7/6/2023 0 Comments Autonomous by Annalee NewitzThe latter may look new, since it’s long since been recast in terms of artificial intelligence, but the basic question is as old as Eando Binder, Lester del Rey, or C.L. The more recent one deals with the role of designer drugs, neurology, and the questionable ethics of Big Pharma the classic theme involves a robot learning to become human. And indeed Autonomous has its share of provocative ideas, focusing mostly on two broad themes, one of comparatively recent vintage and one a longstanding classic SF theme. With only a handful of stories published – sometimes in think-tankish venues such as Hieroglyph or Bruce Sterling’s Twelve Tomorrows – and with a distinguished career in science and SF non-fiction and journalism, Annalee Newitz might well be expected to produce the sort of programmatic first novel that we used to get from professional ‘‘futurists’’ like Robert Theobald or even astronomers like Carl Sagan: filled with provocative ideas discussed by characters who don’t move very much.
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