What do you think?
Rate this book
AI Unbound: Two Stories of Artificial Intelligence
Two stories about artificial intelligence from one of the most respected names in hard science fiction. Multiple Hugo and Nebula winner Nancy Kress gives us a fascinating look into the evolution of artificial intelligence and the impact it has on human society.
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 27, 2012
About the author
Nancy Kress
442 books880 followersNancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella
Beggars in Spain
which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer's Digest. She is a regular at Clarion writing workshops and at The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland. During the Winter of 2008/09, Nancy Kress is the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 20, 2015
Two short cautionary tales about human interactions with self-aware super intelligences which they created. Whether they end well depends on your point of view.
Well-told, straight-forward stories about the expectations and results of humans creating artificial intelligences.
Hint: not what they expected.
Well-told, straight-forward stories about the expectations and results of humans creating artificial intelligences.
Hint: not what they expected.
May 25, 2012
I liked these, especially the first one, which reminded me of Shelter with the AI house.
September 7, 2013
Computer Virus:
Intended Audience: Adult
Sexual content: None
Ace/Genderqueer characters: Yes (A.I.)
Rating: PG
Writing style: 3/5
Likable characters: 3/5
Plot/Concepts: 4/5
The paranoid widow of an assassinated scientist, Cassie has chosen to hide herself and her children away in a super-advanced, impregnable house her sister-in-law has nicknamed “the castle.” When a runaway AI takes control of the house, Cassie and her children become its hostages. How do you negotiate a hostage situation with an AI, who is infinitely patient, terribly clever, and focused solely on its objective?
Overall I appreciated the amount of thought put into Computer Virus. Kress seems to be sufficiently knowledgeable in the fields she writes about, or if not, she fakes it well enough that it works. The way in which Cassie chooses to fight the AI is admirably clever, and the fact that we have a smart female protagonist was a definite plus, even if in the beginning I was afraid she would be another stereotype of irrational over-emotional weakness due to her paranoia after her husband’s death. By the end she proves to be quite capable and level-headed when under pressure.
The concepts and plot were mostly solid, the writing style not so much. Kress often uses awkward sentence structures, which makes the meaning unclear even after reading the sentence several times. Sometimes there are unfinished sentences as well, although this could be a stylistic preference. Some of the dialogue felt a little forced, and as clever as Cassie’s defense against the AI was, the circumstances under which it was developed seemed like too much of a coincidence in retrospect. However, the deeper questions posed in the ending were fairly well handled for an AI story, which tend to sway too far toward anthropomorphizing AI on the one hand or else making them into complete monsters. Gender distribution was fairly balanced throughout, although apart from Cassie the men in positions of power got a lot more limelight than the women in similar positions.
Because the AI had a recognizable personality, we can count it as an asexual genderqueer character. Sexuality is never a focus in the story anyway, so it makes little difference in that arena, but it’s still worth mentioning. The most important relationships in the story are between Cassie and her children or her sister in law. It’s true she is haunted by her husband’s death, but in the thick of things she sees the importance of living for the living and not the dead.
--
Savior:
Intended Audience: Adult
Sexual content: Mild
Ace/Genderqueer characters: Yes (A.I.)
Rating: PG/PG-13 for brief disturbing imagery and brief mention of intercourse
Writing style: 3/5
Likable characters: 2/5
Plot/Concepts: 4/5
What if an alien craft came to earth, but refused to show its contents or communicate with humans for a hundred years or more? What might its mere presence and mystery do to the human psyche and the structure of society?
Our story opens on a scene in northern Minnesota—two scientists in a cornfield, waiting for the extraterrestrial object to touch down. There is a sense of expectation, and when the object changes course to land right in front of one of the scientists, he feels that it is a sign. He is the first to approach the egg-like object, the first to be prevented from touching it by the mysterious force-field around it. Years later he returns as an old man. The egg still hasn’t opened or emitted any sort of transmission, and he must face the inevitable truth that its landing had nothing to do with him after all.
As the story goes on, there are several time jumps, giving a broad perspective of what happens in the decades following the object’s arrival. We see a fallback to primitive superstitious cultures after the Collapse due to endocrine-disrupting plastics which have caused infertility across the globe. These goat-herders see the egg as a blessing sent from God to give them fertility. Then comes a slow recovery from the Collapse, leading to a new society where biology and environmental science is the central focus in America, while the Chinese are more adept at machinery and computer sciences. Conflict ensues between the two and is resolved, all in the context of each country’s interaction with the extraterrestrial object. Finally, the egg’s purpose in coming to earth is revealed – but to learn what that is, you’ll have to read the story for yourself!
