Depends what you count as 'human'. One of the book's big points is that 'posthuman' is a bit of a misnomer--there's no sharp line between this kind of intelligence and that kind of intelligence, it's all a continuum. At the high-end are the godlike AIs who move in mysterious ways, but none of the characters reach that kind of level. They may exist in multiple copies but they're still human--more so than in many other novels of this type, because you've seen the intermediate steps, as it were.
Again, characterisation is not the novel's strength, but the people are more recognisable than those in, say, a Greg Egan novel (I'm thinking of Disaspora in particular here).
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chiming
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Date: June 15th, 2005 05:19 pm (UTC)From:Again, characterisation is not the novel's strength, but the people are more recognisable than those in, say, a Greg Egan novel (I'm thinking of Disaspora in particular here).