Free to Fall

So this summer I read a book called “Free to Fall” by Lauren Miller. It takes place in a world where everyone is addicted to their handheld devices (sounds familiar), and a technology company, Gnosis, has developed an app called Lux which flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results. People begin to rely on Lux to make their decisions for them and independent thought is slowly diminishing. Independent thought is strongly discouraged in this society, so much that hearing and listening to the 'voice in your head' is a mental disorder. Not every person uses Lux, but protagonist Rory Vaughn, along with the majority of people, uses it excessively. Rory is a modest girl who surprisingly gets accepted to an elite boarding school, Theden Academy. If you go to Theden, you are basically guaranteed that you are going to get an amazing job and live a perfect life. However, once at Theden, Rory discovers a huge plot about Gnosis and how they are planning on controlling people and their lives, even farther than what Lux is already doing. They are putting microbots into the flu shots that, when injected, interferes with your brain and your opinions and decisions. It would result in a society completely dependent on Lux and with no conscience, which is the ultimate goal of Gnosis.

I couldn’t help but think about “Free to Fall” while reading “Never Let Me Go”. There are some obvious parallels, but Gnosis and the guardians (or the people who started/lead the whole cloning program) ultimately have the opposite goals. Gnosis hopes for a world of people absolutely reliant on Lux and their products, completely rid of a conscience and nearly soulless (LIKE CLONES, but not scientifically). The guardians encourage self-expression through art and hope to see the clones have souls. It was interesting to see that there are two domineering forces in these stories having similar but very different objectives at the same time.