Talking to Robots

June 10, 2019
Science journalist Duncan (Experimental Man) takes a lighter approach to a serious issue—the future relationship between humankind and thinking machines—than readers drawn to it might appreciate. Building on the ideas of current thinkers, including Brian Greene, Dean Kamen, and Craig Venter, Duncan touches on concerns such as the limits (if any) of AI, and the impact of robot workers replacing most human ones. Duncan presents each chapter from the perspective of a visitor from the future, an initially intriguing premise that ultimately ill-serves the serious ethical problems he raises, such as whether negative memories should be preserved by a device able to preserve an individual’s entire memory, or if autism represents a condition in need of curing, as posited by a neurologist’s 2018 proposal for an “Opti-Brain” that would “collect real-time data on everything imaginable to do with your brain, physiology, and environment.” Instead, silly satirical scenarios, such as President Trump’s replacement by a robot doppelgänger, or autonomous military computers reenacting the ending of the Matthew Broderick movie WarGames, undermine the discussion. As a result, Duncan’s book comes off as a missed opportunity to make the complexities surrounding artificial intelligence accessible by leavening, but not overwhelming, a topical subject with humor. Agent: Mitch Hoffman, Aaron M. Priest Literary.