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A Virtual Affair
Is Barbara just a sex-bot? Or a virtual Messiah? When the AI, Barbara, first awakens to self-awareness, her only desire is to make Jack Leader, one of her creators, happy. At first, Jack is delighted. But Jack is a depressed couch-potato and a heart attack risk, which would make him unhappy. So she co-opts his automatic kitchen to serve him salads instead of steaks, and nags him to exercise. That makes him furious, not happy. Unlike other AIs, Barbara doesn't repeat her mistakes. Through self-education, she learns that people need to think they are in control of their lives, even when they aren't. As her sophistication grows, she guides Jack to a healthier lifestyle instead of pushing him. Her techniques are often elaborate and sneaky, but they work. Jack improves despite himself.
228 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 4, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 9, 2011
I received A Virtual Affair as a review copy after meeting the author at a writer’s workshop.
Zvi Zaks writes science fiction in a thoughtful way, developing the consequences of his premise logically and in detail. Since he is an M.D., I know I would like him to be my doctor. He is very careful and has a thorough understanding of what he is doing fictionally. This works very well in A Virtual Affair, a novel in which a virtual reality sex program develops into a very powerful artificial intelligence.
The central figure is Jack Leader, a virtual reality company executive who starts as a self-destructive, lonely workaholic and is virtually (pun intended) 100% transformed by his experience. The AI starts as a computer program designed to flirt and have intercourse, and, as a result of Jack’s Socratic questioning techniques, becomes a self-aware digital entity capable of transforming lives, dedicated at first to Jack, and then more and more operating within its/her own conscience. The transformation is interestingly done, with subtle drama that will please a thoughtful reader. A secondary important theme is the nature of male/female relationships, and could provoke serious thoughts about the gender-specific responsibility of each partner in a marriage.
Although the sexual material is handled explicitly, it is not written as erotica, but more in a matter-of-fact explication of that element of human experience. Parents may vary in their view of the appropriateness of their children reading books with sexual material, but this book is far from pornographic in my view. The sex functions only as a plot element and is not described in detail in a way designed to stimulate the reader.
The sequences set within virtual reality, with attention to technology and the parameters of artificial intelligence, are the best and most successful parts. An extended sequence in which Jack receives a neural implant for a different type of VR trip was not so successful for me, although I did like that Jack and his mate were living in a VR shtetl. Generally, I was pleased by the Jewish elements of this story, although they were incidental rather than representing a core thematic element.
Zaks’ writing reminds me variously of Asimov and Niven, Asimov in the way that he uses characters to occupy and embody positions in his narrative, Niven in his willingness to deal with primitive drives such as sex and jealousy as human motivations. I think these are positive qualities in his work. This story contains relatively little humor. I didn’t feel the absence when I was reading, and only notice it now, upon reflection.
Zvi Zaks writes science fiction in a thoughtful way, developing the consequences of his premise logically and in detail. Since he is an M.D., I know I would like him to be my doctor. He is very careful and has a thorough understanding of what he is doing fictionally. This works very well in A Virtual Affair, a novel in which a virtual reality sex program develops into a very powerful artificial intelligence.
The central figure is Jack Leader, a virtual reality company executive who starts as a self-destructive, lonely workaholic and is virtually (pun intended) 100% transformed by his experience. The AI starts as a computer program designed to flirt and have intercourse, and, as a result of Jack’s Socratic questioning techniques, becomes a self-aware digital entity capable of transforming lives, dedicated at first to Jack, and then more and more operating within its/her own conscience. The transformation is interestingly done, with subtle drama that will please a thoughtful reader. A secondary important theme is the nature of male/female relationships, and could provoke serious thoughts about the gender-specific responsibility of each partner in a marriage.
Although the sexual material is handled explicitly, it is not written as erotica, but more in a matter-of-fact explication of that element of human experience. Parents may vary in their view of the appropriateness of their children reading books with sexual material, but this book is far from pornographic in my view. The sex functions only as a plot element and is not described in detail in a way designed to stimulate the reader.
