Neurovance

Things to know before reading Neurovance

This book is set in the near future, so the technology, in many ways, mirrors the tech that exists today.

While AI characters have existed in Sci-Fi stories since well before Obi told us, “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for,” it hits a little differently now in our current technological climate.

If I had published this book even just a few years ago, I wouldn’t have thought twice about having an AI character included in this book, but, as someone who cares deeply about the environment, and as someone whose IP was stolen to train AI models, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to not use this opportunity to educate people a little bit on this topic.

NOVA is an AI that was built by one of our MMCs. She helps both of our heroes (or anti-heroes) quite a bit throughout this story, and as our MMCs are biotech geniuses working at a fictional tech company, NOVA was a necessary plot device in this near-future hellscape of a world.

Though NOVA is funny and written in many ways to add comic relief—think Jarvis and Tony— This fictional portrayal of an AI model is not meant to romanticise the use of the AI models that are available to us today. Some things that separate this fictional model from real life are:

 1. NOVA was built using ethically sourced data from willing participants who not only consented to the project but were enthusiastic about their participation.

2. Her servers were designed with efficiency in mind and do not rip through the fresh water sources in low-income areas.

3. NOVA is used as a supportive tool to help these characters navigate problems—not to replace or steal art from real humans.

Now, I’m an author, not an AI developer, so whether or not the above is realistic in practice is not really the point. The point is, the above would be the bare minimum necessary for modern day AI to be even remotely ethical.

I am not naive. I am aware that this technology isn’t going anywhere. It has already infiltrated so many aspects of our day-to-day, and it is only going to become more prominent over time. But— how this technology is used largely depends on us and what we will and will not accept from the 1% that runs our freaking lives.

We can’t trust the Luke Stevens of the world to make ethical choices, so that responsibility falls on us—the artists, the readers, and the dreamers.

This entire book is basically a 150,000-word commentary on the idea that just because we can do something, it doesn’t mean that we should. While reading, please look at the technology that our MMCs are developing as the metaphor it was meant to be.