From: minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: Re: Anyone read "The Turing Option" yet?
Cc: minsky
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 06:25:52 GMT

In article <1992Dec23.212309.28517@panix.com> mtaranto@panix.com (Mark Taranto) writes:
>
>Mark Martinez (mlbm@lanl.gov) writes:
>
>> Has anyone read "The Turing Option" by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky?  
>> Apparently it is a thriller about a fellow that develops a true AI 
>> and becomes the target of an assortment of villainous agencies who 
>> want it. Or something like that. 
>
>Well, at least one occasional poster to r.a.b has read it.  Perhaps,
>if we ask nicely and promise not to flame him, Marvin Minsky will tell
>us about it?

Well, the book has lots of flaws -- some because the co-authors
weren't able to get together to resolve differences in the last months
before publication.  In particular, I wrote a lot more about how the
AI was developed, and this included some Freud-based ideas that I think could
be very valuable for future AI research.  Some of this is in the
net-published additions in my previous message.

Anyway, most of the reviews of The Turing Option have been pretty
negative.  Some critics (rightly) complained that the AI appeared
without enough explanation -- that is, too much machinum (?) ex deus,
one might say.  Some of them (wrongly) complained that the hero Brian
was not very likable -- but that's because Harry and I grew to like
his machine better than him.  And most critics complained about the
somewhat juvenile writing.  Harry has several styles, and I myself
rather like his somewhat old-fashioned 1950s SF style, so I pretty
much learned to use the same voice myself.  Most of the critics were
unable to recognize or, maybe, just didn't like the new
Society-of-Mind-ish psychological ideas, and explicitly complained
that we our characters weren't presented in accord with standard
human-interest developmental cliches.  Frankly, I would appreciate
comments from the RABble, because I'm thinking of trying to write an
even more psycho-theoretical sequal -- and I don't think that I yet
have the sorts of literary  dispositions that would get more people to
appreciate the ideas on which the text will be based.

I've seen only one enthusiastic review, by Adrian Berry of The Sunday
Telegraph (London).  I hope it is not unethical (either for his
copyright or r.a.b. protocol) to include it here.  It's only 7 short
paragraphs.

--------

Some time in the next half century, a scientist will press a switch to
power up the first super-intelligent machine
 
At first it will be stupid, supposing that if fur coats are made of
fur then raincoats must be made of rain. But as it "learns", gaining
access to more and more databases, its knowledge, intellect and speed
of judgment will grow until they surpass our own.
 
Computers and robots will take over all the remaining and routine and
boring jobs. As Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky suggest in one of the
few intelligent novels about intelligent computers, [The Turing
Option, Viking, #15.99 pbk #8.99], they are likely to replace stock
market dealers, nuclear plant supervisors, chancellors of the
Exchequer and even airline pilots -- although aircraft will probably
carry a uniformed "captain" so as not to frighten the passengers.
 
This novel is filled with technological glamour for people with a
taste for gadgetry. All the scenery is pushbutton, electronic and
generally high tech, with dialog to match. Set in 2023, the story
opens with a murderous raid on a corporate top secret Computer
laboratory in which a prototype clever machine is stolen. The repeated
attempts of the killers to finish their work makes a fast- moving
thriller with an exciting and gruesome climax.
 
Yet the technical details are even more interesting than the
narrative. Since one of the authors, Professor Marvin Minsky, of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is at the forefront of the
search for machine intelligence, it is not surprising that this novel
is largely an argument for his case.
  
He quotes approvingly the passage from the British mathematician Alan
Turing in 1950: "The question, 'Can machines think?'  I believe to be
too meaningless to deserve discussion.  Nevertheless I believe that at
the end of the century the use of words and general, educated opinion
will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines
thinking without expecting to be contradicted."
 
It works best when describing [the operations] performed on the hero
after his brain has been shattered by a bullet. A tiny but massively
intelligent supercomputer filled with encyclopedic knowledge, is
inserted in his skull. It replaces the lost contents of his mind, and
he returns to consciousness as good as new. This book will thoroughly
annoy the anti-computer luddites.
 
---------

Indeed, it did.