I am an engineer, scientist, turned technology manager who works in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and have gotten lost in Sci-Fi since I could first read. Now I want to share the stories that keep me awake at night.
I wrote
The Code: If Your AI Loses Its Mind, Can It Take Meds?
Klara is an artificial friend, a child robot/AI, who is bought as a companion for a sick child – her role is to observe, and prevent loneliness. I really enjoyed the idea that Klara looks to her own God (made me think of Silicon Heaven in Red Dwarf). Like me, she spends her time between hyper-rational and quasi-spiritual – not what you would expect from software, but perhaps the closest to me as a human that I have seen in an AI in literature. And this is literature - the author has a Nobel prize as proof.
*The #1 Sunday Times Bestseller* *Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021* *A Barack Obama Summer Reading Pick*
'A delicate, haunting story' The Washington Post 'This is a novel for fans of Never Let Me Go . . . tender, touching and true.' The Times
'The Sun always has ways to reach us.'
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges…
Adam is a limited edition robot who can pass for human (something I can’t do on a bad day). It takes a while for Adam to learn to be part of that world, but as time passes, he moves from being the slave of his owner Charlie to being better than him in every way (just ask his girlfriend!). I kept thinking of what would it be like to have a better version of me hanging around the house. It took slaves a long time to be recognized as people, how long for the robots?
From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement—”a sharply intelligent novel of ideas” (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding.
Set in an uncanny alternative 1982 London—where Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence—Machines Like Me powerfully portrays two lovers who will be tested beyond their understanding. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a…
OK, so I was biased by Robin Williams in the movie, but here we have a robot that shows creativity! Its “Masters” tolerate this, then encourage it, and soon Andrew is selling his brand – created by a robot! I like the way a hobby turned into a business. He becomes part of the family, and as those around him age and die he becomes alone, something that runs through my mind sometimes late at night. Andrew decides that he wants to be human, and the barrier is his immortality.
This classic collection includes the title story, acclaimed as Asimov's single finest Robot tale, and now made into a Hollywood movie starring Robin Williams. Each of the eleven stories here sparkle with characteristic Asimov inventiveness and imagination.
HAL (cool name) was built to run all the functions of the spaceship and support the crew on its voyage to Jupiter in this classic movie/book. I love the one, his one apparently bloodshot eye has become iconic. His calm voice, ability at chess, and omnipotence on the ship could not overcome the conflict handed down from his creators. I felt sorry for him as he battled his mental illness, suffering the end that many people with mental illness do.
Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, and made into one of the most influential films of all time, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY remains a classic work of science fiction fifty years after its original publication.
The discovery of a black monolith on the moon leads to a manned expedition deep into the solar system, in the hope of establishing contact with an alien intelligence. Yet long before the crew can reach their destination, the voyage descends into disaster . . .
Brilliant, compulsive and prophetic, Arthur C. Clarke's timeless novel tackles the enduring theme of mankind's…
I came to the books late, inoculated by the 2004 – 2009 TV series with slightly off-key costumes and the idea of a tribe of people looking for their cousins on earth. I like the mind games between the Cylons and the humans at the pinnacle when some of the humans are actually robots but programmed not to know it. I felt a bit of a letdown when the best characters turned out to be the bad guys. The boundaries between the two “species” are both clearly defined and indistinguishable at the same time (Schrodinger’s robot?). I loved it as the “skin jobs” finally worked out what they really were and reveled in the opportunities for chaos and conflict.
This is Book #1 in the Battleship Galactica series: Flagship of the 12 Worlds' Warfleet, she was as large as a planet, yet as swift as the Starhound fighters she launched from her bays. For generations the vast ship had led the thousand-year war against the Cylon for control of the known Galaxy. Now that war was in its last phase, and 'Galactica' had one final mission, win or lose: blast through the deadly grid of the Cylon Starfleet and dash for deep space in a desperate attempt to find the legendary "Stonehenge" of the universe---the lost planet the ancient…
Liam, a gifted engineer, is trying to save the world, by finding a way to let industry mine for metals without the environmental disasters that make the news. Nanobots mining asteroids are the answer, and they are being tested on the dark side of the moon. But Gene, the AI tasked with helping him, spirals down the path of schizophrenia and is on track to mine the moon to dust – and without the influence of the moon, the ecosystems that mankind depends on for its survival as a species will be lost. This leaves Liam and his colleagues to battle the creation and his own demons to save humanity – who are oblivious to the potential destruction around the corner.
I have been writing for many years, and my main preference is political thrillers with criminal overtones. I first became interested in politics when I worked at several political conferences in the 60’s and 70’s. I have been involved in several criminal cases, including my own, and within my family, I have a nephew in the police force. For many years I have had the opportunity to mix with the upper tiers of society as well as the criminal classes and this has given me great insight into creating my characters and plots.
Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.
Pete meets a Czechian agent who wants asylum. She has a murdered EU Commissioner’s diary containing clues to the civil unrest planned by the club, encrypted in algebraic chess notations. West seeks answers and links up with retired MI6 officer Tosh. While escaping would-be captors, they decode enough chess moves to reveal the anarchy of the…
Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.
Pete meets a Czechian agent who wants asylum. She has a murdered EU Commissioner’s diary containing clues to the civil unrest planned by the club, encrypted in algebraic chess notations. West seeks answers and links up with retired MI6 officer Tosh. While escaping would-be captors, they decode enough chess moves to reveal the anarchy of the…
