I was scrolling through my Twitter feed today and came across an article over at Arstechnica about science fiction and AI. On the article, it has a video interview with Robin Sloan, the author of Sourdough, talking about how to write a novel with machine learning.
The idea of writing novels with machine learning has been around for a few years now, but it hasn't really caught on outside of a fun hobby. Most people probably heard about it, shrugged, and completely forgot about it.
And I don't blame you, there are still a vast amount of limitations and problems. It isn't exactly Shakespeare, but it certain does try. If you are a curious person and want to learn more, definitely check it out on Robin Sloan's website. He has a cool little machine learning program you can download and play around with.
What the article made me think about was how science fiction is evolving today and how it might look in the future. Many science fiction classics like Blade Runner, Man in the High Castle, War of the Worlds, were created back in the 60s and if you read them, they still feel unique, rooted a fiction world that still seem unbelievable.
However, there are stories about space travel that now seem more likely than ever before. Stories like The Martian and Interstellar feel more possible every single day. I mean, I doubt we'll discover time travel in the vacuum of space after traveling through a black hole, but stranger things have happened before. People still pour all the flavors from the soda dispenser in their oversized cup...
I digress.
Science fiction and the landscape of the stories will start looking quite different moving forward. It has already started, not just from a content perspective, but a creator perspective. Sci-Fi greats like N.K. Jemisin is an unstoppable powerhouse of science fiction/fantasy stories. Martha Wells is another great science fiction author, creating the Murderbot Diaries (Yes, it's as cool as the name suggests). These two are first names that comes to mind, but there are some many others moving the science fiction genre forward.
Artificial intelligence is a common subject in science fiction, but the way it can be approached in the future will make for incredibly interesting stories. I just keep thinking about all the amazing possibilities of science fiction moving forward and how it can show us our evolving world.
Stories about the dangers of advanced technology implants (transhumanism), how humans and advanced artificial intelligence co-exist, how the ideas of deities and politics transform when facing superior technology advancements or the discovery of new life.
I'm barely scratching the surface and I know this must sound like complete idea vomit, but I'm really excited about it.
So, the questions I didn't really address yet, "What is the Future?" More robots? Decentralized economies? AI overlords? All of them?
I don't truly know, but I am excited to see what's happening next.
-J.J.