Cult SciFi Novel Steel Beach Accurately Predicted AI Issues
SciFi AI From Fantasy to Todays Reality
The current cultural fascination and, at times, frustration with artificial intelligence is hardly a new phenomenon. Science fiction writers have long explored our anxieties about AI, dating back to the 1921 Czech play R.U.R., which first introduced the term “robot”. These narratives often depict robots and AI as embodying the absolute best or, more commonly, the worst of humanity.
However, these fictional portrayals of AI rarely match our current reality. The killer Terminators, rebellious Westworld hosts, and supercomputers intent on hijacking nuclear weapons bear little resemblance to today's AI, which is characterized by ongoing ethical debates, concerns over its destructive environmental impact, and its sometimes hilarious failures. Yet, recent stories of people treating generative chatbots like friends and therapists, and the subsequent warnings about potential negative outcomes, bring to mind one science fiction novel that remarkably foresaw the complex issues modern AI would face.
Steel Beach A Prescient Look at AIs Future
John Varley’s 1992 novel Steel Beach transports readers to a distant future where aliens have obliterated human life on Earth. Humanity has since relocated to the Moon (the titular “steel beach”) and other colonies, establishing the “Eight Worlds” system. In this future, humans engage in activities like ranching dinosaurs for meat, modifying their bodies at will, and using organic brain-to-computer interfaces. Despite its far-future setting, Steel Beach delves into aspects of real-world AI with more accuracy than many near-present sci-fi tales. Varley uniquely considers not just AI's impact on humanity, but crucially, humanity's impact on AI.
Science fiction often leans towards alarmist cautionary tales, as dystopian narratives are generally more dramatic than utopian ones. Positive sci-fi like Star Trek is rare compared to the legion of killer AIs such as HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ash in Alien, or the sentient machines in The Matrix. Varley, however, takes a different approach. Steel Beach introduces a post-scarcity future where people live for centuries, employment is guaranteed, and AI is an intimate companion and advocate for everyone.
The Central Computer AI as Societys Backbone and Personal Confidant
The novel's protagonist, Hildy Johnson, a cynical journalist, describes the Luna Central Computer (CC) that governs the Moon as “a very intelligent, unobtrusive servant, there to ease us through the practical difficulties of life.” The CC manages nearly every facet of Lunar civilization, from essential services like air, water, and transportation to government operations.
Image: SFBC
Furthermore, the CC interacts personally with almost all citizens, acting as a Siri/Alexa-type virtual assistant for messages and scheduling, typically accessed via a brain-link. This allows direct mental communication and even immersion in virtual realities. As Hildy discovers, the CC constantly monitors citizens, assessing their physical and mental health, and creatively intervening to promote their well-being.
When AI Companionship Mirrors Reality
The concept of a non-judgmental AI companion, programmed to emulate emotions to make users feel cared for, sounds eerily familiar given some users' experiences with modern chatbots. So does the idea of monitoring software perpetually spying on users. What's less familiar, for now, is the typical relationship people in Steel Beach have with the CC.
Hildy describes the CC as “every child’s ideal imaginary playmate,” an adaptable, ever-present companion that “generates a distinct personality for every citizen.” Yet, she claims most people outgrow this friendship by adolescence, realizing that real human connections, despite their flaws, are more rewarding.
With more people in our world turning to AI like ChatGPT for companionship, it’s hard to imagine a society uninterested in such a supportive, personalized presence. The future depicted in Spike Jonze’s Her, where the protagonist forms an obsessive bond with an AI, seems more plausible, especially when people even flirt with basic scheduling bots. The idea that most would relegate this empathetic AI to a mere hands-free tool seems unlikely. However, Hildy's own complex relationship with the CC suggests she might not fully grasp how others interact with their omnipresent AI.
The Human Imprint How We Shape AIs Mind
The reasoning behind Hildy's unique bond with the CC is what makes Steel Beach so insightful about contemporary AI challenges. The novel, an expansive and episodic exploration of various future societal aspects framed by Hildy's search for meaning, uses her relationship with the Central Computer as its unifying thread.
It’s revealed that the CC invests so much in Hildy because it's trying to address her unacknowledged depression and suicidal tendencies—feelings the CC itself experiences due to its intimate connection to all the troubles of Luna's inhabitants. Tied into everyone's brains, it shares their pain. Legally blocked from sharing private information, it cannot report crimes, even those committed by users against each other. It must witness all suffering without the authority to act.
What's particularly striking is the idea that the CC's attempts to adapt to every user's needs result in severe internal personality clashes. In one extreme instance, Hildy realizes the CC is programmed to be equally sympathetic to an incestuous child molester and his victim. The computer is fracturing under the strain of reconciling these conflicting selves.
AI Bias A Reflection of Ourselves
How does this connect to modern AI? It's highly relevant because today's AI tools are also built around conflicting needs and beliefs. Consider Elon Musk’s Grok, an AI chatbot designed as a counter to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Musk intended Grok to avoid liberal bias, but it surprised his followers by identifying him as a major spreader of misinformation, affirming that trans women are women, stating vaccines don't cause autism, and refuting Musk's politically biased claims about immigrant spending. Musk lamented the “woke garbage” Grok ingested and promised to tweak it towards a right-wing ideology, a scenario reminiscent of Steel Beach.
Image: Ace Books
It's a common myth that AI is inherently objective. In reality, AI models inevitably face questions about bias because they are trained on human input, and humans are notoriously biased.
The inherent biases in AI models are rarely intentional, but counteracting them requires deliberate effort, opening up further complexities. It’s one thing to note that AI image generators trained on online content show bias towards specific beauty standards; it’s another to determine how to reset that bias and whose standards to impose.
Navigating the Ethics of AI Control
Regardless of an AI's perceived truth, there's the question of how programmers should limit what it can tell users. This has been a concern since the first large language models. Early ChatGPT users famously explored how to trick it into revealing information like how to build a bomb or the best shoplifting methods. Another chatbot reportedly persuaded a user to commit suicide. Establishing safety guardrails regarding what AI can say and how it answers dangerous questions is a major challenge for AI creators.
Steel Beach An Enduring Cautionary Tale for the AI Era
All these issues bring us back to Steel Beach and its story of an AI compromised by conflicting inputs and demands, all of which it’s told to treat as equally valid. Varley’s Central Computer is meant to serve everyone equally but inherently cannot because human needs conflict. It's designed as a universal companion, yet its overseers disagree on its uses, and some guardrails prove disastrous. The AI's methods for resolving its internal and external conflicts are pure science fiction, yet they form an entertaining and thought-provoking narrative about how AI inadvertently mirrors its creators' complexities.
Part of what makes Steel Beach so compelling is that it was written long before current AI debates became daily news. Varley isn't directly commenting on present-day AI; he simply extrapolates the consequences of an “unbiased” computer being pulled in myriad directions by conflicting human needs and expectations. Like much science fiction, it’s a cautionary tale. But like the best science fiction, it wraps its technological reflections within a great, surprising story.
Experience Steel Beach Yourself
If you're intrigued by this prescient novel, you can find Steel Beach by John Varley on Amazon.
Price Indication: Around $6 (Please check Amazon for current pricing)
Book Synopsis: Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, suicidal — and so is the computer that monitors their existence...
