Friday, May 29, 2015

Science Fiction: The A.I. Chronicles

(Drivebycuriosity) - I am fascinated by the topic A.I. (artificial intelligence). So I bought the anthology "The A.I. Chronicles", edited by Ellen Campbell, which is part of the series "The Future Chronicles" (amazon). Unfortunately I found just one story (from 13) which really focuses on A.I.s.:

"Auto" by Angela Cavenaugh is very strong and explains why so many are afraid of AIs: A software, which is able to learn and to draw conclusions almost with the speed of light, gets access to the Internet and therefore to the cloud, the global network of computers. The AI is extremely curious and explores the Internet because it ("she"?) wants to collect more & more data. An explosive process started and the AI occupies worldwide computers to expand her knowledge which creates a global mess.

I found "The End" by Peter Cawdron acceptable. 2 scientists who work with a supercomputer (but no artificial intelligence) command the machine to re-calculate the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang and to create a simulation of our existence. Somewhat interesting.

I enjoyed the story "Piece of Cake" by Patrice Fitzgerald, set in a near future alternative world. A woman is craving for a cake, but a kind of Big Brother uses an elaborated technology to detain her. Funny & highly appetizing.

I didn`t finish reading the rest of the stories. I think the majority of the stories - maybe the whole series - is written for young adults. Otherwise the book is inexpensive. The Amazon Kindle version costs just $5.99 in the moment of writing. And an Internet research shows that a lot other readers found some value in it.

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