer, who secretly saves the robots that are sent to him for compacting, and keeps them in his basement, where they watch reruns of Terminator, and the movies of Jennifer Anniston. The Store automatically purchases for him a dolphin-shaped vibrator, based on his supposed algorithmically-derived preferences, but he doesn't want it.
So begins his crusade to return an unwanted purchase, which The Store refuses; they only accept returns of unwanted purchases, and he clearly does want it, as the algorithm can't make mistakes!
Meanwhile, the president of QualityLand is algorithmically forecast to die soon, and the …
A very near future, in which social networks literally determine our social standing, online shopping purchases are made automatically based on our profiles, and almost every job has been automated by AI and androids.
Peter Unemployed (surnames are your parent's job at the time of our birth) is a low status second hand scrap dealer, who secretly saves the robots that are sent to him for compacting, and keeps them in his basement, where they watch reruns of Terminator, and the movies of Jennifer Anniston. The Store automatically purchases for him a dolphin-shaped vibrator, based on his supposed algorithmically-derived preferences, but he doesn't want it.
So begins his crusade to return an unwanted purchase, which The Store refuses; they only accept returns of unwanted purchases, and he clearly does want it, as the algorithm can't make mistakes!
Meanwhile, the president of QualityLand is algorithmically forecast to die soon, and the resulting presidential campaign, for the first time, includes an Android candidate!
Will John of Us be the next president? Will Peter manage to personally return an unwanted purchase to the CEO of The Store, with the help of his team of defective robots (an author bot with witers block, a drone that's afraid of heights, a sex-bot that fell in love with his last customer, …) and a mysterious hacker from the dark net?
A satire that reads like a Black Mirror episode written by Douglas Adams, this is unserious reading with ominous underpinnings.