Ion Curtain by Anya Ow

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/mind-gone-silicon

Space Russia discovers why a nation run by ruthless bastards should
not dabble in the art of creating AIs based on the minds of ruthless
bastards. Hijinks ensue.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
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James Nicoll wrote:
> Ion Curtain by Anya Ow
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/mind-gone-silicon
>
> Space Russia discovers why a nation run by ruthless bastards should
> not dabble in the art of creating AIs based on the minds of ruthless
> bastards. Hijinks ensue.

Old fashioned Space Opera plus old fashioned Cold War.

You don't mention whether the title has any justification beyond the wordplay of replacing a common word with a more sci-fi sounding one.

(When I heard the first episode of Sirocco Jones, Space Ranger had the title, "Beyond the Curtain of Space," I thought it an evocative reference to our atmosphere, like "The Other Side of the Sky," linking space exploration of the future to the aeronautics of the half-century prior to the show. No, an evil empire had put up an Iron Curtain in spaaaace. (The lesser Heinlein movie, "Project Moonbase," is said to have had its origins in a failed TV project to be called "Ring Around the Sun." I am now guessing this does not anticipate Larry Niven, nor even refer to a discontinuous ring of stations in any type of orbit, but that "Sun" has been put in place of "Rosey.")

--
-Jack

On Fri, 8 Apr 2022 12:18:18 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

>Ion Curtain by Anya Ow
>
>https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/mind-gone-silicon
>
>Space Russia discovers why a nation run by ruthless bastards should
>not dabble in the art of creating AIs based on the minds of ruthless
>bastards. Hijinks ensue.

Base on the review, I forsee something akin to a Butlerian Jihad in
their future--thou shalt make no machine in the likeness of a human
mind.

On Friday, 8 April 2022 at 15:19:05 UTC+1, jack....@gmail.com wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
> > Ion Curtain by Anya Ow
> >
> > https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/mind-gone-silicon
> >
> > Space Russia discovers why a nation run by ruthless bastards should
> > not dabble in the art of creating AIs based on the minds of ruthless
> > bastards. Hijinks ensue.
> Old fashioned Space Opera plus old fashioned Cold War.
>
> You don't mention whether the title has any justification beyond the wordplay of replacing a common word with a more sci-fi sounding one.
>
> (When I heard the first episode of Sirocco Jones, Space Ranger had the title, "Beyond the Curtain of Space," I thought it an evocative reference to our atmosphere, like "The Other Side of the Sky," linking space exploration of the future to the aeronautics of the half-century prior to the show. No, an evil empire had put up an Iron Curtain in spaaaace. (The lesser Heinlein movie, "Project Moonbase," is said to have had its origins in a failed TV project to be called "Ring Around the Sun." I am now guessing this does not anticipate Larry Niven, nor even refer to a discontinuous ring of stations in any type of orbit, but that "Sun" has been put in place of "Rosey.")

Or "collar" or "bath". ;-)

Or it refers to <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)>
or merely to Earth's orbit or to an independent orbit.

In article <df886e9b-295b-4527-8f0c-36a17b6b4574n@googlegroups.com>,
Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> wrote:
>James Nicoll wrote:
>> Ion Curtain by Anya Ow
>>
>> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/mind-gone-silicon
>>
>> Space Russia discovers why a nation run by ruthless bastards should
>> not dabble in the art of creating AIs based on the minds of ruthless
>> bastards. Hijinks ensue.
>
>Old fashioned Space Opera plus old fashioned Cold War.
>
>You don't mention whether the title has any justification beyond the wordplay
>of replacing a common word with a more sci-fi sounding one.
>
Not really.

--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On Fri, 8 Apr 2022 12:18:18 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

>Ion Curtain by Anya Ow
>
>https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/mind-gone-silicon
>
>Space Russia discovers why a nation run by ruthless bastards should
>not dabble in the art of creating AIs based on the minds of ruthless
>bastards. Hijinks ensue.

Some time back (maybe a couple of years), /Science News/ had an
article on how an AI intended to provide race-free assessments of who
could be released with some assurance they would show up in court was
/exactly/ as biased as the rest of the system. [1]

So the story has it right -- to the extent that the lesson is that
what you train an AI on determines what kind of AI you end up with.

[1] Since the AI was not designed to explain its decisions, it took
some time to determine what the racist factor was. It was number of
prior /arrests/ for drug possession. Not charges. Not convictions
(including guilty pleas). Just arrests.

So part of the solution might be to have it work on the number of
prior /charges/ or, better, /convictions/, since those involve more
than just the police officer involved, and not just arrests.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."