Book Reviews

Book Blurb

It’s a lonely life being an Interpol kid. With both Michel’s parents working for the international police force and always moving from country to country, it’s hard enough to make friends, let alone find a boyfriend. Then he meets Benny during an online chat, and Benny is everything Michel ever wanted and more. He looks forward to meeting his crush when his family heads to Australia on an important mission. But Benny isn’t quite what he seems, and it may have something to do with the man Michel’s parents are investigating and his relationship to an AI. In order to find out the truth, Michel will have to go to greater lengths—and face greater dangers—than he ever imagined.

 

Book Review

What a truly fascinating story! Set in the future and a time when AI (artificial intelligences) are a lot more powerful than they are today, this story asks the question of “what makes us human” in a slightly different way than comparing us to aliens or the robots of Isaac Asimov. They would also have had to be AIs, but back when he wrote his amazing novels in the 1950s, human science wasn’t advanced enough to ask the question in those terms. But the topic is the same. And with chess programs already able to outwit the human brain, it really only is a matter of time before we face the kind of problem Michel faces in this story: what is the difference between an AI that has gained self-awareness and has developed feelings using circuits and software and a human, who does the same thing using a brain and chemicals/hormones?

Michel is a fairly normal fifteen-year-old. Not in the way he lives his life as an Interpol kid, perpetually moving from country to the next, wherever his parents’ skills in fighting terrorists are needed. But in the way he looks for friends, companionship, and, very specifically, a boyfriend. Now, he has been told by his parents not to talk to strangers on the feeds (read: online), but what does he do? Exactly. He is curious, and when he meets this boy called Benny in a chat room and they start talking about pets, things develop quickly, and suddenly they are dating. Never having physically met, of course. And once they do meet, well, sort of, since Benny isn’t real? All hell breaks lose, of course.

Michel realizes that Benny isn’t real in the sense that Michel is physically real. But the way he thinks, asks questions, and learns is very real. He may be a powerful AI, but who says that self-awareness is unique to humans? And aren’t feelings a logical consequences of consciousness? They are in humans, so Michel begins to see how they might be just as real for software originally developed by humans. All of these questions are asked, and some answered, in this amazing story that will probably make you think about AI and “intelligent computers” in a very different way.

If you like your science fiction a little on the speculative side while still founded in “real” science, if you enjoy reading stories that try to define what makes us human and a machine a machine, and if you’re looking for an entertaining, yet thoughtful, way to imagine what might happen if software development continues to advance the way it has so far, then you will probably like this story. Teenagers of today may end up having to grapple with issues like the ones in ‘Binary Boy” when they are adults in thirty years or so… maybe earlier.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Harmony Ink Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novella, 65 pages/15490 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	14-August-2014
Price	$3.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.harmonyinkpress.com/books/binary-boy-by-rj-astruc-99-b