Singularity Minus Twelve by Karl Hörnell

Singularity Minus Twelve by Karl Hörnell
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In a near future where artificial general intelligence has been achieved, AIs that develop self-awareness are becoming a problem. Difficult to contain, they are often hunted and destroyed, but a team of exceptional ones has been spared to take down the most dangerous rogue AI of all time.

Singularity Minus Twelve is a sci-fi thriller that delves into the near-term philosophical and societal implications of artificial intelligence, while having some fun playing with characters inspired by popular fictional AIs.

Intelligence isn’t always a good thing.

I liked reading about the societal changes that had taken place as people adjusted to spending time with robots that had feelings and could think independently. With humans being what we are, there were a wide variety of reactions to artificial intelligence, not all of which were necessarily positive. While I’ll leave it up to others readers to discover exactly what those reactions were, I thought they rang true to how people have responded to other big adjustments in our various cultures over time.

Having such a large cast of characters made it tricky for me to get to know any of them well. While this was a fast-paced, plot-driven piece and I wouldn’t expect anyone to spend too much time talking about themselves, it would have been easier for this reader to connect with the characters if I had more information about simple things like their personalities and interests. Knowing their occupations was certainly important, but there is so much more to any person than what they do for a living. I needed more details in this area in order to feel comfortable choosing a higher rating.

Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored what it means for a robot to be intelligent and sentient. Given how many different definitions can exist for both of those terms, there was plenty of space here to ask the audience and the characters to be more specific about what we mean when we talk about those ideas and how human understandings of them might not always translate well when we’re talking about machines instead.

Singularity Minus Twelve was a wild ride.