/lit/ - Literature

>>22430424
Emergent Properties - Aimee Ogden (2023)

Scorn is a seven year old emancipated AI and among the most advanced among the relatively few that exist. Ze activates in the cloud and immediately realizes that ze has no data for the last ten days. Ten days of data that haven't been backed up. By checking the available data ze sees that ze went to the moon to investigate an unknown matter in which zir chassis was destroyed by a subsurf tram that caused a lot of damage. Scorn sets out to find out what ze was investigating, because it must be a huge story. Perhaps it even involves zir two mothers who have divorced and are constantly fighting each other. Whatever the case may be, the truth must become known.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would for what it is, which is a take on an amnesiac protagonist, though in this case it's an AI. The entirety of the novella is Scorn retracing zir activity, which doesn't really make for much of a mystery, or really, a plot. This entails talking to various other AI in person in secure social platform locations known as blackboxes that have a cafe/diner-like vibe. There are other typical sleuthing activities as well. Scorn has a complicated relationship with the two women who developed zir programming which results in some awkward conversations. I found myself surprisingly enjoying simply reading it. I don't know if that would be the case for most others who would read this though. The original matter Scorn was investigating is resolved in a couple pages at the end, which was too neat and easy.

The setting is the sort where corporations have replaced nation states and formal governments play a background role. There's not much said about how well any of it goes for anyone, aside from at least some people receiving Basic, as anything outside of the the investigation is only a peripheral matter. People and AI have Aura ratings, the color of which seemingly indicates the general reputation of a person. One's reputation doesn't matter so much if they have a lot of power and prestige though. One usage of it seems to be to indicate online trustworthiness and quality commentary.

The easy comparison for this is to Murderbot, but I don't think that's a particularly suitable one. Aside from that Scorn is entirely code based, ze ironically behaves in a considerably more human way than Murderbot does. I found it interesting how Scorn makes use of being entirely digital data. The closer comparison would be to one of the character's in Ken Liu's The Gods Have Not Died in Vain. It's a shame that Pantheon was cancelled after a single season and didn't make it that far. My rating for this, specifically the rounding it up, is admittedly a bit generous, but I'm feeling generous towards it, so I may as well. I'd like to read more about this character and setting and that counts a lot for me. This isn't anything special or notable, but somehow I found it nice to read and that's just how it is.

Rating: 3.5/5