Subject: Review of Harrison & Minsky: "The Turing Option"

From: Jonathan Thornburg <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 03:25:28 GMT

[some minor spoilers --AW]

This is an interesting, though flawed, novel about the attainment of human-
level artificial intelligence (AI), set in the 2020s.  Minsky is well-known
as a major AI researcher and former director of the famed MIT AI Labs.
Accordingly, the book is free of the glaring technical howlers found in many
fictional discussions of AI.  The writing, plot, and characterization are
fairly good, and the book met my personal litmus test of keeping me up past
midnight the first night I brought it home from the library.  But the
authors reaffirm common stereotypes about the personalities of gifted
children and adults, the sociology of scientific research, and the
dehumanizing implications of AI.

The plot revolves around a brilliant AI researcher, Brian Delaney.  Just as
he's making a major breakthrough in his AI research, unknown persons
penetrate the high-security corporate lab where he works, and shoot him in
the head (this is the _United_States_: there's a fair bit of blood and
gore!), leaving him for dead.  They then steal the entire contents of the
lab, including all the records of Brian's work.  (Just for good measure,
they also remove a goodly number of corpses of assorted guard dogs, guards,
and other corporate personnel caught in the attack.)

However, Brian survives the attack, and his employers recruit a top brain
surgeon to try and repair Brian's badly injured brain, in the hopes of his
being able to either identify his attackers, or better yet recreate his AI
breakthrough.  The surgeon successfully implants a number of computers and
"nervous system switches" in Brian's brain, and Brian regains conciousness
in relatively good physical condition, but with much of his memory and
personality -- his "mind" -- still shattered.  Working together, the surgeon
and Brian successfully program Brian's brain-implant computer to reconnect
the severed nerves in his brain.

The "bionic" Brian then sets about recreating his AI research, and
eventually succeeds in constructing a true "machine intelligence", far more
capable than the prototype stolen in the attack.  Unfortunately, Brian's
original attackers are still at large, and they see Brian and his work as a
threat to their AI monopoly.  Brian survives several further attacks on his
life, but is forced to live a secluded life in an isolated high-security
laboratory.  He eventually rebels against his imprisonment, and escapes to
try his own hand at outwitting his enemies.

I won't reveal the remainder of the plot, but the ending is both
interesting, poignant, and disturbing.

The basic concept of the book as a good one: What are the implications of
successful AI -- of a computer system which is fully as intelligent and
self-aware as a human?  But I think the authors fall down in several areas:

Brian is presented as an exceptionally gifted child, who (for example)
discovers the concept of "prime number" for himself at the age of 8.  But
the authors' presentation of the adult Brian -- and later the "bionic Brian"
-- as a lonely workaholic, incapable of meaningful adult relationships, owes
more to TV stereotypes than to reality.  In fact, although gifted children
often lead rather unhappy childhoods, they generally emerge as adults who
are psychologically _healthier_ than average.  The authors should have known
this.

I also thought the authors presented several of the characters as pretty
naive: When breaking out of a high-security military compound, would Brian
and his accomplice really admit into their conspiracy, the military's
nominee as Brian's research assistant?  Is it really plausible that such a
person, presented as an AI expert with an extensive computer database
background, wouldn't know that cellular phones _must_ continuously broadcast
their position to the telephone network, in order for incoming calls to be
rounted to the proper cell?  And should both of them, knowing they were
fleeing the entire resources of the US government (not to mention some other
very well-bankrolled enemies), go about using credit cards, passports, and
the like all _in_their_own_names_?

The authors present Brian as working alone, with noone else in the world
being able to follow his work.  This is in highly improbable: new scientific
discoveries almost never come as bolts out of the blue, but rather out of
experience with the limits of existing scientific knowledge.  Accordingly,
there are almost always a number of researchers around the world working
along similar lines.  Moreover, most scientists work in groups of anywhere
from 2 or 3 to as many as 1000 researchers.  Again, the authors should have
-- and Minsky surely does -- know this.

Finally, let's consider the central philosophical subject of the book, the
nature of AI and its impact on humans.  Here Minsky's AI background shows:
the writing is authoritative and the authors carefully avoid some of the
common misconceptions in the field, and even debunk a few others.  But
although they use Alan Turing's name several times, and even have a short
preface titled "The Turing Test", they never actually explain the Turing
test's central roles in AI.  The ending presents Brian's newly-created AI is
growing steadily more human, while the "bionic Brian" himself becomes cold
and impersonal.  But the authors neither justify this divergence nor expand
on any of the other sociological impacts of AI.

Overall, then, this book is a "good read", but I expected much better from
someone with Minsky's background.  I'd give the book a 6/10: don't buy it
now, but perhaps check it out in your local library, and keep an eye out for
a 2nd-hand copy.

%A Author		Harry Harrison
%A Author		Marvin Minsky
%T Title		The Turing Option
%I Publisher		Warner Books
%C Place Published	New York
%D Date Published	1992
%G Order Number		ISBN 0-446-51565-5 (hardcover)
%P Pages		422 pp

- Jonathan Thornburg
  U of British Columbia / Physics Dept / <[email-masked]>
  "There is nothing to it: You only have to hit the right note at
   the right time, and the instrument plays itself." - J. S. Bach