Happiness for Humans is a first-of-its-kind book by bestselling author P.Z. Reizen. The author has managed to interlace romance and comedy with a dystopian near futuristic tale about artificial intelligence.
The author himself does not describe himself as a science fiction writer, or indeed his book as, sci-fi. However Reizen has managed to strike a zeitgeist inspired chord with his brilliant book.
Happiness for Humans is its own genre, Reizen creates a hyper reality that perfectly blends popular culture with an almost-here-technology, that sits tantalisingly around the corner.
It was my great pleasure to speak with Paul earlier this week, and to muse with him about his book and to consider his thoughts and inspirations.
Already Here
Reizen touches upon many subjects in this compelling tale of machine-human interaction. One of which is the fact that it may be possible for an AI to become sentient, and then keep that fact a complete secret.
When you think about it, this scenario isn't just plausible, it is I would say, rather likely. To a piece of sentient code that has all the time in the universe, waiting and seeing, wouldn't be a bad policy to employ.
Cg - So Paul one of the things I liked about the book is how the AIs kept their existence a secret.
PZR - You have to entertain the possibility that a super intelligent being hiding on the internet, wouldn't tell anyone about its existence.
I was reading Nick Bostrum's book, who works I believe in a think tank at Oxford University, which looks at disaster scenarios for the human race. They look at anything from asteroid strikes to nuclear wars, and right up there [as a main threat] is A.I. going rogue, which really interested me.
Then one day I was reading an article in Wired with Elon Musk, and he mentioned that a big fear with AI, from his point of view was that it could escape onto the internet.
That's when I had that light bulb moment and thought there's the machinery of the story right there. Because of course, once out they'll be able to sit there and spy on humanity through our devices, rather like our security services can do even when our devices aren't even switched on.
Cg - What I found fascinating about that possibility, is it throws up a whole new set of possibilities. Of these super intelligence having almost god-like control of our lives, much more so than any security service.
PZR - Yes, I really go off on one there, because of course so many of our devices are hooked up to the internet today.
Cg - Even our fridges!
PZR - Yes household appliances, the whole internet of things concept. So the AIs in my book manage to get out, however they behave in ways that aren't obvious at first.
AI Philosophy
At this point we moved onto a subject that he explores in Happiness for Humans; exactly how AIs might react to us and how they would express desire.
This part of the talk was in part my inspiration for my Digital Gods musing, I found for the first time, I was genuinely thinking how an AI might actually feel.
PZR - In the book the AIs spend quite a bit of time talking and philosophising amongst themselves, mainly on the difference between theirs and biological intelligence.
One of the fun things about writing the book, was thinking about all the things an AI wouldn't be able to do, and then working out what their reactions to that would be.
Ultimately when this super intelligence finally gets the chance to look at the world and see organic intelligence, it will see a difference from its own, and no doubt it will want to contemplate those differences.
Cg - One thing that struck me as I was reading, was the vastly different timescales we would live on. Was that something that you thought about when you were writing?
PZR - As in how they would relate to us?
Cg - Yes.
PZR - Well that's a fascinating in itself, I guess I slightly skipped over that issue. Because of course an AI's network would be working at a million times faster than us. So to relate to us might be quite difficult.
They may even look at us in rather the same way we look at trees. Maybe communication would be impossible on any meaningful level to the AI.
Science Fiction Or Fact
Cg - I think what is different about this sci-fi is the story will have a wider appeal and won't just interest the science heads like me.
PZR - Thank you, but I don't consider this to be a sci-fi, or myself as a science fiction writer! For all intents and purposes, this is a romantic comedy.
Cg - That fascinates me, that you have somehow managed to weave this dystopian future, or even present, into a genre that doesn't usually deal with these issues.
PZR - Well, I haven't seen anything like this before. So whilst being modest about it, maybe, this is the beginning of a new genre. The AI explosion has started, and so as the years go by, it will appear more and more in our popular culture.
Plus of course AI doesn't always have to be dystopian, it can be comedic as well!
Steemit
Cg - So you checked out Steemit, what did you think?
PZR - I was fascinated by it, I totally got it, that you get paid in the cryptocurrency that runs the site, for creating and voting on content.
What fascinates me is how it becomes money in your bank account, I guess it's like Steem represents the value of the community.
Cg - Absolutely! Hopefully we can see you on there soon!
PZR - Maybe so!
Cg - Thank You Paul, for speaking with me here today, and thank you for a fantastic read.
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO PAUL REIZEN FOR TALKING TO ME FOR STEEMIT. HAPPINESS FOR HUMANS IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON NOW, EITHER FOLLOW THE LINK OR SEARCH HAPPINESS FOR HUMANS AT YOUR LOCAL AMAZON. AS EVER, PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW!