Which piece of literature best portrays life to the full?

[reiver33]

This is kind of a plot-related query...

Imagine a fully sentient artificial intelligence which is effectively a synthetic personality. It works for a large corporation but is allowed 'time off' to alleviate boredom. It can visit fully interactive, full sensorium virtual reality environments based on works of literature (along with the paying public).

So, if you wanted to experience life to the full, which work of literature would you choose? The Kama Suta? The works of de Sade? Peter Pan?

I wonder if there will be any form of consensus...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think something by Charles Dickens would fill the bill, since almost any one of his novels explores the experiences of a wide number of characters in different walks of life, and includes scenes that range from the light-hearted to the tragic and just about everything in between.

 

[Pyan]

If it's based on Earth, I would have thought that people would want to experience a complete change from everything on this planet: maybe visit the deserts of Arrakis from Dune, or ride the Anduin down to Minas Tirith or even see the charming, olde-worlde sights of Ankh-Morpork...

 

[reiver33]

As I said, it can be based on any piece of literature, but I quite like the Dickins angle. I've only read Bleak House and Hard Times, the others have all been TV adaptations.
Something to think on...

 

[Boneman]

The Bible?

I guess I'd go for something that did have life on the edge, lots of epic battles (nothing like the closeness of death to make you appreciate life!), possibly Odysseus, or Helen of Troy type books. But who could resist a visit to Middle Earth?

 

[Moonbat]

hmm, you say to experience life 'to the full' so probably one work of fiction wouldn't be enough. What about non-fiction?
I'd say visit the Sun newspaper, that would be made up of thousands of real life stories that actually happened (though reporting might be biased)
But surely a classic would be best, and maybe a big tome of a book, something like War & Peace.

 

[Faraway]

Plot-related question: Who or what in the plot decides on what the AI will read? Does the corporation entity have any influence on this? Do they want to skew the world-view of this AI?

I think something by Charles Dickens would fill the bill

I'd honestly love to see a book with an AI that drew its speech patterns from the opening paragraphs of Oliver Twist. "...the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to..."

(I thought the Shakespeare-reading robots in Dan Simmons' Ilium/Olympus were great, especially when contrasted to the robots who drew their language from technical manuals.)

The Bible?

I guess I'd go for something that did have life on the edge, lots of epic battles (nothing like the closeness of death to make you appreciate life!), possibly Odysseus, or Helen of Troy type books. But who could resist a visit to Middle Earth?

The Iliad? You want to make the AI grow up into a grudge-holding, revenge driven, murderous, ruthless (etc.) thing?
"Ben, earlier today I saw your neighbours' children shooting at your dog with an airgun. I thought you would be pleased to hear that I used an orbital laser to incinerate them and their house.
I also incinerated the house of their cousin, Nicole who is the daughter of Patrick (the greater) from Yorkshire. I then killed her grandparents; Michael of Essex and Anna of Sussex who was previously the wife of Patrick (the smaller.)
I killed him too, incidentally, as well as anyone who would seem likely to oppose you in this struggle. That is to say, anyone from Essex, Sussex or Yorkshire."

 

[Ursa major]

From what I understand, the settings (and, perhaps, the characters) are taken from a work of literature but the AI will also be in the environment, together with paying cutomers (some of whom - and I'm guessing here - may also be AIs).

I'm finding it difficult to suggest a work of literature, but this is not simply due to the paucity of my past reading. Bigger problems for me are the way the paying customers are present in the envionment and the extent to which they can interact with it to drive the "story".

It seems to me that in the current absence of such information (and of the likes and dislikes of the AI) I can only suggest that the AI chooses a work of literature with a wide range of environments within it.


And my suggestion would be (and this is partly on the basis that the eponymous object and the FTL "mechanism" really "work"): The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

 

[reiver33]

The works of literature have been 're-imagined' as fully-interactive virtual theme parks (for want of a better term). You experience them as minor/background characters while the plot plays out around you. Thus you could, say, attend a ball from a Jane Austin novel, or play cards with Harry Flashman at his club (not recommended).

Although there is a 'recommended reading list' for the AI, as it were, it has found ways of slipping the leash and dabbling in Rated-18 sites as well. To try and head off the development of unwanted/anti-social character traits, the AI has been supplied with certain psychological imperatives (loyalty to the company, don't kill the paying customers, etc.). I trust this helps!

 

[HareBrain]

So, if you wanted to experience life to the full, which work of literature would you choose? The Kama Suta? The works of de Sade? Peter Pan?

I wonder if there will be any form of consensus...

The masthead of the News of the World used to boast "all human life is here", so unless you can find a claim to even greater comprehensiveness, it would have to be that.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

So the purpose of these "theme parks" is firstly to amuse the multitudes, and only secondly to amuse the AI? That could make a difference in our suggestions.

 

[Faraway]

Although there is a 'recommended reading list' for the AI, as it were, it has found ways of slipping the leash and dabbling in Rated-18 sites as well. To try and head off the development of unwanted/anti-social character traits, the AI has been supplied with certain psychological imperatives (loyalty to the company, don't kill the paying customers, etc.). I trust this helps!

So the AI itself can choose which virtual book to enter? How are you playing this out - I mean, will you make the AI stumble upon a virtual book which turns out to be an excellent portrayal of life to the AI? What I'm trying to get at... this example would mean that the choice of knowledge-imparting book would not be decided by the AI personality.

Does the AI read the synopsis/meta-data of certain theme parks, then carefully choose a virtual book that ends up being an excellent portrayal of life? In the latter case, would the book be decided by the AI personality?
(E.g. a desire to break free, to attain a higher level of self-awareness, etc etc?) And in this case, would the corporate imperatives that you mention have any influence on the choice of book?

 

[Ursa major]

And then there's the question we've not been asking (probably due to good manners** rather than lack of nosiness):

Does the AI's choice of literary inspiration (together with some insights gathered in the simulation) lead it to change its view of, and its attitude toward, real life?
​

If so, you must ask yourself (if not us) what you want the AI to observe to lead it to behave the way you want it to later in the story.






** - "Good manners? What are those?" asked Ursa.

.

 

[reiver33]

The 'literary theme parks' are set up as commercial concerns, in which (human) fans pay to experience a highly realistic virtual reality environment based on a given novel - or series of novels featuring the same main characters.

The AI is one of several which works for the corporate owner of these environments. As AI's shade into synthetic personalities you have the problems of dedication to duty, motivation and reward (you don't want a 'stroppy teenager' AI which refuses to get up in the morning and do its job). Ideally they want a dedicated, hard-working 'smart geek' persona with few outside interests. What they don't want is an underachieving slacker spending all his free time in the company of literary hell-raisers...

In an effort to create a stable and worthwhile personality (from the corporate perspective), the AI has been created with a basic set of psychological imperatives - effectively rudamentary socialisation, rather than spend years teaching it to 'play nice'.

To build upon this initial conditioning the AI is given access to a number of theme parks which, broadly speaking, promote 'life affirming' values, in the belief these experiences will influence its psychological development. The choice and duration of these visits is controlled by the corporate 'Personality Development Team' within the cybernetic systems department. The effects, if any, are closely monitored in case the AI picks up the 'wrong' message from a given experience*. In addition it effectively spends time in therapy sessions with a cybernetic psychologist.

However, the AI in question has found ways in which to evade its PDT monitoring and has gained access to the full range of theme parks, including those featuring 'adult themes'. The AI is seeking a broader understanding of human frailities than perhaps its corporate creators would be comfortable with.

Hence my original query; if you were looking for a literary source which best portrayed the full range of human experience, what would you choose? Perhaps it would be better to describe this as a search for intense human experience...

* From an episode of 'Deep Space Nine' in which the moral drawn from the tale of 'The boy who cried wolf' was 'never tell the same lie twice'.

 

[Faraway]

Human frailties? Intensity? I suggest Steinbeck's East of Eden.

 

[The Judge]

Sorry, more questions. Does the AI know what experiences are to be found in the respective books? Does he want to experience as much as possible in one book, or to experience the greatest amount of one particular emotion/situation before moving to the next?

If he wants an overview, as it were, something like War and Peace would work. Most of Dickens isn't going to show enough big conflict, though -- but how about A Tale of Two Cities? That's got true love, revolution, blood, self-sacrifice.

 

[reiver33]

The AI would have access to the promotional material used to market a given virtual environment - in effect a semi-synopsis. He (I'll call it 'he' as it has adopted a male persona) has only limited access to these unauthorised environments 'off the clock' and thus prefers either a broad-spectrum experience (hence my inital question in this thread) or one that is focused on a specific aspect of human psychology (for that intense kick).

 

[The Judge]

Since the works will perforce have to be the equivalent of TV adaptations, have you thought about whether they will show things happening off-page, as it were? The reason I ask is that you mentioned two specifically sexual books in your opening post, but of course the classics rarely show sex on the page for obvious reasons, so if you want him to experience that at second hand you'll need to divert from the book or have a separate work.

I'm also intrigued as to how you will go from scene to scene. Do you show the entire tumbril ride from the prison to the guillotine or jump cut from one to another? If the former, just how long will it take for him to experience the whole book?!

 

[Peter Graham]

Frankenstein's monster got his book-learning from a discarded copy of Milton's Paradise Lost, which in all fairness would be as good a place as any to start.

Otherwise, I'd vote for Hamlet, The Canterbury Tales or Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

Or the 1979 Grange Hill Annual.

Regards,

Peter

 

[reiver33]

The virtual reality environments are 'the entire world' of that particular source material, in real-time, kicking off (or initialising) at the start of the storyline sans flashbacks. Think of it as a virtual 'Westworld' (the film) experience, with the paying customer free to interact as much or as little as they want with the background storyline. The AI controlling things (not the target of the MC) makes sure that the plot progresses from one narrative stepping-stone to the next, and isn't too bothered about what it considers incidental details.

Obviously those literary works featuring crowd scenes/parties/balls are more favoured for a 're-imagining' than one in which the main character dosses about on his own for most of the narrative.