The Sword and Laser discussion
I'm trying to find a book but I can't remember the name and my google-fu fails me.
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Louise wrote: "Was it Recursion, and the subsequent trilogy? There are quantum entities known as "Dark Seeds" and an AI in charge of a 'utopian' Earth.This review makes it sound more like what you..."
YES! Divergence actually, not Recursion. BUT YES! I love you! It was Divergence I first read, I didn't realize it was part of a series. What tipped me off that you had the right book was the "Fair Exchange" part. Yes, absolutely yes, it is Divergence.
It's a space opera story mostly, it focused on some humans travelling in space trying, I believe, to solve the issue of a quantum seed that only grows when it is observed but that essentially devours everything(possibly just devours consciousness, not sure) as it grows. And part of the story is that back on earth, which used to be one of the only safe zones, is the one and only AI in the universe which emerged just from having about hardware connected to support it. At some point in the book someone discovers that the AI replicated its creation which spawned another AI, but it destroyed that one immediately. The idea because the AI's creation is that the universe itself simply WANTS consciousness to exist, basically. It causes it to emerge whenever there is enough hardware to support it.
The seeds/flowers: I'm mostly certain they were either referred to as quantum seeds or quantum flowers. Something about them being hauntingly beautiful to look at, Fairly confident that once a person observed one they were unable to look away and the observation made them grow. It was something about the direct awareness of their existence that made them grow I believe.
About the AI: Somepoint, several hundred years in the past from when the book is set, human kind accidentally created a fully sentient AI just by having all the hardware necessary for it to come into existence. It then became the caretaker of almost all the people on the world, doing it in a peaceful way I believe.
[Speculative, could be wrong]Part of the book focuses on the main character travelling from some location far out in space back to earth, doing it by travelling with some kind of collective spaced-based hitch-hiking group.
[Speculative] I believe that part of the sections written about life on earth was about a woman who rejected the AI-controlled society and lived on the fringes with some other people in an unconnected zone where the AI tended to leave them alone.
[Certain] The seed/flower/whatever are not a type of vacuum. I don't remember what they are exactly, but I do at least remember it wasn't a vacuum or void. They can, and do, appear on earth and they'll also appear in other parts of the galaxy.