Savior is one of those stories that I didn’t enjoy as much as I wanted to while I was reading it, but once I reached the punch-line, it earned my respect. The best science fiction shows the reader things about their worldview or society that they might be blind to otherwise, and Savior gives a good overview of the human psyche in relation to its place in the universe. Unfortunately the narrative and point of view skipped around a lot due to the time jumps, making the various subplots difficult to follow. In addition, there were very few characters I liked, although they were each given a distinct “feel” which is impressive considering how many of them there were. Nearly all of the main characters were men, with only one important female character mentioned. During the time period following the Collapse, superstition has unfortunately come coupled with patriarchal domination, which was another aspect I didn’t enjoy.
The science felt stronger than in Savior’s companion piece, Computer Virus, and again, the author seems to have a good grasp of what could be possible in multiple scientific fields. The biggest disappointment was purely personal—I was expecting an AI character to be in the story throughout, but one only appears toward the very end, which means there was no time to “get to know” it as a character. Still, I was more impressed by this story than by Computer Virus when it comes to how much it made me think.
Intended Audience: Adult
Sexual content: None
Ace/Genderqueer characters: Yes (A.I.)
Rating: PG
Writing style: 3/5
Likable characters: 3/5
Plot/Concepts: 4/5
The paranoid widow of an assassinated scientist, Cassie has chosen to hide herself and her children away in a super-advanced, impregnable house her sister-in-law has nicknamed “the castle.” When a runaway AI takes control of the house, Cassie and her children become its hostages. How do you negotiate a hostage situation with an AI, who is infinitely patient, terribly clever, and focused solely on its objective?
Overall I appreciated the amount of thought put into Computer Virus. Kress seems to be sufficiently knowledgeable in the fields she writes about, or if not, she fakes it well enough that it works. The way in which Cassie chooses to fight the AI is admirably clever, and the fact that we have a smart female protagonist was a definite plus, even if in the beginning I was afraid she would be another stereotype of irrational over-emotional weakness due to her paranoia after her husband’s death. By the end she proves to be quite capable and level-headed when under pressure.
The concepts and plot were mostly solid, the writing style not so much. Kress often uses awkward sentence structures, which makes the meaning unclear even after reading the sentence several times. Sometimes there are unfinished sentences as well, although this could be a stylistic preference. Some of the dialogue felt a little forced, and as clever as Cassie’s defense against the AI was, the circumstances under which it was developed seemed like too much of a coincidence in retrospect. However, the deeper questions posed in the ending were fairly well handled for an AI story, which tend to sway too far toward anthropomorphizing AI on the one hand or else making them into complete monsters. Gender distribution was fairly balanced throughout, although apart from Cassie the men in positions of power got a lot more limelight than the women in similar positions.
Because the AI had a recognizable personality, we can count it as an asexual genderqueer character. Sexuality is never a focus in the story anyway, so it makes little difference in that arena, but it’s still worth mentioning. The most important relationships in the story are between Cassie and her children or her sister in law. It’s true she is haunted by her husband’s death, but in the thick of things she sees the importance of living for the living and not the dead.
--
Savior:
Intended Audience: Adult
Sexual content: Mild
Ace/Genderqueer characters: Yes (A.I.)
Rating: PG/PG-13 for brief disturbing imagery and brief mention of intercourse
Writing style: 3/5
Likable characters: 2/5
Plot/Concepts: 4/5
What if an alien craft came to earth, but refused to show its contents or communicate with humans for a hundred years or more? What might its mere presence and mystery do to the human psyche and the structure of society?
Our story opens on a scene in northern Minnesota—two scientists in a cornfield, waiting for the extraterrestrial object to touch down. There is a sense of expectation, and when the object changes course to land right in front of one of the scientists, he feels that it is a sign. He is the first to approach the egg-like object, the first to be prevented from touching it by the mysterious force-field around it. Years later he returns as an old man. The egg still hasn’t opened or emitted any sort of transmission, and he must face the inevitable truth that its landing had nothing to do with him after all.
As the story goes on, there are several time jumps, giving a broad perspective of what happens in the decades following the object’s arrival. We see a fallback to primitive superstitious cultures after the Collapse due to endocrine-disrupting plastics which have caused infertility across the globe. These goat-herders see the egg as a blessing sent from God to give them fertility. Then comes a slow recovery from the Collapse, leading to a new society where biology and environmental science is the central focus in America, while the Chinese are more adept at machinery and computer sciences. Conflict ensues between the two and is resolved, all in the context of each country’s interaction with the extraterrestrial object. Finally, the egg’s purpose in coming to earth is revealed – but to learn what that is, you’ll have to read the story for yourself!
