science fiction

The book also a story about AI.

The book is set in 2294, a time when many of the disruptions and challenges posed by AI in the 21st century have been resolved. Sentient machine minds exist and function in a more-or-less benign way, providing vital knowledge and orchestrating many of the complex processes of a technological civilisation.

Aside from sentience, the main challenge that has been overcome is that of reliability. These are not the archaic AIs that hallucinate by blindly following patterns; instead, their pronouncements are guaranteed to be accurate and to conform to the actuality of the real world. These are the so-called canonical AIs, that rely on inputs from guaranteed reliable input hardware (data stores, cameras etc.) and that check what they say against reality.

These AIs function something like the security that exists today on web pages: we know we can trust pages because they have been digitally signed with a certificate created by a trusted issuer. Most AIs in The Twisted Road work that way: their authority ultimately comes from the root Earth AI, which guarantees that everything output is known to be true. Although it is also still possible to have AIs that don’t inherit from the reliable Earth AI in this way…

Canonical AIs are useful in many ways – one of which is in evidence-gathering for the forces of law and order. A canonical recording of witnessed events is always admissable in law, because it is guaranteed to be an accurate portrayal of what really happened.

The book also a story about encountering an alien culture and fears of the other/the strange.

In the backstory for the book, Earth’s outward push into the galaxy has brought it into contact with the Ba’silions – tall, physically impressive bipedal aliens with shimmering, iridescent green skin. They are generally built much more massively than humans and possess ten long fingers on each hand.

Encountering this race has had a profound effect on Earth – and Ba’silia. There are those on both sides who see hope in the two cultures learning from each other – but also those who fear the other. Relations between the two civilisations boiled up into the deadly Hard War for a time, but have now settled down into an uneasy Soft War. But this may be about to change…

The book also plays with possible future space engineering architectures. Möbius Station itself is from the Escherist school of “impossible” constructions. The station is built in the form of a Möbius strip, then twisted again so that the station resembles an infinity symbol from the side.

None of this is random: the station was built at a time of enormous human optimism about expansion into the galaxy. The infinity symbolism suggests this, as does the fact that the main Strip within the station effectively goes on for ever. You can keep walking and never reach an end.

In engineering terms, though, it’s completely flawed. The whole station is at risk of depressurization should a breach occur. Its very design is a statement of (perhaps misplaced) optimism…

The book is also a story about identity and the roles we play. At the start of this book, Mab is, superficially, barely more than a cliché. After experiencing terrible things on Earth, she’s lost her sense of self and she’s lost all optimism for the future. She’s sometimes surprised at the words that come out of her own mouth, They’re words that sound like someone else: someone cynical, hardbitten and uncaring.

That isn’t her though; the real Mab is still in her, hiding away. As she gets dragged into the investigation that is central to the book, she starts to get in touch with her old self and her old drive.

Slowly, she stops playing the two-dimensional character she’s created for herself and rediscovers optimism and hope.