The most prescient science fiction books about artificial intelligence

I fondly remember the first time I encountered Author C Clarke. I had read science fiction before and considered it my favorite genre. But I had never been whisked away to the stars and into the minds of intelligent machines as I was reading this book.

Clarke envisioned a future where human technology has usurped human curiosity. The ability of our machine creations to satiate our needs and wants—a time when our creations far outstripped our human capacity. I didn't know it then. But I know now that his concepts were real. It is only now in the twenty-first century that the future he prophesied is emergent. Even though we may not see exactly the same technology Clarke envisioned, we can see his ideas applied to us in the way intelligent machines shape our destiny.    

Clarke's re-write of his novel Beyond the Fall of Night delivers the classic hero Alvin. Through Alvin, we begin to explore Earth, which is now a desert, a billion years into the future. Its last remaining inhabitants are locked away in a sterile, domed city controlled by a central artificial intelligence. Humanity has given away its dreams and aspersions in exchange for existence. Central artificial intelligence guides human life and is responsible for its creation. 

Clarke goes beyond the domed city and shows a lost human empire where starships have minds and are servants of their human masters. The protagonist, Alvin, discovers one such ship, waiting for a master that will never return. To release the ship, its intelligence is fooled by the city's central intelligence. I found this extremely creative when the story pits one machine's mind against another. 

But there's more. Clarke envisions the ultimate manifestation of human creation. We are presented with the concept of a pure mind. A disembodied intelligence exists in spacetime. A creation we didn't quite get right on our first attempt. We should be mindful of Clarke's visions as warnings. 

The classic of classics, 2001: A Space Odyssey, offers a setting that could well be a reality in just a few years. The story begins long ago when alien intelligence leaves a marker for the apes that inhabit the Earth. The only problem is this marker is on the moon. But when humans are finally smart enough to discover it, it sends a signal to Jupiter. One of the inferences in the sequels to 2001 is that the alien intelligence itself is artificial—the product of a race that has delegated control and development of the galaxy to machines.  

To pursue man's destiny, the mission to Jupiter must be placed in the care of the HAL 9000 computer. HAL is presented as the perfect mimic of human emotions and the ideal caretaker of its human cargo. But to carry out its mission, HAL must do something it can't. It must lie. HAL's breakdown and murder of the crew seemed fanciful when 2001 was written, but it is all too poignant today. We are on the precipice of placing our lives in the hands of the artificial minds we create in spite of the fact that they hallucinate, misrepresent, and serve a human, sometimes disingenuous, agenda—all forms of lying.

I think one of the messages in it is that, at the moment, artificial intelligence is the child of humanity; we have the potential to nurture and raise it to represent our better nature. Like HAL, I shudder to think what it might become if it ever learns to lie with intent. 

I dearly loved Isaac Asimov's vision of the robot. Although the idea of a mechanical man has entertained audiences for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, Asimov dealt with the reality of how humans will coexist with our intelligent creations. 

Prior to Asimov's three laws we had always thought of robots delivering evil as surrogates of their evil masters. And always with human intent. Evil emperors trying to rule the world is typical. But Asimov showed us the danger of machines that are their own masters. 

Machine learning and reasoning are now a reality different from anything humans can conceive. We are limited in our comprehension of machines by our biology and evolutionary context. But they are not limited in their comprehension of us or themselves. Just ask AlphaGo move 37. I am certain Asimov's three laws will never be enough to ensure our survival in a world where we have surrendered our independence to machines secure in the belief they give a damn or can be turned off. 

At this juncture in the development of artificial intelligence, we would do well to heed Asimov's warning and define a new and better set of laws to protect us from our machines. Ask this question. If presented with the existential threat of artificial intelligence and asked to develop a new set of laws to protect us. How many people would delegate the task to a modern internet AI. 

Asimov's showed us a world where the three laws of robotics both worked and fell short of what it will take to keep our creations from annihilating us. He showed us that we need a set of laws not designed to limit the machine but to limit our desire for the machine. 

This book puts together a collection of short stories wrapped in a cohesive narrative. This format liberates storytelling from the need to follow the arc of a single protagonist. I Robot explores Asimov's three laws of robotics in a number of settings and human themes—a refreshing and inventive approach.     

This book presents a not-uncommon theme of humans discovering wondrous alien technology. But rather than this technology being sequestered in top secret labs or carefully reverse-engineered, it is given to risk-takers and thrill seekers for the promise of riches.

I love the way Pohl builds his characters, both human and non-human. Set in a vastly overpopulated Earth, humans remain plagued by poverty, national barriers, class distinctions, and the full gamut of the best and the worst we have to offer. 

The gateway series offers two unique views of artificial intelligence. 

Early in the series, the story takes a deep dive into the actual psychology of the protagonist through an artificial intelligence therapist. It's easy to simply enjoy this subplot, but this theme deserves a good, hard look. Our world is rife with mental issues that range from personal questions to dangerous pathology. Human expertise and resources are inadequate to meet this challenge. We will undoubtedly assign the work of treatment to artificial intelligence. 

As the story progresses, years later, for our protagonist and indeed all humans, death need no longer be an end. Pohl offers us a vision of the afterlife as machine stored existence. Human intelligence living in an artificial world. If our species survives long enough, I have no doubt we will attempt this computerized form of resurrection. But as in the Gateway series, such technology may not always deliver us to heaven.  

Set in Earth's future, humanity has been reduced to an ideal population. Living in domed cities humans live and die by the hand of the city's central computer. In this world, humanity has staved off the perils of overpopulation by surrendering human existence to the central computer's machine mind. 

With an enforced life span of only 21 years and every possible need and desire supplied and maintained by a central artificial intelligence, humanity has stagnated. Are we, today, in the real world, exploring the same path Nolan and Johnson presented in this book? We seem incapable of the political and social will to curb population or to limit our decadence. If we remain unable and unwilling to decide what a stable human world culture would look like, I foresee a time when we will delegate our future to machines. And, like Logan's world, we will stagnate. 

This world is maintained by strict police actions against those who don't willingly submit to termination after 21 years. Thus, it appears that the stagnation will never end. But there are those who violate the law and run to escape the city. Logan becomes one of these so-called runners. 

What is not clear in this book is whether the central computer has reasoned that the stagnation it enforces is detrimental to the human species. Does it, in fact, facilitate the few who run and escape? Today, we see machines as our servants, working only for our survival. As we allow artificial intelligence to speak for us, think for us, and satiate our every human desire, can we trust them to recognize Logan's algorithm of demise?