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In recent years, science fiction has grown top-heavy with
dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels.
Maybe it’s the influence of blockbusters like The Matrix or the cult
favorite Blade Runner. Maybe it even
reaches back to the years of the Terminator movies. This darkness and pessimism
is particularly true when sentient machines of any kind are added to the
mix.
But I happen to agree with futurist Ray Kurzweil that the children of
our creativity—sentient machines—will only follow the biological template of
their creators. Machines will develop
to be more and more like us, and we will hardly notice it happening. There will be no bloody revolution because
the line between machine and human being will not exist in the way we imagine
it. This is the basic philosophy that
continues to underpin my own science fiction work—a view both positive and
wildly dynamic.
Still, we know that evolution of any kind isn’t always a neat and clean thing, but sometimes is the stuff of great stories.
Folds of the Script, my sixth speculative fiction novel, examines what happens when
machines, unable by design to process the presence of one another (what can’t
work together can’t cause harm together), have a chance to upgrade with a
human-like emotional and relational template. Faced with the choice to become
more human, would they actually choose to go down that thorny path? That is only one of the several
philosophical questions woven into this fast-moving and intellectually complex
novel. Remember: thrill rides don’t mean you have
to check your mind at the door.