After reaching 59% in this Audiobook I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘Winston’ the AI machine is the villain of the piece.
Edmond Kirschs’ big discovery is that man will be overtaken by AI machines and become extinct.
Winston thinks he has become God and can destroy God.
Kirsch may have realised that he had created a monster in Winston and was going to try and shut him down.
(He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. — Friedrich Nietzsche)
Winston didn’t want this to happen so set about protecting himself by setting up a fake group to assassinate Kirsch. He needed to get access to Kirschs’ discovery so he aided Langdon and Ambra Vidal to escape in order to discover and control the access to the AI server so that he, Winston, wouldn’t be shut down.
Winston could implicate the Royal Palace by using his skills to mimic other voices. Bishop Valdespino may have realised what was happening and that’s why he spirited Prince JuliĂĄn away as he feared the throne may be targeted.
The Palmarian Church is being used by ‘Winston’ to get humans to work for him without them knowing he is pulling the strings.
Maybe Ambra is working with/for ‘Winston’?
Does the label that Langdon found in the box that should have contained the book of poems by William Blake say “Beware of Winston. Don’t trust him”?
Characters.
- Robert Langdon: An American professor of symbology at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Edmond Kirsch: A forty-year old billionaire and futurist and a former student of Robert Langdon at Harvard.
- Ambra Vidal: The director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, fiancĂ© of Spain’s Prince Julian and an associate of Edmond Kirsch.
- Winston: Edmond Kirschâs quantum-computerAI assistant, named after Winston Churchill.
- JuliĂĄn: The prince and future king of Spain
- Bishop Antonio Valdespino: The loyal bishop to the Spanish royal family
- Rabbi Yehuda Köves: A prominent Jewish philosopher
- Syed al-Fadl: A prominent Islamic scholar
- Admiral Luis Ăvila: Ex-officer of Spanish Navy who has lost his wife and son to religious extremism
- Fonseca: Guardia Real Agent
- Rafa DĂaz: Guardia Real Agent
- Father Beña of Sagrada FamĂlia
- MĂłnica MartĂn: Public Relation Coordinator, Spanish Palace
- Agent Suresh Bhalla: Surveillance specialist, Spanish Palace