Future Novel: Concepts

[Prometheus98876]

I'm quite into robotics and the best humanoid robot existing today works with neural networks. So, I would recommend you use them in your book, too. I don't know a lot about quantum computers, but they operate on another principle than classical computers which allows them to do computations that are impossible to todays computers. If you can build a quantum computer, you can build a quantum neural network. It would be a next step, the major problem being miniaturisation, but it is nothing but a network of quantum computers. You can also simulate the network on a quantum computer.

I think it may take another 50 years at least to have a quantum computer. But then: nobody can predict the future. This is nothing but an uninformed guess and this will be the best you can get. Nobody can know the future so you have no information to make an informed guess. And what else can you do about the future except guessing?

Now that I think of it: Isn't this what science fiction is about most of the time?

Ok, well I do not know all that much about quantum computers either, but I intend to look closely into it. I see no reason one could not build a quantum neural network, and I theorise it could be the only way to build the sort of artificial mind I am talking about here.

As for time periods, I am thinking of setting it at least one hundred years into the future. Then quantum computers should be much reasonably common, and it should be feasible that they have been able to abstract quantum computers into a reasonable imiation of human intelligence. It is Lycynda whom will takes= the big step and creates a technology reasonably amazing for her day.

Edited October 25, 2005 by Prometheus98876

[hunterrose]

As for time periods, I am thinking of setting it at least one hundred years into the future.

That's what I was thinking. And quantum whatchamacallit seems feasible enough for sci-fi.

[Prometheus98876]

That's what I was thinking. And quantum whatchamacallit seems feasible enough for sci-fi.

Indeed, quantum neural networks are sufficently feasible. I dont mind taking a little liberty with what is possible/feasible, it is after all science-fiction I am talking about. At least I do not have faster than light drives or anything like that (if I was to do a Star Trek like thing I would make it so the ship employed Wormholes I think).

[Prometheus98876]

I am going to put this here, it seems more fitting than the Members Writing section...

The following is a brief sample of the first chapter of Prometheus Scorned, or what I have so far written anyway. I have not been working on it as much as I would have liked due to other concerns, however I think it gets the general idea of Chapter One across, and it ends just before the really exicting part of the chapter, leaving you in a little suspense, or so I hope.

Anyway, please do read it and give me any comments you might have. Thank you in advance to those who do read this small sample....

Lycynda Amross bent over a coherent shape of gleaming titanium alloy. She manipulated the electrical tools stacked around her work with the skilful grace of a mind intimately familiar with its work. Although the easy grace with which she moved suggested not so much that it was work she was performing, but a series of easy motions that came as easily to her as brushing a strand of hair from her face.

The amazingly intricate fibres of the artificial musculature that comprised the device of the inner wrist of the shape bent to her masterful proddings. A single slip of the hand, a tiny miscalculation, and hours of work would be undone, the purpose of the guiding intellect betrayed, so she ensured with unwavering intent that there was no error.

The shape lying on the cold steel table was that of a human imitator. It was tall and slim, as was Lycynda. It had eye-shaped light receivers fashioned to resemble Lycyndas own torches of intellect, only a less vibrant shade of green. Where Lycynda wore a flow of raven curls cascading gracefully from her scalp to her lower back, the shape had a bare scalp of gleaming grey. The sturdy skeleton and wiry mechanical musculature was clad in a skin of gleaming titanium, where Lycynda wore a skin of almost flawless ivory, dressed in a laboratory coat.

When one looked to the humanoid android, one could easily find oneself wondering, did the similarities between the machine and the human end at physical appearances? Did the android merely look human or was it human in more significant ways? Would it apply logic to a limited series of situations or could it conceive of situations beyond that of its original programming and form a rational solution to problems beyond its original programmed paramters? Could it link a series of abstractions into a concept? Could it ponder not only the nature of the existence around it, but also the nature of its own existence and therefore the actions appropriate to it? Was it a machine of mere programmed stimulus and response or did it have a mind capable of processing of the information provided by its mechanical senses in order to make a rational decision?

Such thoughts were surely in the mind of Lycynda as she finished the work on the most intricate piece of machinery she had up to then built.

Click!

She snapped shut the protective layer protecting the nutrient cable providing the mechanical motive power to the wrist. She carefully maneovered her small set of pliers away from the opening, and then closed the computerised hatch covering the repair access point. Now she or any other whom wished to repair the android would need the encryption key to undo the seal. In the seemingly simple act of closing a hatch, she had made a definite statement that she considered a phase of her work completed.

So she placed her tools on the bench before her and stepped back from her creation as a painter would step back from a freshly painted masterpeice. She looked over the frame of her robot for the hundredth time. She had completed an exhausative internal diagnosis the night before so she could be sure there could be no other errors.

She turned to an instrument panel at her side and while gazing at the screen, her eyes burning with a light akin to that of the first man on the moon, she as she tapped away at somee of the small buttons before her. On this inspection of its external form, she found no flaws. Last time there had been a loose motor on the wrist joint, but it had been minor and had Lycynda been less ambitious, had she wanted her creation to mimic or exceed human function in every possible, it would have been a mistake she could have let slip.

“Lycynda, the software is all ready now. Have you finished tinkering with that stuff?” an anxious voice called from behind her.

She turned to address the source of the voice. Behind her stood a tall, thin man dressed in a casual suit and tracks. He tapped at his computer terminal with an expression on his face that suggested he was slightly bored. He usually appeared this way, even while in the midst of complex computer programming he bore that expression. As though the task he was doing was too easy for him, but that he felt it was a duty he could not avoid.

Lycynda nodded and walked over to her creation, resting a hand its forehead, just under what appeared to be a wireless antenna.

“Boot it up Mike. It is as ready as it ever will be…” she smiled, the excitement gleaming in her eyes.

