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Mark and Gerry's Sci-Fi Reviews continue....
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Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers
Review by Mark
Galatea 1. n. a strong cotton fabric used for making clothes
2. n. a small inner natural satelite of Neptune.
Now let me tell you that as far as I can tell these definitions and the mysterious version/release indicators are unrelated to the science fiction novel that awaits you... so forget about it! Instead what you can expect is a beautifully written story with excellent science behind the fiction. Richard Powers, in this novel and his others, seems to enjoy posing his characters in situations that show that man cannot be separated from his high tech environment. In a departure from too many science fiction writers, Powers writes about the technical issues with a clarity and accuracy that indicates he understands his subject, and allows the reader to leave the novel knowing more than when entered. I really liked everything about this one.
Galatea 2.2 is probably autobiographical since the main character's name is Richard Powers which is also the author's name. Not surprisingly the main character's biography runs very parallel to the author's. Richard Powers returns from Holland to assume an author-in residence at an unnamed university. There he meets and befriends a colorful group of brain researchers. Some explore sectioned rat brains, some study cognitive processes, another studies computer models of brain functions called neural networks. Powers gets pulled deeply into this sphere after taking the side of a wager made by the neural network researcher that a computer using a neural network could pass a Master's Degree comprehensive exam.
How do you train a computer to think like a human, or at least repond to an unforseen exam question like a human? This question is fundamental to theories of human thought. Is to think like a human simply to respond like a human? Neural network theory responds "yes!". When through our senses our brains receive information, our brains are stimulated in some unique fashion for the input. Each unique input will hopefully trigger a unique firing pattern. Information with common features will have firing patterns with common features but differ in the details. Thus, our limited responses to the infinite possibilities is really a reflection of the connectiveness of patterns. Furthermore, the content of a feature must be a of certain intensity to cause the firing pattern ( ie. a voice has to have a certain volume to be detected and a perhaps a different volume to be identified). When you think of how a child learns language, it's by repeatedly having words repeated in context and the childs "neural network" making the connection between the sounds and the object and then the general concept. Eventually "dog" goes from "this furry animal" to "all similar furry animals but not furry animals that purr".
In training the neural network to take the Master's comprehensive exam Powers uncovers the layers of meaning, and the confusing multiple meanings that language can have according to the situation, but that is usually taken for granted. By reading the computer the classics, using words in many contexts, and simply defining words, the network slowly begins to take shape and develop a fascinating and amusing stimulus/response relationship to questions it is asked. As the training progresses, Powers begins to have increasing trouble differentiating the Network's response to questions and those a human would provide. The novel builds toward a crescendo for the test.
Galatea 2.2 is not only excellent for its literate and clear presentation of a sophisticated technical concept (neural networks), but his well written description of the human condition. Powers is not just a prop for his precocious computer, but a neural network himself with a complicated stimulus response pattern and a history that produces it. Powers is a human protagonist, far from perfect, but very sympathetic. He is likewise surrounded by humans with a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses-all created by a unique network pattern.
Powers writes beautifully and with humor, a combination seen only from the best authors of Sci-Fi (see George Turner).
"I didn't much like his type: the empiricist who thought the world outside his three variables worth no more than a brilliant condescension."
"The articles were getting easier to get through. I read how supervised training helped a net grow cleverer at associating any input with desired output. And I got cleverer as I read."
"Memory was a parasite he proposed. It opportunistically used perception's circuitry for its playback theater."
"I taught it several irregular verbs as well as the indespensible lesson that precaution is worthless after the fact."
" The English Building crawled with twenty two year olds, frantic with the impending Exam. Each one had made the same error in judgement, giving their lives over to books. Each had disappointed some father, whom they'd hoped only to delight with their ability to read and write. Not one believed they would ever get a real job."
"All human utterances came down to 'Do you really mean that?' and 'Look over there! It's an X.' The hard part, she always claimed, was finding someone who knew what you meant by those two things."
If you read only one Powers novel this is the one. I have read one other (Plowing the Dark) and while it is good, Galatea 2.2 is by far the better.
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