Savior is one of those stories that I didn’t enjoy as much as I wanted to while I was reading it, but once I reached the punch-line, it earned my respect. The best science fiction shows the reader things about their worldview or society that they might be blind to otherwise, and Savior gives a good overview of the human psyche in relation to its place in the universe. Unfortunately the narrative and point of view skipped around a lot due to the time jumps, making the various subplots difficult to follow. In addition, there were very few characters I liked, although they were each given a distinct “feel” which is impressive considering how many of them there were. Nearly all of the main characters were men, with only one important female character mentioned. During the time period following the Collapse, superstition has unfortunately come coupled with patriarchal domination, which was another aspect I didn’t enjoy.
The science felt stronger than in Savior’s companion piece, Computer Virus, and again, the author seems to have a good grasp of what could be possible in multiple scientific fields. The biggest disappointment was purely personal—I was expecting an AI character to be in the story throughout, but one only appears toward the very end, which means there was no time to “get to know” it as a character. Still, I was more impressed by this story than by Computer Virus when it comes to how much it made me think.
June 22, 2019
Two really interesting stories about AIs.
July 15, 2014
Intelligent sci-fi of the classic kind...
Each of the two novelettes in this book is about 65 pages long and both concern AI – Artificial Intelligence - and have elements of genetics and environmental pollution. However otherwise they have very little in common…oh, except for the fact that they are both excellent.
The first story, Computer Virus, is set in the near future. Cassie’s husband was murdered by neo-Luddites after he had created a bio-engineered thingy that would eat nonbiodegradable plastic. Now Cassie has retreated with her two children to a high-tech house that is secure from all intruders, and is monitored by its own in-built computer. The house is not secure from an escaped AI though – infiltrating the house’s computer, it takes Cassie and her children hostage and demands that the authorities allow it to tell its story to the press.
The story is about whether the AI’s ethics will develop enough to allow it to sympathise, especially when the young boy Donnie gets sick; and conversely will Cassie be able to avoid empathising with the AI. The old ‘What is Life’ question – if the AI can think and seems to feel human emotions, is it still a machine?
The characterisation is very strong, with both Cassie and the AI developing as the story progresses. The plot is very firmly based on believable future science, not just regarding the AI, but also on bioengineering. Cassie is a geneticist and her skills come into play as she tries to keep her family safe. The plot has a few holes – not least the fairly large one that is never quite clear why the AI has chosen to act as it has – and some of the science went way over my head. But it’s well written and builds to a tense and satisfying climax. This one rates 4 stars for me.
* * * * * * *
The second story though, Savior, is something special. It starts in 2007, when an alien object lands in Northern Minnesota. The government is ready to welcome peaceful aliens or battle invading ones – but nothing happens. The egg-shaped object just sits there, emitting nothing, encased in its own force-field that nothing can get through. The story then jumps forward eighty or so years, and we discover that an environmental catastrophe has destroyed huge numbers of people and left the survivors struggling to survive. And still the egg does nothing…
The story is divided into five chapters, each moving the world on by several decades – in total about three hundred years. We see humanity destroy itself and recover; we see technology ebb and flow; we see genetics, bioengineering and computers develop and change. And through it all, the half-forgotten alien object waits – and it’s only at the end of the last chapter that we discover what its purpose is.
For me, this story is the equal of any of the classics. Imaginative and very well written, it does what the best sci-fi does – looks at humanity’s strengths and weaknesses and considers how scientific advancements might affect the future. The build-up works so well that I was scared the ending might be an anti-climax, but I needn’t have worried. Kress brings it to an intelligent and satisfactory conclusion with just enough of a little quirk to leave the reader smiling.
Together, these stories provide a fine contrast to each other and I certainly found them an inspiring introduction to Kress’ work. Highly recommended.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Each of the two novelettes in this book is about 65 pages long and both concern AI – Artificial Intelligence - and have elements of genetics and environmental pollution. However otherwise they have very little in common…oh, except for the fact that they are both excellent.
“It’s out,” someone said, a tech probably, although later McTaggart could never remember who spoke first. “It’s out!”
“It can’t be!” someone else cried, and then the whole room was roiling, running, frantic with activity that never left the workstations. Running in place.