Mike nodded and pressed a large green button on the terminal before him.

“Lycynd, do you still intend that this thing be so unpractical?”

“Impractical? Mike, this is the most practical thing I could ever hope to create... this is the concrete demonstration of some of the most noble abstracts possible to man.” Lycynda frowned.

Mike sighed and gave a shrug. He had heard this before and had been at least as sceptical then too.

“But it is just a copy of a man. Wouldn’t it just be easier to clone somebody or something now that that is possible?”

“I suppose it would have been, if creating an actual human being had of been my intention. But I do not wish to create another human being, I wish to create an artifical mind that shows the best qualities of man. Don’t you see, I wanted to re-create my image of perfection in a mechanical form.” she replied.

“Yeah, but I doubt that even you could do such a thing. There are certain things people should not do, and cannot do anyway. Like trying to play God for instance. I have explained it too you a million times.” Mike shook his head as a pragmatic lawyer might when presented with a realistic set of broad concretes.

Lycynda sighed again.

“And why do you say that I cannot do it? Because you see no way for it too be possible? Because you cannot understand how it can be done? Are you assuming it cannot be done just because your knowledge is incomplete? Should I take your word that it is impossible even though the best of my knowledge says that it is actually possible? Should I hold your claims that it is impossible over my knowledge that you are wrong? Unless you give me objective fact to support your claims I would be abdicating the value of my rationality if I was too believe you.”

She tapped the chest of her robot.

“However, neither do I expect you to believe me unless I can convince you that I am right. Today is that day ... now please go and initate the software.” She pointed towards the computer terminal.

Mike shrugged and started rapidly tapping away at the keyboard of his terminal.

“So, just how do you intend for him to demonstrate this point of yours?” Mike asked.

“By living….” Lycynda stated simply. When Mike smiled in an amused manner, she shrugged but made no further comment on the issue.

“Yeah, maybe if I am wrong, and you do manage to do what you plan too, then I will agree. But as far as I see it, I might as well look out the window and see if there are pigs flying around as expect your plan to work as well as you hope. It has certainly been interesting helping to write the software, that much is for sure.”

Lycynda ignored Mike as she watched the red wireless data port on the side of her creation rapidly flash as it received its final software upload. She could see no point trying to convince Mike if he was not going to be persuaded by reason. Maybe he would see reason eventually if she and her creation could present it in a form Mike could accept.

She moved her gaze to the robots open eyes. The glass-like material had yet to be alighted by the fire that Lycynda hoped to see within them. The fire that would show the world that there was hope yet in the dark age they had come to live in.

However as she continued watching, she began to see tiny sparks of yellow light dancing within the heart of each of the globes. Slowly the sparks started to spread, filling the once dormant globes with a bright shine as though someone was incrementally switching on a pair of light bulbs.

She smiled a smile akin to that of a mother watching her child crawl for the first time. This indicated the approach of her moment of triumph, of the completion of years of painstaking research and intensively difficult work. Some nights she had worked so hard that she had nearly collapsed before reaching her bed. Yet she never noticed she was so tired until stopped her work for the day so absoluetly devoted to her work was she that she did not notice such seemingly trivial things like pain and exhausation.

She had been convinced right from the start that eventually she would succedd, but seeing that conviction being proven was something else, a much higher level of pride. Building the robot had been like climbing to the point from which she intended to attack the summit of the mountain of her plan, this was the bit where she climbed the last few feet to the peak...

Mike walked over to the table and stood behind Lycynda, but still a fair bit back from her. He appeared to be struggling to make himself not beleive what he was seeing. It appeared from the set of his brow and the skeptical grin on this face that he was trying to convince himself that what he thought he was about to see could not actually happen, that he had to cure himself of his delusion before reality shone through the cloud of delusion darkening his mind....

Edited February 6, 2006 by Prometheus98876

[Myself]

Prometheus -

If you'd like me to get into more detail, please PM me. The section that you posted was somewhat hard to understand because your prose is a bit awkward and doesn't flow properly. You focus too much in the beginning on what the character is thinking - instead focus on the action. Let your dialogue stand on its own - your interpretation isn't necessary. You use excessive metaphors and comparisons - if you use them sparingly, they’ll have more weight when the reader comes across them. Some of them don't really make sense either - for instance: "her eyes burning with a light akin to that of the first man on the moon." I have no idea what that line meant and that was only a random sample. Are you saying that her eyes were burning like moonlight - or her eyes were burning as the first man on the moon was? You need to proofread too - I found lots of spelling and grammatical lapses.

I understand what you're trying to say - but its not coming across. I would suggest deleting what you've written knowing what you want to say and then try it again - and don't force it. Try to make your prose as simple and coherent as you can. For instance, this sentence could be re-written

"Although the easy grace with which she moved suggested not so much that it was work she was performing, but a series of easy motions that came as easily to her as brushing a strand of hair from her face."

as something, like:

"Her movements were graceful - as quick, precise, and automatic as brushing a strand of hair from her face. As her hands moved over the gleaming metal form she felt the quiet satisfaction of competence - a feeling of mechanical infallibility, as her body went through the well rehearsed series of motions."

Again, that's not perfect, nor am I telling you how to write, but it’s more clear then how you worded your sentence. Remember to try to use the active voice when possible and to follow the general rule that if you can say something in one word rather than two, always go with one.

Edited February 7, 2006 by Myself

[Prometheus98876]

Yes, you have some good points however it does not matter all that much at this point. I have been thinking about it over the last day and I doubt I will have the time in the near future, given my current prorities to be able to devote enough time to write the project as it should be written - issues of style aside for the moment.

Perhaps in my later years when other interests do not tie up so much time I will come back to it, but for that will not be for some time.

Edited February 7, 2006 by Prometheus98876