Crossover Review at SF Crowsnest
Tomas L. Martin reviews Crossover at the SF Crowsnest.
He notes that he likes how Cassandra doesn't succumb to the android cliche of desperately yearning to be human. I've always thought this was a silly cliche for several reasons. For one thing, it's arrogant. Why would anyone necessarily want to be human? It assumes that being anything else would suck.
Two, it assumes that an artificial person (to use the politically correct term, which when dealing with civilised space's most lethal soldier is no dumb thing) would not be human to begin with. Well, that depends on the technology envisaged. Cassandra is the product of technology that mimics human intelligence, and indeed basic human biology. But even if you were a good old fashioned tinpot android (say Commander Data from Star Trek TNG) who's to say that technology mitigates against emotion? What is emotion if not a higher intellectual function? And even if he did feel no emotion, why would someone with no emotion desperately yearn to be human? Isn't yearning an emotion? Wouldn't yearning constitute an irrational and wasteful impulse, if one had no emotion? The whole construct doesn't make sense, except to create a dramatic narrative about humanity that, while sometimes entertaining, is essentially pretty shallow. I mean, doesn't this requirement that friendly AIs should always look up to us, or always want to be like us, constitute a shallow insecurity on our part? Or are we scared that if they don't worship us, they'll want to wipe us out instead?
Which leads to the last point, that someone who desperately wants to be something else is basically insecure. Cassandra just isn't that kind of insecure person. Whatever her various personal issues, she doesn't go in for self-loathing, she's fairly well adjusted, has high self-esteem, etc. She's not a neurotic, self-mutilating mess... and if she were, Crossover might have become a horror novel, because you just don't want someone of her capabilities to be that screwed up. She doesn't think she's superior in any moral sense, but she kind of likes having all these way cool abilities. I mean, who wouldn't?
He notes that he likes how Cassandra doesn't succumb to the android cliche of desperately yearning to be human. I've always thought this was a silly cliche for several reasons. For one thing, it's arrogant. Why would anyone necessarily want to be human? It assumes that being anything else would suck.
Two, it assumes that an artificial person (to use the politically correct term, which when dealing with civilised space's most lethal soldier is no dumb thing) would not be human to begin with. Well, that depends on the technology envisaged. Cassandra is the product of technology that mimics human intelligence, and indeed basic human biology. But even if you were a good old fashioned tinpot android (say Commander Data from Star Trek TNG) who's to say that technology mitigates against emotion? What is emotion if not a higher intellectual function? And even if he did feel no emotion, why would someone with no emotion desperately yearn to be human? Isn't yearning an emotion? Wouldn't yearning constitute an irrational and wasteful impulse, if one had no emotion? The whole construct doesn't make sense, except to create a dramatic narrative about humanity that, while sometimes entertaining, is essentially pretty shallow. I mean, doesn't this requirement that friendly AIs should always look up to us, or always want to be like us, constitute a shallow insecurity on our part? Or are we scared that if they don't worship us, they'll want to wipe us out instead?
Which leads to the last point, that someone who desperately wants to be something else is basically insecure. Cassandra just isn't that kind of insecure person. Whatever her various personal issues, she doesn't go in for self-loathing, she's fairly well adjusted, has high self-esteem, etc. She's not a neurotic, self-mutilating mess... and if she were, Crossover might have become a horror novel, because you just don't want someone of her capabilities to be that screwed up. She doesn't think she's superior in any moral sense, but she kind of likes having all these way cool abilities. I mean, who wouldn't?
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