Book#3: Crucible by James Rollins (Sigma Force Book#14)

Crucible by James Rollins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What happens when humanity finally builds a self evolving AI? Crucible is what happens. From the fertile mind of James Rollins comes this techno thriller which puts this concept to test. The AI already exists in the current world in the form of Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant.

What makes me think and think hard about the direction in which the AI & Machine Learning is growing is the way the AI can be trained using these tools. While learning in itself is a good thing, we also need to remember that the human factor which is mainly emotions and empathy are variables which cannot be substituted. If we take the human out of the decision making and processing skills then the current generation of the AIs are already making the decisions for us.

Eve is a concept fleshed out by James Rollins on what AI can become given the amount of research and the lack of oversight in this industry. The technology landscape is changing faster then even what we can fathom. Implants and voice assistants are already becoming common place. What will happen when the decision making ability is passed on to the AI rather than the human?

The interconnected systems and being always online, humans may not even notice that they have been subjugated. You cannot fight that which you cannot see.

Crucible also delivers a twist in the form of Seichan being pregnant - which was delivered in the last book. The evolution of Seichan from Sigma Force #1 where she tried to kill Gray to being the mother of his child is a great journey that hardcore readers of Rollins will like and appreciate.

The technology showcased by Rollins when dealing with brain MRIs and simulating a coma patient is something that is fascinating to read. The ability to read thought albeit in the form of images is something that is simply fascinating.

Sigma's arch nemesis The Guild also make a strong comeback in this one, always being on the backfoot since Sigma broke their back, the rebuilding Guild is a menace under the capable leadership of Valya.

I had a fascinating conversation with my GoodReads book pal Freda regarding this book. I am sharing some of the nuggets that we discussed and that I feel are relevant to the thesis of this book on the whole. The questions in bold were asked by Freda during our discussion and below are my responses to it.

What if I had been born of parents who were assassins with no conscience?

It is interesting that you would ask this question. I believe James Rollins is leading us on this path given that Gray and Seichan are expecting a child. The child technically has assassins as parents, how Seichan's and Gray's interaction with the kids would mold the child will be a fascinating journey to be on down the line.

Would a single act of kindness change me?

This is a difficult question to answer. It is not that simple in my honest opinion, a single act of kindness has a impact but the duration of the impact is something that will change based on the circumstances and the actions of the person. I mean, just because I helped feed a hungry person it does not mean that it will inspire the 10 people who watched me feed the hungry person go out and do their bit. Empathy plays a strong factor, the only way a person will be influenced by an act of kindness is if they are a empathetic person by nature, being emotional is not enough.

Would my soul or conscience magically talk to me?

I think our conscience always talks to us, but weather we act on it or not is dependent on the external factors affecting the circumstance as well. We all know what the ideal solution to a simple problem is, but it is never easy to implement the ideal solution because the conditions are not always ideal.

If I was never given a choice and my parents controlled me, would I then be considered to be much like an AI?

It boils down to the facet that you will have a choice at some point in your life. Kids who have been smothered in affection or controlled by their parents through harsh behavior will always rebel. If the spirit of rebelliousness is quashed then there is always the possibility that they may become suicidal or if they survive the experience then they will repeat it with their children simply because they do not know better

If Mara manages to teach Eve how to feel, it won't sink in because there are no nerves, tissue, or blood that makes the body respond to the sounds, touch and smells. It is then, artificial so why even bother with it? Cloning would seem to be a better way to do it.

The jury is still out on that one, these days with sensors and the advancements in technology like stem cells generation, it will be easy to teach a AI to feel pain. Eve already feels the rage when she's left stripped off her other modules which help her understand the facets of human life.

Cloning is already fraught with ethical and legal issues, if you clone a human, then is that cloned being not considered a human simply because they were not born naturally but grown? The ethics in this discussion are really very vague and that is not to say that there are not people or researchers who are skirting the topic.

Talking about being hung up on the biological or physical aspect of the intelligence, I guess it is more to do with the fact that our minds cannot fathom anything beyond the 3rd dimension, the AI and the other non biological forms of intelligence exist in a dimension which we cannot look, feel or see and that sets us at a disadvantage because we have grown accustomed to and dependent on these sense as part of our evolutionary journey.

Which brings me to the question of the location of our 'soul'?

You bring up a very interesting point about people clutching their hearts or chest when talking about 'souls'. I think this phenomenon is due to over exposure to television and other garbage that has propagated the feeling or myth that the heart has a use for feeling rather than pumping blood through our body. Somebody very badly wanted to sell, market a new gimmick and an entire industry was spawned based off this myth.

I honestly think that the soul is based in our brain or our mind for the lack of a better term to explain. The hundreds of thousands of neurons in our brain that fire off different thoughts and that define who we are is what soul is. A person can function by artificially pumping the heart which is done during heart surgeries, a person can be revived when the heart gives out and they have to be resuscitated. A person can even survive a heart transplant

But what a person unequivocally can't survive is being brain dead. Once your brain dies, machines can keep your body alive but it will slowly waste away. Once the brain is dead, a person is dead, you cannot have a existence without your brain, so in my opinion soul is in the mind, it is the thought process that makes us a good or a bad person, it is our decision making that is the soul.

What say you?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this one.

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