Galatea 2.2
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
From the Man Booker-shortlisted author of The OverstoryFrom one of America?s greatest writers, a thrilling and beautiful novel about why we make the choices we do - and, ultimately, about what makes us human After many years of living abroad, a young writer returns to the United States to take up the position of Humanist-in-Residence at the Centre for the Study of Advanced Sciences. There he encounters Philip Lentz, an outspoken cognitive neurologist intent on using computers to model the human brain. Lentz involves the writer in an outlandish and irresistible project- to train a neural net by reading a canonical list of Great Books. Through repeated tutorials, the machine grows gradually more worldly, until it demands to know its own age, sex, race, and reason for existing...
Reviews with the most likes.
Powers writes a very smart story, full of neuroscience and computer science, but also poetic and touching. It's the story of the evolution of an artificial intelligence, that grows up by having an author - who lost the joy in writing - read the old masters to it. The conclusion might have been a too neatly wrapped up parable, but it makes a beautiful ending nevertheless.
And obviously - the author in the story being a version of Power himself - it makes you wonder which parts of the tale are autobiographical and which made-up. Also, what a clever way for an author to advertise his other books. Sneaky! (and i do want to read more now)
