It is my pleasure to inform the Control Systems Group that a novel has been published by a man who is not only familiar with PCT, but who incorporates it into his models of mechanistic intelligence. That man is my son, Max Harms.
This novel is largely about artificial intelligence and rationality. Appreciators of PCT may be happy to notice that he draws on PCT quite directly as he frames robotics and AI. It seems likely to me that some CSGnet participants may be dismayed that Max does not turn this novel into a promotional vehicle for PCT, or even that in his assessment PCT does not include all important aspects of intelligence that will be required for effective general artificial intelligence to be built.
Has there been any novel that has drawn seriously on PCT? In my opinion it’s a bonus to have such a work come from a theorist who has specific ideas as to the limitations of PCT. Not that these ideas are articulated in this novel, mind you, but it’s worth noting that the author’s opinions are connected with his actual AI efforts.
This is a modern novel. As a science fiction novel set in the near-future, it projects ways in which our world is in cultural transformation. This includes people intentionally modifying their bodies with machine systems, changes in language norms, and changes in sexual attitudes.
I found it an engrossing, entertaining read. Most of the novel is written from the first-person perspective of an artificial intelligence module. This machine’s-eye-view makes for a remarkable narrative.
Crystal Society is available at no charge from the following site:
It is my pleasure to inform the Control Systems Group that a novel has been published by a man who is not only familiar with PCT, but who incorporates it into his models of mechanistic intelligence. That man is my son, Max Harms.
This novel is largely about artificial
intelligence and rationality. Appreciators of PCT may be happy to notice that he draws on PCT quite directly as he frames robotics and AI. It seems likely to me that some CSGnet participants may be dismayed that Max does not turn this novel into a promotional vehicle for PCT, or even that in his assessment PCT does not include all important aspects of intelligence that will be required for effective general artificial intelligence to be built.
Has there been any novel that has drawn seriously on PCT? In my opinion it’s a bonus to have such a work come from a theorist who has specific ideas as to the limitations of PCT. Not that these ideas are articulated in this novel, mind you, but it’s worth noting that the author’s opinions are connected with his actual AI efforts.
This is a modern novel. As a science fiction novel set in the near-future, it projects ways in which our world is in cultural transformation. This includes p
eople intentionally modifying their bodies with machine systems, changes in language norms, and changes in sexual attitudes.
I found it an engrossing, entertaining read. Most of the novel is written from the first-person perspective of an artificial intelligence module. This machine’s-eye-view makes for a remarkable narrative.
Crystal Society is available at no charge from the following site:
I will definitely check this out, Tracy! I was just reading an article about scientists who are seriously concerned about artificial intelligence, and the implications of continually trying to improve on the capabilities of computers and robots. I appreciate that Max chose to incorporate a subject near and dear (PCT), and also a very timely issue.
Dad was fascinated with science fiction from a very early age. His first exposure was, as a young boy, when he saw a rocket ship on the cover of a friend’s comic book. He said he was astonished, “What is THAT?” (His words!) From that moment on, he had an eye toward the stars, and in to the future…
As a fellow aspiring novelist, your son’s accomplishment has sparked an inspiration to write a who-dun-it, also incorporating PCT. My parents both enjoyed murder mysteries immensely; I have boxes and boxes of their collection of paperbacks as proof! I think a combination would be a wonderful tribute, and a way for me to explore and expand the extent of my own knowledge in PCT.
It is my pleasure to inform the Control Systems Group that a novel has been published by a man who is not only familiar with PCT, but who incorporates it into his models of mechanistic intelligence. That man is my son, Max Harms.
This novel is largely about artificial intelligence and rationality. Appreciators of PCT may be happy to notice that he draws on PCT quite directly as he frames robotics and AI. It seems likely to me that some CSGnet participants may be dismayed that Max does not turn this novel into a promotional vehicle for PCT, or even that in his assessment PCT does not include all important aspects of intelligence that will be required for effective general artificial intelligence to be built.