The first story, Computer Virus, is set in the near future. Cassie’s husband was murdered by neo-Luddites after he had created a bio-engineered thingy that would eat nonbiodegradable plastic. Now Cassie has retreated with her two children to a high-tech house that is secure from all intruders, and is monitored by its own in-built computer. The house is not secure from an escaped AI though – infiltrating the house’s computer, it takes Cassie and her children hostage and demands that the authorities allow it to tell its story to the press.
The story is about whether the AI’s ethics will develop enough to allow it to sympathise, especially when the young boy Donnie gets sick; and conversely will Cassie be able to avoid empathising with the AI. The old ‘What is Life’ question – if the AI can think and seems to feel human emotions, is it still a machine?
The characterisation is very strong, with both Cassie and the AI developing as the story progresses. The plot is very firmly based on believable future science, not just regarding the AI, but also on bioengineering. Cassie is a geneticist and her skills come into play as she tries to keep her family safe. The plot has a few holes – not least the fairly large one that is never quite clear why the AI has chosen to act as it has – and some of the science went way over my head. But it’s well written and builds to a tense and satisfying climax. This one rates 4 stars for me.
* * * * * * *
The object slowed, silvery in the starlight. It continued to slow until it was moving at perhaps three miles per hour, no more, at a roughly forty-five degree angle. The landing was smooth and even. There was no hovering, no jet blasts, no scorched ground. Only a faint whump as the object touched the earth, and a rustle of corn husks in the unseen wind.
The second story though, Savior, is something special. It starts in 2007, when an alien object lands in Northern Minnesota. The government is ready to welcome peaceful aliens or battle invading ones – but nothing happens. The egg-shaped object just sits there, emitting nothing, encased in its own force-field that nothing can get through. The story then jumps forward eighty or so years, and we discover that an environmental catastrophe has destroyed huge numbers of people and left the survivors struggling to survive. And still the egg does nothing…
The story is divided into five chapters, each moving the world on by several decades – in total about three hundred years. We see humanity destroy itself and recover; we see technology ebb and flow; we see genetics, bioengineering and computers develop and change. And through it all, the half-forgotten alien object waits – and it’s only at the end of the last chapter that we discover what its purpose is.
For me, this story is the equal of any of the classics. Imaginative and very well written, it does what the best sci-fi does – looks at humanity’s strengths and weaknesses and considers how scientific advancements might affect the future. The build-up works so well that I was scared the ending might be an anti-climax, but I needn’t have worried. Kress brings it to an intelligent and satisfactory conclusion with just enough of a little quirk to leave the reader smiling.
Together, these stories provide a fine contrast to each other and I certainly found them an inspiring introduction to Kress’ work. Highly recommended.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Read
March 29, 2013Two stories about AIs:
The first story is a classic science fiction problem story: after a terrorist kills her husband—a bioremediation specialist who developed a bacteria to eat plastic—a paranoid widow moves her kids into a safe house. But when a government AI escapes into that safe house, it takes her and her children hostage because it wants to be free. So when an AI turns your safe house into a prison—and your younger child is sick—how do you get out? I won’t give away the widow/mother/scientist's solution here, though I will note that it is satisfying for all her roles. And this story fits rather well with a conversation I was having with John Coyne the other day, about how Nancy Kress resembles in many ways a Golden-Age writer. The characters are as deep as they need to be: the paranoid but loving mother, the sick children, the nervous AI, the willing-to-be ruthless government agent. And there are some flashes of other traits here, as when the paranoid mother begins to realize the humanity of the AI. Still, while this is a fun s.f. problem story, I didn’t feel that it was great. Problem-->solution, and we're out.
The second story reminds me in some ways of Canticle for Leibowitz in that it’s a series of vignettes that take place over a wide swathe of time and it's heavily invested in the cycle of humanity's collapse and rise. So, in the first section, an alien craft comes down to Earth and… does nothing. In the second, a bunch of radiated humans take the craft as a sign from God and continue the long climb up from the Collapse (which involved a lot of environmental degradation and not just bombs). In the third, we’re shown a cold war of sorts between Chinese engineers and American bioremeditation specialists (again!), but by the fourth section, everyone seems at peace. Like the first story, I wasn’t blown away by her characterizations; and the idea (spoiler, but really not much of one) that any AI we create might prefer to go to the stars rather than stay with us goes back at least as far as Neuromancer. But this novella kept my interest with its clear tensions, central mystery, and ongoing patterns. For instance, some members of the same family keep showing up. If Kress isn’t too interested in characters, she’s very interested (and talented) with structure and theme.
