BlackFive » Edge of Dark: Book Review By Dave Truesdale

Edge of Dark: Book Review By Dave Truesdale

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I want to welcome guest poster Dave Truesdale, who will be reviewing (primarily) science fiction and fantasy works here, and invite you to check out his work at Tangent. Dave is the managing editor and founder of Tangent, which is regarded by many as the premier review magazine for short fiction. He has previously been the editor for the SFWA Bulletin and was a columnist for the Magazine of Fantasty & Science Fiction. Please do check out his many other works. This review is crossposted at Tangent. Edge of Dark (The Glittering Edge, Book One) by Brenda Cooper (Pyr, March 2015, hc, 396 pp.) In the realm of science fiction literature, authors have grappled with the issue of advanced machine intelligence for a very long time—especially when it comes to sophisticated computers who take the form of robots who look like, act like, and far too often for their own good, think like humans and with a consciousness and will of their own. We now call such entities Artifical Intelligences (or simply AIs). The most famous example of SF dealing with the theme of artificial intelligence is Isaac Asimov's series of robot stories, wherein Asimov uses his invented positronic brains to explore the ramifications, loopholes, and problems mankind would have to confront, given the mandate of the author's iconic Three Laws of Robotics, first introduced in the 1942 short story "Runaround": 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. Jack Williamson took the premise and ran with it, extending the first law to include humanity as a whole, and not just individual human beings, with his classic novella from the July 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, "With Folded Hands." He posited one dystopic outcome should individual choice and responsibility be relinquished (to all-caring robots, a stand-in for the State) for the safety and care his story's "Mechanicals" provided, and the consequences of sitting "with folded hands." Williamson's unnamed expansion of Asimov's First Law of Robotics became part of the robot canon in Asimov's own June 1950 Astounding story "Evitable Conflict." Though the concept was put forward in this story, it was not codified until his 1985 novel Robots and Empire. In the novel, robot R. Daneel Olivaw acts according to what few are aware of as Asimov's Fourth Law of Robotics, which is officially defined as such in two later robot novels. It is in essence a precursor to the first three and is called the Zeroth Law. It states: 0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. Along the way (and if intelligent, thinking machines weren't giving mankind enough ethical and moral dilemmas to solve), Asimov's intelligent robots became telepathic, which united them in ways humanity could not have envisioned, and which presented a whole new set of problems with which humanity had to deal. The questions surrounding non-smart machines (automobiles, washing machines, televisions, automated assembly lines, etc.) and their role in society (how much we depend on them and for what), and science fiction's intelligent robots, has been profitable fodder for many a rousing story or film (think I, Robot starring Will Smith for a contemporary example, though the original story from which its title is taken predates Asimov's robot stories). They all have one thing in common, however, regardless of how the author(s) or filmmaker(s) choose to deal with any specific issue (moral, ethical, or practical) in their tales of Man vs. Machine: all begin with the premise that we deal with finding a solution after we have caused the problem, i.e. created our thinking machines or ever more sophisticated AIs such that a Singularity has been reached and there is no going back. We are always valiantly attempting to stuff the genie—or AI, and the problems our short-sighted thinking has caused—back in the bottle. Not so with Brenda Cooper's marvelous Edge of Dark. She actually begins with the opposite premise, of thoughtful men and women realizing their machines need to remain subservient to their creators and doing something about it before a Singularity will have been reached and their thinking creations become the Masters and humanity slaves of their Machines. What is her solution? During humanity's steady outward expansion from Earth to the planets and then to the far stars, fueled by advances in technology and genetic science at a seemingly unhindered pace, mankind paused to reconsider some of the philosophical and practical implications of its relationship with its advanced machine intelligences. After much discussion and deliberation a decision was made "to outlaw the marriage of mind and machine." The human race was becoming more the slave than the master, so mankind forthrightly exiled the most threatening, humanlike AIs to the far reaches of a distant solar sytem to gradually die off in the cold and dark, for these sophisticated creations needed solar energy to insure their existence. This place was known as the Edge. Problem solved, mankind resumed a more balanced relationship with its machines for many centuries, in harmony with its technology. Immense, state-of-the-art space stations were built, luxurious arks where gene-modified animals were bred and husbanded, where specially gene-tinkered grains were grown, and where advances in many disciplines (including longevity research) were constantly sought so that the people creating them might enjoy their lives and the fruits of their labor within an artificial environment. These industrious, well-adjusted spacefarers lived and died for generations aboard their immense space habitats, forming bonds and friendships without ever setting foot on a planet. It was all they knew, their educational and social interactions providing intellectual and emotional fullfilment. They were as happy as any group of highly educated, hardworking people anywhere could...