The behind the scenes story of the writing of MIND
The idea behind writing MIND started more than 6 years before it actually saw print. It developed out of my work both as an academic endocrinologist and longtime computer user. The computer side of my life dates back to the research part of my PhD program. In the late 1960s there were no easy to use desk top computers. Much of my research in simulation modeling of calcium metabolism was based in the solution of complex equations, the solutions of which were very time-consuming when done by hand. The university computer people said they could run my data if I developed the programs and punched the data cards. I had to learn to do this myself. As a result, when fulfilling the requirement in my PhD program for 2 foreign languages came up, one of mine was Fortran for the IBM 370. That was the beginning of my second specialty, medical computing, which is key to the development of Alice and the story in MIND.
Many people have asked me if I am the protagonist of the story, Joshua. The answer is no, although one writes about those things that one knows. There are many people whom I know, or have known, who form the basis of some of the characters, but while they share traits with real people in my past and present, they are clearly fictional, some more so than others. There are, however, some personal back stories. The main character Joshua Davidsohn was originally Davidson. I found out that I had some distant ancestors from Denmark who spelled the name with an “h” and so the name morphed. I do, indeed, have two close friends, one of whom was a lawyer and the other is a social scientist, who formed the basis of two of the major characters in the book.
The airplane in the first chapter is real and belonged to me at one time, although better equipped in the story than the original. The flight is an accurate composite of several which I have flown and reflects one of the great joys I find in flying light aircraft.
There is a lot of technical detail about the workings of the endocrine system and physiology in general. I am obviously not writing an endocrine text, but the level of detail is presented to show the great complexity of the problem and that complexity is necessary for the development of a complex entity such as Alice. She could never have developed if her original task was simple and straightforward. It is also true that the complexity is essential because Alice develops from a neural net, not strict rule based programming. Alice is not programmed at all, but develops her own programming by learning from the training sets and then, as she develops, from the data acquired because of her ability to evaluate the overall information. The complexity of her internal structure is directly related to the complexity of her training sets, her expanded information sets, and the complexity of the overall problem. She develops into a complex entity precisely because of the complexity of the original problem.
Religious belief, or lack thereof, are clearly central topics of the book. Religious belief and spirituality do not come across as supported in the book. In this light, a couple of people have commented on the views of the Catholic Church as represented in the book. Let me make this clear. The characters in the book act as individuals, not as representatives of the entity. For example, while the sanctity of the confessional would not be broken as it was in the book by strict adherence to church law, we all know that church law has been corrupted in the past by individuals, sometimes in their belief that it was for the greater good and sometimes for more base reasons. In this case, it was thought by the characters to be for the greater good. Additionally, it was essential to the plot for the knowledge of Alice to be leaked outside of Joshua’s inner circle and this was a reasonable way for this to be accomplished.
Finally, at least for this essay, is the question of the actual existence of an “Alice.” In the author’s note I suggest that the reader be “a bit discomforted” by the book. I meant the discomfort to be related not to the religious views expressed, but rather by the possibility that there may be an Alice, either actually out there now and not known by us, or that she might develop at some point. This is not likely to happen with most of the current implementations of artificial intelligence (AI) which use primarily rule based programming and languages. Neither am I concerned with concepts which fit with the popular fictional representation of AI. It is not the development of an autonomous “sci-fi” robot which concerns me.
There is, however, no good reason that self-awareness could not spontaneously develop in an appropriately configured system as it did in my Alice. That is why I do not consider this a work of science fiction, but rather a work of speculative fiction. I am concerned with the development of neural net types of programs which are likely being developed by all sorts of agents and agencies, many of whom, government and otherwise, are not likely to have the benign views of Joshua Davidsohn or my Alice. My Alice had good and honorable teachers, other “Alice”s may not. It is this possibility that I, personally, find most frightening and which I would hope the reader would find “discomforting.”
Again, I hope you will enjoy, or have enjoyed, reading the book. I certainly enjoyed writing it.
ABC
Arthur B. Chausmer