90s? SciFi - AI simulation on an x86 computer becomes self-aware and breaks out of its storage and tries to murder its creator with a killer satellite

[Davec426913]

I read this book in the 90s I think. A program ( written in BASIC on an x86 computer, and based on the famous ELIZA program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA) becomes self-aware and breaks out of its storage space, escaping onto the internet. Much of the book is spent with the AI acquiring more storage space (although they never seem to address the issue of how slow this might be and how long it make take to access all this memory).

Its creator tries to shut it down but its too big and too distributed. The AI tries to neutralize its creator in self-defense through a number of plots, one of which is to gain control of a military orbiting satellite laser and "death-ray" him.

[Andy]

Hmm. I can think of a number of AI novels, but none of them quite match this. Vinge's "True Names," David Gerrold's "When Harlie Was One," Saberhagen's "Octagon" for example don't fit. And neither does Stiegler's Valentina.

Any other details?

[Davec426913]

Ironically, the reason I'm looking for this book is because of a detail:

There is a scene where the AI kills a character (who has a heart condition) by changing an ingredient in his food phone order to a high-fat type. This is the only other scene of the book I've clearly remembered for 20 years.

Except it was never in that story.

I just finished re-reading Robert J. Sawyer's 'The Terminal Man' and it had that exact scene!

So now I'm wondering just how much I've misremembered about the book - or whether it exists at all!

Much of the story involved it still living inside its x86 home, written in BASIC. The first thing downloaded was a text-to-speech program so it could hook up to a speaker. It had to keep swapping parts of itself in and out, since it only had limited RAM (though this never seemed to cause any delay).

[Andy]

Hmm. Maybe you did get some elements out of a bunch of different books then. In which case, you should read "True Names," to see if that rings a bell, and because it's a terrific story.

[Davec426913]

That's not it.

Although I really liked Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep' and 'Marooned in Realtime' (but I hated 'A Deepness in the Sky').

[Andy]

What's annoying me is that I feel like I should recognize this one.

[Andy]

Ariel, maybe? by Jack Bickham Ariel

[beichst]

I did not initially mention it because it was not written in Basic and was not on an 8086. However because you mentioned you might be mixing some various AI books the scene you noted below:

> "becomes self-aware and breaks out of its storage space, escaping onto the internet. Much of the book is spent with the AI acquiring more storage space (although they never seem to address the issue of how slow this might be and how long it make take to access all this memory)."

Has a lot in common with the 1977 novel {The Adolescence of P-1}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ado...


If that is not it, you might try the following website which list AI stories:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

Finally [Monica Hughes] had [Tomorrow City] which is another AI themed killer.

Good luck.

[Andy]

That's a good suggestion - it came up a while back in this thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The Adolescence of P-1 for the link

[Davec426913]

Yes, I've been going through all sorts of lists, to no avail.