Has there been any novel that has drawn seriously on PCT? In my opinion it’s a bonus to have such a work come from a theorist who has specific ideas as to the limitations of PCT. Not that these ideas are articulated in this novel, mind you, but it’s worth noting that the author’s opinions are connected with his actual AI efforts.
This is a modern novel. As a science fiction novel set in the near-future, it projects ways in which our world is in cultural transformation. This includes people intentionally modifying their bodies with machine systems, changes in language norms, and changes in sexual attitudes.
I found it an engrossing, entertaining read. Most of the novel is written from the first-person perspective of an artificial intelligence module. This machine’s-eye-view makes for a remarkable narrative.
Crystal Society is available at no charge from the following site:
I, for one, am not about to ask him to do so. You can, if you wish.
I like living in a world where the reliance on, and appreciation of, scientific theory is so pervasive that people don’t even think about crediting the theorists who contributed most to the breakthroughs. Darwin, Newton, and Maxwell aren’t named for specific credit, either. (Nobody is, except incidentally by way of books read by characters in the story, along with entirely fictional works.) Personally, I’m savoring the fact that, for Max, Bill Powers is one of the contributors to scientific knowledge whose role is so obvious as to not need to be mentioned.
Or, as the kids say, “duh.”
Tracy
···
On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 3:17 AM, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:
Exciting! Any chance he might add a credit to Powers somewhere?
It is my pleasure to inform the Control Systems Group that a novel has been published by a man who is not only familiar with PCT, but who incorporates it into his models of mechanistic intelligence. That man is my son, Max Harms.
This novel is largely about artificial
intelligence and rationality. Appreciators of PCT may be happy to notice that he draws on PCT quite directly as he frames robotics and AI. It seems likely to me that some CSGnet participants may be dismayed that Max does not turn this novel into a promotional vehicle for PCT, or even that in his assessment PCT does not include all important aspects of intelligence that will be required for effective general artificial intelligence to be built.
Has there been any novel that has drawn seriously on PCT? In my opinion it’s a bonus to have such a work come from a theorist who has specific ideas as to the limitations of PCT. Not that these ideas are articulated in this novel, mind you, but it’s worth noting that the author’s opinions are connected with his actual AI efforts.
This is a modern novel. As a science fiction novel set in the near-future, it projects ways in which our world is in cultural transformation. This includes p
eople intentionally modifying their bodies with machine systems, changes in language norms, and changes in sexual attitudes.
I found it an engrossing, entertaining read. Most of the novel is written from the first-person perspective of an artificial intelligence module. This machine’s-eye-view makes for a remarkable narrative.
Crystal Society is available at no charge from the following site:
It’s a matter of personal preference, perhaps, but I, for one, believe it’s entirely appropriate and respectful to at least give a nod toward an originator, mentor, or people who may have otherwise inspired or contributed to a work.
You may recall that J. Allen Hynek had a cameo appearance in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” as the leading expert on UFOs, and having been a technical advisor for the movie.
As a photographer, I always mention the name of the printer, and the artist who builds my frames. I would not assume that everyone knows the sources of those contributions, much as an article or book often can include a bibliography at the end.
Best,
*barb
···
On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 3:17 AM, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:
Exciting! Any chance he might add a credit to Powers somewhere?
It is my pleasure to inform the Control Systems Group that a novel has been published by a man who is not only familiar with PCT, but who incorporates it into his models of mechanistic intelligence. That man is my son, Max Harms.
This novel is largely about artificial
intelligence and rationality. Appreciators of PCT may be happy to notice that he draws on PCT quite directly as he frames robotics and AI. It seems likely to me that some CSGnet participants may be dismayed that Max does not turn this novel into a promotional vehicle for PCT, or even that in his assessment PCT does not include all important aspects of intelligence that will be required for effective general artificial intelligence to be built.
Has there been any novel that has drawn seriously on PCT? In my opinion it’s a bonus to have such a work come from a theorist who has specific ideas as to the limitations of PCT. Not that these ideas are articulated in this novel, mind you, but it’s worth noting that the author’s opinions are connected with his actual AI efforts.