The first story is a classic science fiction problem story: after a terrorist kills her husband—a bioremediation specialist who developed a bacteria to eat plastic—a paranoid widow moves her kids into a safe house. But when a government AI escapes into that safe house, it takes her and her children hostage because it wants to be free. So when an AI turns your safe house into a prison—and your younger child is sick—how do you get out? I won’t give away the widow/mother/scientist's solution here, though I will note that it is satisfying for all her roles. And this story fits rather well with a conversation I was having with John Coyne the other day, about how Nancy Kress resembles in many ways a Golden-Age writer. The characters are as deep as they need to be: the paranoid but loving mother, the sick children, the nervous AI, the willing-to-be ruthless government agent. And there are some flashes of other traits here, as when the paranoid mother begins to realize the humanity of the AI. Still, while this is a fun s.f. problem story, I didn’t feel that it was great. Problem-->solution, and we're out.
The second story reminds me in some ways of Canticle for Leibowitz in that it’s a series of vignettes that take place over a wide swathe of time and it's heavily invested in the cycle of humanity's collapse and rise. So, in the first section, an alien craft comes down to Earth and… does nothing. In the second, a bunch of radiated humans take the craft as a sign from God and continue the long climb up from the Collapse (which involved a lot of environmental degradation and not just bombs). In the third, we’re shown a cold war of sorts between Chinese engineers and American bioremeditation specialists (again!), but by the fourth section, everyone seems at peace. Like the first story, I wasn’t blown away by her characterizations; and the idea (spoiler, but really not much of one) that any AI we create might prefer to go to the stars rather than stay with us goes back at least as far as Neuromancer. But this novella kept my interest with its clear tensions, central mystery, and ongoing patterns. For instance, some members of the same family keep showing up. If Kress isn’t too interested in characters, she’s very interested (and talented) with structure and theme.
April 17, 2014
Two short stories (maybe more like novellas, about 45 pages apiece) about Artificial Intelligence. Overall not bad, but a little slowly moving at times.
The first is about an AI that escapes and takes refuge in a sequestered home, taking the residents hostage. It's a moral dilemma story, with both the human hostages and the AI needing to make decisions. I would be curious to see what happened to the strep virus altered to attack long chain hydrocarbons. That could make for a very interesting story.
The second story was about an alien object landing on earth and awaiting contact. I reminded me quite a bit of A Canticle for Leibowitz in how it was broken into several sections detailing differing levels of technological development and also how it showed the rise and fall of those technological civilizations.
The eBook was formatted OK with only one noticeable spelling error. Thanks to Phoenix Pick for the f r e e eBook edition.
The first is about an AI that escapes and takes refuge in a sequestered home, taking the residents hostage. It's a moral dilemma story, with both the human hostages and the AI needing to make decisions. I would be curious to see what happened to the strep virus altered to attack long chain hydrocarbons. That could make for a very interesting story.
The second story was about an alien object landing on earth and awaiting contact. I reminded me quite a bit of A Canticle for Leibowitz in how it was broken into several sections detailing differing levels of technological development and also how it showed the rise and fall of those technological civilizations.
The eBook was formatted OK with only one noticeable spelling error. Thanks to Phoenix Pick for the f r e e eBook edition.
August 30, 2016
AI Unbound is two long short-stories or short novellas on the theme of artificial intelligence although I really only felt the first one properly addressed the titles theme.
Computer Virus presents an intriguing story of an AI escaping its creators and going on the run through the internet. Kress doesn’t worry too much about the how – the technology – but instead focuses more on the morals and constructs an interesting theme that makes those morals suitably ambiguous. A good short story that may give the reader pause for thought.
Savior is a very different sort of story and is really a first contact story rather than an AI one, which I honestly found a little tedious compare to Computer Virus and also having little to do with any of the many questions that inevitably arise about AI; the AI component being more or less relegated to the final story twist.
Computer Virus gets a solid four stars but Savior barely three.
Computer Virus presents an intriguing story of an AI escaping its creators and going on the run through the internet. Kress doesn’t worry too much about the how – the technology – but instead focuses more on the morals and constructs an interesting theme that makes those morals suitably ambiguous. A good short story that may give the reader pause for thought.
Savior is a very different sort of story and is really a first contact story rather than an AI one, which I honestly found a little tedious compare to Computer Virus and also having little to do with any of the many questions that inevitably arise about AI; the AI component being more or less relegated to the final story twist.
Computer Virus gets a solid four stars but Savior barely three.
January 21, 2016
I don't normally read novellas, preferring the longer development of a novel, but these two were well fleshed out and most interesting. Kress is a very good writer and I recommend these two AI stories.
May 29, 2013
I like 1st story but not 2nd story...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews