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Kiln PeopleKiln People is a 2002 science-fiction novel by David Brin. A paperback edition was reissued in New York by Tor Books in 2003 with ISBN 0-765-34261-8. In the future, people can create clay duplicates (dittos or golems) of themselves with all their memories up to that time. The duplicates only last 24-hours, and the original can then choose whether or not to upload the ditto's memories. Most people use dittos to do their work. Dittos come in many colours, which signify their quality. A cheap ditto suitable for housework is green, while a quality one for business is grey. Albert Morris is a private detective who uses dittos extensively. The book opens with a ditto being chased across the city by the enemy's dittos. He makes it home, and Albert uses his memories to bust the enemy's illegal scheme. That morning, Albert makes two greys and a green ditto and sends them off to do his business. One grey meets with the daughter of Maharal, one of the founders of United Kilns, who has died in suspicious circumstances. The grey meets the surviving ditto of the founder, but that ditto runs away and when the grey follows, he is captured by the ditto. The second grey gets involved in a plan to infiltrate United Kilns to see if they are using illegal technology. He is a dupe of unknown forces, and is actually carrying a bomb into UK's factory, but he realises just in time and manages to minimise the damage done when he blows up. The green is bored with doing routine chores and becomes a "Frankie" (short for Frankenstein) - a rogue ditto who is an imperfect copy of his original. Frankie also gets into the UK factory, and gets caught up in the plot. Meanwhile, real Albert disguises himself as a ditto and meets with the ditto of Maharal's daughter (but she is also the real person in disguise). They are almost killed by another founder of UK, but make it to Maharal's secret lab where the first grey is being held. Frankie makes it there as well, but he's about to expire of old age. In the world of the novel, surveillance technology is pervasive as studied in Brin's essay The Transparent Society.
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