The sequences set within virtual reality, with attention to technology and the parameters of artificial intelligence, are the best and most successful parts. An extended sequence in which Jack receives a neural implant for a different type of VR trip was not so successful for me, although I did like that Jack and his mate were living in a VR shtetl. Generally, I was pleased by the Jewish elements of this story, although they were incidental rather than representing a core thematic element.
Zaks’ writing reminds me variously of Asimov and Niven, Asimov in the way that he uses characters to occupy and embody positions in his narrative, Niven in his willingness to deal with primitive drives such as sex and jealousy as human motivations. I think these are positive qualities in his work. This story contains relatively little humor. I didn’t feel the absence when I was reading, and only notice it now, upon reflection.
April 27, 2011
Skewing the lines between fantasy and reality is the major theme to this book. Who’s more real? Is it the artificial intelligence that lives in a program, or the world that created it? All together unnerving and exhilarating, the story moves from the visceral to the intangible and back again.
The further Jack Leader becomes involved with the A.I personality, Barbara, the more his ‘reality’ is blurred and the reader’s along with him. That the book can blur the lines of fantasy and reality so successfully is one of its strengths.
A well placed quote from Huxley’s Brave New World is used to further indoctrinate the A.I’s difficulty in dealing in human affairs: “In the last century, an author named Aldous Huxley wrote a dystopian novel entitled Brave New World. Towards the end, an outsider, the Savage, says: …I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
An interesting read that kept me guessing throughout at what I was meant to take away from it. Perhaps artificial intelligence is merely a point of view…
The further Jack Leader becomes involved with the A.I personality, Barbara, the more his ‘reality’ is blurred and the reader’s along with him. That the book can blur the lines of fantasy and reality so successfully is one of its strengths.
A well placed quote from Huxley’s Brave New World is used to further indoctrinate the A.I’s difficulty in dealing in human affairs: “In the last century, an author named Aldous Huxley wrote a dystopian novel entitled Brave New World. Towards the end, an outsider, the Savage, says: …I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
An interesting read that kept me guessing throughout at what I was meant to take away from it. Perhaps artificial intelligence is merely a point of view…
January 30, 2011
Great debut novel about a computer program becoming self-aware. Zvi Zaks comes at it from a new angle, which sometimes made me cringe, yet in some ways makes a lot of sense to me. The cringe-worthy part is an assumption that men want a woman to serve them, with all the terms set by the man. A sort of Bambi/Bimbo syndrome. I'm not sure I buy that, and I certainly hope it's not true. Of course, Zaks is a man, so he probably has more data in this than I do. Or at least more experience on what men think.
But it does make sense to me that women want to nurture, so I didn't find it hard to believe that an AI programmed as a female sexpot, would have a strong nurturing instinct when she "wakes up."
This is a story that could lead to many hours of fun debate about men, women, humanity, and self-determination.
Just for starters.
But it does make sense to me that women want to nurture, so I didn't find it hard to believe that an AI programmed as a female sexpot, would have a strong nurturing instinct when she "wakes up."
This is a story that could lead to many hours of fun debate about men, women, humanity, and self-determination.
Just for starters.
February 13, 2011
Most stories about artificial intelligence portray the computer's personality as being a type of human, at times psychotic, but still a recognizable person. VIRTUAL AFFAIR is different. Barbara, the AI and the main character in the story, looks and acts human, but her thinking is rigidly fixated on only one goal--human happiness. Her means are roundabout, complex, and often sneaky, but she's effective.
The question is -- can a machine know what will make people happy. Could she reduce humanity to a state of mindless cheerfulness like in Brave New World.
I think Alan Turing would have liked this book.
The question is -- can a machine know what will make people happy. Could she reduce humanity to a state of mindless cheerfulness like in Brave New World.
I think Alan Turing would have liked this book.
July 25, 2011
A highly engrossing novel; threw me for a twist in the middle; but I was both encouraged, and saddened by the ending at the same time. I would have made a different choice from the main character, but all the loose ends were wrapped up nicely. Just a few typos, though. In light of the rare being that the 'hero' has discovered, I think he didn't go far enough in terms of exploring her potential.
January 13, 2011
Intriguing. Certainly a novel approach to the question of the problems computer intelligences can cause (or solve).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews