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Author of the month spotlight: Suzanne van Rooyen

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Nerine Dorman (ND): Lately the topic of AI (artificial intelligence) seems to be hitting the news, with reports of Facebook chatbots and Google AI making their own languages for AIs to speak to each other.

I think we both grew up on Isaac Asimov’s tales, and I remember being quite discomforted by Blade Runner when I first saw it and was confronted by the idea of what it is that makes us sentient, human.

And this is a theme I think runs quite strongly through your novel I Heart Robot.

Suzanne van Rooyen (SvR): Definitely. I think the major theme of my book – like many novels dealing with AI – grapples with what makes us human, and whether or not machines could ever possess the ephemeral quality we term ‘humanity.’

There’s a scene in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show that I often cite as the impetus for I Heart Robot, the scene being when the android Cameron (Summer Glau) is watching a ballet performance on TV and starts to mimic the human for no reason except that this robot is presumably able to appreciate the art of what she’s watching.

That scene immediately made me wonder if android intelligence would ever be capable of not only appreciating, but creating their own music. You mention Blade Runner, but the film that left me reeling, was Ex Machina, which forces us to confront the darker side of human nature.

ND: If machines become self-aware entities, with the potential to create art (we already have AI writing editorial content and novels, so music isn’t a bridge too far) – then where do we draw that dividing line between sentient being and machine, that gives us the right to dictate whether another life form as intelligent (arguably if not more so) should live or die?

SvR: This is one of the questions the society in I Heart Robot is grappling with, particularly the concept of ‘human’ rights and what that means for androids.

What is the fundamental difference between humans and self-aware AIs? Some people might argue in a religious context, that it’s the difference between one having a soul and the other not – which opens up an existential can of worms.

Perhaps what scares us most about the age of machines and the advancements in AI technology, isn’t necessarily SkyNet and how robot overlords will take over the world, but rather how machines might end up calling into question our whole understanding of being.

ND: And this does bring up the topic of whether the concept of “soul” is something that is separate from the body or innate, and intimately tied to and conditional to the existence *of* a body.

Is consciousness something that arises once a series of requirements are met via a complex neurological system (whether this be organic or synthetic)? Or is it some sort of “spark” that is intangible and related to divine gift?

SvR: These are also excellent questions, the answers to which would likely lead to theses on the topic.

I think our struggle with AI and our fear of what that means for humanity is precisely because we battle to answer these questions for ourselves.

Scientists are divided, and the issue only becomes even more complicated when you add religious arguments to the mix.

In I Heart Robot, I do try to explore this idea of a machine being able to interpret music as something more than merely mathematics, more than a series of temporal fractions and frequencies. Tyri even notices how technically brilliant Quinn (the android) is but that he seems to lack emotional depth in his playing.

Of course, for those who’ve read the book, this observation turns out to rather ironic, but I don’t want to give away any spoilers.

Purchase a copy of I Heart Robot from Amazon.com

For more updates, follow Suzanne van Rooyen on Twitter at
https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Writer or see her website at http://suzannevanrooyen.com/

Nerine Dorman lurks on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nerinedorman but she loves it when folks like her Facebook page too at https://www.facebook.com/NerineDorman/

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