This is a modern novel. As a science fiction novel set in the near-future, it projects ways in which our world is in cultural transformation. This includes p
eople intentionally modifying their bodies with machine systems, changes in language norms, and changes in sexual attitudes.
I found it an engrossing, entertaining read. Most of the novel is written from the first-person perspective of an artificial intelligence module. This machine’s-eye-view makes for a remarkable narrative.
Crystal Society is available at no charge from the following site:
At a CSG meeting somewhere around 2001 (I can pin that because it was around the time I was President of CSG) I proposed a contest with an “unspecified prize” for the first person to get a story or novel published in which PCT is demonstrated and advocated the way General Semantics (another of Bill’s interests) is demonstrated and advocated in the Null-A novels by A.E. Van Vogt. Bill said he already had, with the story “A congregation of vapors”. A decade later, when I was visiting him, he handed it to me and I read it. I don’t think it quite fills the bill, because the featured feedback loop is a positive feedback loop through planetary climate. Sure, it’s driven by people buying and running air conditioners with more and more demand for electricity from polluting power plants, but people’s control of perceptions is not the main feature, nor is it featured as part of the plot resolution.
In the null-A novels, knowledge of General Semantics enables some characters to understand and do things better than other characters. What might a grasp of PCT enable a protagonist to understand and do that other characters can’t understand and do? Making an autonomous robot is evidently an essential antecedent to this story line. In this, its makers are able to understand and do something that other roboticists can’t do. Insofar as they’re successful, the robot can do what a person can do. There is the teeny weeny question of consciousness and the qualia of experience that we’ve touched on in Rupert’s thread. I’m looking forward to reading it!
It’s a matter of personal preference, perhaps, but I, for one, believe it’s entirely appropriate and respectful to at least give a nod toward an originator, mentor, or people who may have otherwise inspired or contributed to a work.
You may recall that J. Allen Hynek had a cameo appearance in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” as the leading expert on UFOs, and having been a technical advisor for the movie.
As a photographer, I always mention the name of the printer, and the artist who builds my frames. I would not assume that everyone knows the sources of those contributions, much as an article or book often can include a bibliography at the end.
I, for one, am not about to ask him to do so. You can, if you wish.
I like living in a world where the reliance on, and appreciation of, scientific theory is so pervasive that people don’t even think about crediting the theorists who contributed most to the breakthroughs. Darwin, Newton, and Maxwell aren’t named for specific credit, either. (Nobody is, except incidentally by way of books read by characters in the story, along with entirely fictional works.) Personally, I’m savoring the fact that, for Max, Bill Powers is one of the contributors to scientific knowledge whose role is so obvious as to not need to be mentioned.
Or, as the kids say, “duh.”
Tracy
On Sat, Jan 30, 2016 at 3:17 AM, Warren Mansell wmansell@gmail.com wrote:
Exciting! Any chance he might add a credit to Powers somewhere?
It is my pleasure to inform the Control Systems Group that a novel has been published by a man who is not only familiar with PCT, but who incorporates it into his models of mechanistic intelligence. That man is my son, Max Harms.
This novel is largely about artificial
intelligence and rationality. Appreciators of PCT may be happy to notice that he draws on PCT quite directly as he frames robotics and AI. It seems likely to me that some CSGnet participants may be dismayed that Max does not turn this novel into a promotional vehicle for PCT, or even that in his assessment PCT does not include all important aspects of intelligence that will be required for effective general artificial intelligence to be built.
Has there been any novel that has drawn seriously on PCT? In my opinion it’s a bonus to have such a work come from a theorist who has specific ideas as to the limitations of PCT. Not that these ideas are articulated in this novel, mind you, but it’s worth noting that the author’s opinions are connected with his actual AI efforts.
This is a modern novel. As a science fiction novel set in the near-future, it projects ways in which our world is in cultural transformation. This includes p
eople intentionally modifying their bodies with machine systems, changes in language norms, and changes in sexual attitudes.
I found it an engrossing, entertaining read. Most of the novel is written from the first-person perspective of an artificial intelligence module. This machine’s-eye-view makes for a remarkable narrative.
Crystal Society is available at no charge from the following site: