The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of: AI in Contemporary Science Fiction

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze a contemporary sci-fi text, River of Gods by Ian McDonald, in order to ask about the elements of the Western world view, or cultural imaginarium, that surround the contemporary notion of a strong AI. Drawing from phenomenology and combined with cultural analysis, this paper focuses on the way of depicting AIs, and the notions that presuppose this depiction. These notions are, roughly, reducible to independence and unexpectedness, political awkwardness, openness to the alien and the occidental value of authenticity.