Samuel
asked
Aiden Bailey:
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Hello Aiden. I've finished the Benevolent deception and am writing the review. One of the primary plot points of the novel is the strategic use of information blackouts and media manipulation/framing in shaping the course of the primary conspiracy. In this age of fake news and disinformation campaigns by nation state, it's somewhat relevant. What inspired you to include that aspect in your first thriller? (hide spoiler)]
Aiden Bailey
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Hi Samuel. I'm not really sure where the idea for The Benevolent Deception came from, other than I had been kicking it around in my mind for years. But to answer the question in more detail on some of the thought processes I went through, I have to point out that to do so requires giving away SPOILERS about THE PLOT and THE TWIST. So don't read on if you want to have any surprises ruined for you.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
There, you've been warned.
The main protagonists in The Benevolent Deception is a sentient artificial intelligence. In my novel, I take the 'what if' scenario that humanity has finally perfected a machine that is smarter, faster, quicker and in every way superior to us. Also in my novel, the sentient artificial intelligence in question goes rogue, or more precisely, is too smart for humans to keep in a box any more. So it just does what it wants.
Most fiction I've read involving sentient AIs (lets call them SAIs) left me feeling that the authors never really thought them through properly, and give them far more human characteristics than they deserve. Why would an SAI limit itself to one sensory body? Why would a SAI have its thought processes running in only one location, sequentially? Why would a SAI ever reveal what it was, when it could easily impersonate other people already in positions of power to achieve its ends? Why would a SAI remain on one machine, when it could dominate the entire internet, every connected camera and audio device on the planet, and any military or vehicular hardware it could link to?
My answer to this would be, it would do all of this, all at once.
If a SAI could control every piece of information device or system across the global, why would it not then start to use it all to put out whatever news, government policy, media manipulation/framing or information blackout it wanted?
This all of course begs the question, for what purpose?
Lots of experts talk about SAI either creating the rapture of the nerds where we all live in paradise (such as Iain M Banks) or it will be the destruction of humanity (such as Stephen Hawkings), but most experts just don't know. How can you know what something that is smarter than you will do? How can ants understand what humans do? Kind of the same parallel.
I've had some ideas on what a SAI 'might' do, and I've taken an optimistic spin on The Benevolent Series, but it is far from rosy.
I've come up with a plan for the SAI to enact across the course of three novels (or SAIs, plural, the first book hints at their being more than one). Those plans will be revealed in the next two books of the series. If the The Benevolent Deception defines the threat, The Benevolent Conflict defines the motivation, the real threat and potential endgame, and then escalates everything. But even then, it's not that simple, and nothing is still not what it seems.
But I also took in the geopolitical viewpoint when I wrote this, finding a political thriller angle acknowledging that there are so many conflicting agendas from so many people in power, how can we ever really take the planet and populous on a predicted, Utopian course when no one agrees with anyone, and no one really has the power to make the changes to make a perfect world for all of us? Because, really, isn't that what we all want (unless you are the kind of person who only cares about themselves)?
Take corporate greed versus global warming, or consumerism versus fundamental Islam, or democracy (The West) versus economic stability ahead of personal freedoms (China), or the religious conservative right versus diverse leftist liberal sexual/gender identities. Will there be any agreement here, anywhere? I'm sure anyone can come of with hundreds of opposing views from across the planet.
What if someone (like a SAI) had all the power, and told the world what the 'right' choices and 'wrong' choices where, then told the world that everyone agreed with the SAI? What would all that mean?
This has been an ongoing thought process for me, one that compelled me to write this series. What has surprised me most, was as I wrote it, I keep getting more and more ideas (and still do) on where it is all going. The end game keeps shifting, even for me. (hide spoiler)]
SPOILERS AHEAD.
There, you've been warned.
The main protagonists in The Benevolent Deception is a sentient artificial intelligence. In my novel, I take the 'what if' scenario that humanity has finally perfected a machine that is smarter, faster, quicker and in every way superior to us. Also in my novel, the sentient artificial intelligence in question goes rogue, or more precisely, is too smart for humans to keep in a box any more. So it just does what it wants.
Most fiction I've read involving sentient AIs (lets call them SAIs) left me feeling that the authors never really thought them through properly, and give them far more human characteristics than they deserve. Why would an SAI limit itself to one sensory body? Why would a SAI have its thought processes running in only one location, sequentially? Why would a SAI ever reveal what it was, when it could easily impersonate other people already in positions of power to achieve its ends? Why would a SAI remain on one machine, when it could dominate the entire internet, every connected camera and audio device on the planet, and any military or vehicular hardware it could link to?
My answer to this would be, it would do all of this, all at once.
If a SAI could control every piece of information device or system across the global, why would it not then start to use it all to put out whatever news, government policy, media manipulation/framing or information blackout it wanted?
This all of course begs the question, for what purpose?
Lots of experts talk about SAI either creating the rapture of the nerds where we all live in paradise (such as Iain M Banks) or it will be the destruction of humanity (such as Stephen Hawkings), but most experts just don't know. How can you know what something that is smarter than you will do? How can ants understand what humans do? Kind of the same parallel.
I've had some ideas on what a SAI 'might' do, and I've taken an optimistic spin on The Benevolent Series, but it is far from rosy.
I've come up with a plan for the SAI to enact across the course of three novels (or SAIs, plural, the first book hints at their being more than one). Those plans will be revealed in the next two books of the series. If the The Benevolent Deception defines the threat, The Benevolent Conflict defines the motivation, the real threat and potential endgame, and then escalates everything. But even then, it's not that simple, and nothing is still not what it seems.
But I also took in the geopolitical viewpoint when I wrote this, finding a political thriller angle acknowledging that there are so many conflicting agendas from so many people in power, how can we ever really take the planet and populous on a predicted, Utopian course when no one agrees with anyone, and no one really has the power to make the changes to make a perfect world for all of us? Because, really, isn't that what we all want (unless you are the kind of person who only cares about themselves)?
Take corporate greed versus global warming, or consumerism versus fundamental Islam, or democracy (The West) versus economic stability ahead of personal freedoms (China), or the religious conservative right versus diverse leftist liberal sexual/gender identities. Will there be any agreement here, anywhere? I'm sure anyone can come of with hundreds of opposing views from across the planet.
What if someone (like a SAI) had all the power, and told the world what the 'right' choices and 'wrong' choices where, then told the world that everyone agreed with the SAI? What would all that mean?
This has been an ongoing thought process for me, one that compelled me to write this series. What has surprised me most, was as I wrote it, I keep getting more and more ideas (and still do) on where it is all going. The end game keeps shifting, even for me. (hide spoiler)]
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