{"id":17176,"date":"2024-09-04T22:23:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T14:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/artificial-intelligence-is-going-full-circle-from-fiction-to-science-and-back-again\/"},"modified":"2024-09-04T22:23:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T14:23:05","slug":"artificial-intelligence-is-going-full-circle-from-fiction-to-science-and-back-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/artificial-intelligence-is-going-full-circle-from-fiction-to-science-and-back-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence is going full circle \u2014 from fiction to science, and back again"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/240904-hard-sf-630x506.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-837512\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/240904-hard-sf-630x506.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/240904-hard-sf-1260x1013.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/240904-hard-sf-768x617.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/240904-hard-sf-1536x1235.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/240904-hard-sf.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">A teenager is left in charge of a Mars base in one of \u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories.\u201d (Illustration by Maurizio Manzieri \/ Infinivox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Artificial intelligence has had an effect on nearly every facet of modern life \u2014 ranging from&nbsp;diagnosing diseases, to&nbsp;applying for a job, to&nbsp;deciding which movie to watch. Now it\u2019s reaching back into the realm where our notions about AI were born decades ago: science fiction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI is just becoming more and more prominent in science fiction, which I think is a just a reflection of the times we\u2019re in right now,\u201d says Allan Kaster, who has been editing annual collections of sci-fi stories for&nbsp;15 years. \u201cIt\u2019s getting harder and harder to see a story that doesn\u2019t include some sort of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kaster, who heads up a sci-fi publishing house called&nbsp;Infinivox, discusses the connections between real-world science and fiction in the latest episode of the&nbsp;Fiction Science podcast.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/7lp6yF3TbnxWvFwo6PddDk?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Intelligent machines have long played a role in science fiction, going back to&nbsp;Fritz Lang\u2019s \u201cMetropolis\u201d&nbsp;(1927), Isaac Asimov\u2019s&nbsp;Three Rules of Robotics&nbsp;(1942) and&nbsp;HAL 9000&nbsp;in \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey\u201d (1968). But generative AI and other recent innovations are providing writers with new opportunities to play off parallels between fact and fiction.<\/p>\n<p>Infinivox\u2019s latest anthology,&nbsp;\u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8,\u201d&nbsp;brings together Kaster\u2019s selections for 2023\u2019s best short stories and novellas in a genre called hard science fiction.<\/p>\n<p>One of the novellas, written by Fiction Science co-host Dominica Phetteplace, features robots who&nbsp;guide a teenage girl toward an otherworldly encounter&nbsp;at an abandoned Mars base. Another tale traces the development of a machine-learning algorithm who goes out in search of alien life long after its programmers have gone extinct.&nbsp;Yet another story&nbsp;is told from the perspective of an AI agent who is waiting in the subsurface seas of Enceladus for instructions from Earth that never come.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"266\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/kaster.png\" alt=\"Allan Kaster\" class=\"wp-image-837525\" style=\"width:200px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Allan Kaster (Photo via Buffalo NASFiC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In all those stories, the bots are more in control of the situation than the humans are. And there\u2019s not a villain in the bunch.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not inconceivable that updated depictions of artificial intelligence could contribute to the feedback loop between science fiction and fact. That loop has been running for decades:&nbsp;Quite a few techies&nbsp;say they were inspired by watching \u201cStar Trek\u201d in the 1960s.<\/p>\n<p>Such cross-fertilization has led to tech innovations on Earth as well as in space. For instance, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has acknowledged that the Alexa voice assistant was&nbsp;inspired by the conversational computer on \u201cStar Trek.\u201d&nbsp;And Alexa, in turn, was adapted for an in-space demonstration of&nbsp;an experimental AI agent called Callisto&nbsp;during NASA\u2019s Artemis 1 mission in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the story about the alien-seeking algorithm \u2014&nbsp;\u201cOcasta,\u201d&nbsp;by Daniel H. Wilson \u2014 has its real-world parallel in the AI-based data analysis tools being developed by the University of Washington\u2019s&nbsp;DiRAC Institute&nbsp;for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. DiRAC\u2019s researchers aren\u2019t looking specifically for extraterrestrial life. Instead, they\u2019re looking for the signatures of&nbsp;other types of exotic phenomena, such as&nbsp;dark matter, dark energy&nbsp;and&nbsp;active asteroids.<\/p>\n<p>UW astrophysicist&nbsp;Colin Orion Chandler&nbsp;recently said that human observers using standard analysis techniques would require 180 days to comb through a single night\u2019s worth of Rubin Observatory data. \u201cThat\u2019s not tenable,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just highlights the need for more algorithms and AI for this type of project, because there\u2019s no way we\u2019d be able to look through this data with human eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"356\" height=\"571\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Hard8.png\" alt=\"&quot;The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8&quot; book cover\" class=\"wp-image-837527\" style=\"width:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Hard8.png 356w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Hard8-187x300.png 187w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Hard8-200x321.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Hard8-62x100.png 62w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8,\u201d edited by Allan Kaster. (Illustration by Maurizio Manzieri \/ Infinivox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Artificial intelligence isn\u2019t the only tech frontier that\u2019s pointing the way to new types of science-fiction tales. One of the novellas in \u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories\u201d tells the story of a billionaire who buys a trip to the moon with the aim of investigating mysterious lights that flash from the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>The flashes \u2014 known as&nbsp;transient lunar phenomena, or TLP \u2014 are the subject of a real-world debate, and scientists aren\u2019t completely certain what causes them.&nbsp;\u201cLemuria 7 Is Missing,\u201d&nbsp;by Allen M. Steele, also weaves in references to NASA\u2019s&nbsp;Artemis&nbsp;moon program, the heavy-lift&nbsp;Space Launch System&nbsp;and&nbsp;commercial space stations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe science in it is well-done, and it\u2019s relevant to today, because there\u2019s a conspiracy theory going on,\u201d Kaster says. \u201cAnd aren\u2019t there conspiracy theories all over the place these days?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What qualifies a story for designation as \u201chard\u201d science fiction? Sci-fi fans have debated that question for years, and you can get a good sense of the debate by tuning into the podcast. \u201cMy definition of a hard science fiction story is, if the science in the story enhances the story, then it\u2019s hard science fiction,\u201d Kaster says.<\/p>\n<p>But in Kaster\u2019s view, the science isn\u2019t what elevates today\u2019s sci-fi above what was written during the&nbsp;\u201cGolden Age\u201d of the mid-20th century.&nbsp;Instead, it\u2019s the uniquely human art of storytelling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019re in a \u2018Diamond Age,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve had science fiction as well-written as it is now. \u2026 A lot of it is just really wonderful characterizations, and wonderful stories and plots. Because there are so many venues now for writers to publish short fiction, I really believe that we are in a Diamond Age.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<p><em>Visit the&nbsp;Infinivox website&nbsp;for more information about&nbsp;\u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8\u201d&nbsp;and the company\u2019s other sci-fi anthologies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Can generative AI create art? In an&nbsp;essay published in The New Yorker,&nbsp;Seattle-area science-fiction author Ted Chiang argues that AI is incapable of outdoing humans in artistic endeavors such as painting or fiction writing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>M<\/em><em>y co-host for the Fiction Science podcast is Dominica Phetteplace, an&nbsp;award-winning writer&nbsp;who is a graduate of the&nbsp;Clarion West Writers Workshop&nbsp;and lives in San Francisco. To learn more about Phetteplace, visit her website,&nbsp;DominicaPhetteplace.com, and read&nbsp;\u201cThe Ghosts of Mars,\u201d&nbsp;which is the first story featured in \u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Take a look at&nbsp;the original version of this item on Cosmic Log&nbsp;to find out what Kaster likes to read (and watch), and stay tuned for future&nbsp;episodes of the Fiction Science podcast via&nbsp;Apple, Spotify, Player.fm, Pocket Casts and Podchaser. If you like Fiction Science, please rate the podcast and subscribe to get alerts for future episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A teenager is left in charge of a Mars base in one of \u201cThe Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories.\u201d (Illustration by Maurizio Manzieri \/ Infinivox) Artificial intelligence has had an effect on nearly every facet of modern life \u2014 ranging from&nbsp;diagnosing diseases, to&nbsp;applying for a job, to&nbsp;deciding which movie to watch. Now it\u2019s reaching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[130,4418,4481,4419,4482,21],"class_list":["post-17176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-books","tag-bot-or-not","tag-fiction-science","tag-science-fiction","tag-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}