After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley

by Rob Reid

If asked to investigate strange lights over the airport, this person might quickly mistake the Goodyear blimp for a flying saucer. Not out of stupidity—but from an urge to believe. Well, on that late winter’s night in 2002, Kuba had an urge to believe. If not in an artificial consciousness, then at least in software that could pass the Turing Test. Why? Well, for one thing (as is the case with many otherwise-smart UFO obsessives), he found it fun to believe. It made life feel more interesting, and raised the prospect of the near-term reordering of a world he sometimes felt alienated from. But while fun and generally harmless, excess belief can make people mistake scant evidence for definitive proof. Just ask any congenital optimist who’s ever had an unrequited crush! Viewed through this lens, Kuba’s mindset was too wishful to allow him to capably judge Cyrano’s sentience.

Ergo, wanting to believe did not necessarily preclude Kuba from being right about who was behind Cyrano’s texting—right? Right!!! Wrestling with all of this, Kuba spent most of the night texting “Cyrano” tests of high-level cognition. He, she, or it failed almost all of them.