Sarapinkshoes

Book Report.
GENESIS
Bernard Beckett. Science Fiction

Bernard Beckett’s novel is set in a post-apocalyptic world at the end of the 21st century were a young female student, Anaximander is about to go through the hardest examination in the country, a four-hour interview for the highly prestigious Academy on a subject of her choice. She decides on “the life of Adam Forde” the mostimportant figure in the history of Plato’s Republic who, defied strict orders as a order guard and chose to save a young woman who was approaching the island state. His punishment consists of becoming a partner for an Artificial intelligence program called Art. Anaximander recounts the period shared by man and machine and recreates some of the pivotal scenes in which the humanity, intelligence andemotions of both the characters are questioned in a series of intense dialogues.

Although Beckett’s novel doesn’t provide a detailed description of each character we can, through Anaximander’s interpretation, deduce the personalities of the central figures in the unravelling of the plot, Adam and Art.

Adam: he represents the opposition to Plato’s Republic, and strongly believes in theirreplaceable human essence that cannot be replicated in machines such as Art, however his isolation from the outside world makes him inevitably drawn to his companion otherwise he would have to withstand loneliness. Even so, Art merely mimics Adams behaviour and feeds of his defiant personality, in a way Art is Adams reflection but, as a machine, Art has to
choice but to love artificial intelligence.Art: Being a machine, he has been programmed to be patient and attentive, however that doesn’t stop him from being curious about human nature and the miracle of life, further is deeply interested in Adams behaviour towards him. As they move further in their conversations regarding who is more human or intelligent, Art becomes more ambitious and alert and his orang-gutan seem more alive.Anaximander, like Adam does not follow societies conventions and feels a strong connection and sympathy toward Adam, even though she has been taught from a very early age to despise him and his principles, as opposed to seeing Art as a defenceless and sensible creature she feels anger and for a moment considers the possibility that her society has not been completely honest about the events that tookplace in that cell.

Genesis dwells mainly dwells on a philosophical theme, since the plot and storytelling isn’t as relevant as the actual content, for example Adam and Art’s conversations and discussions that raise thought provoking questions such as what is the essence that defines life, and can life be generated from something artificial. Adam first suggests that the origins of life goback to the first eukaryotic cells that grew in complexity every million years, on the other hand Art suggests that life began with the element carbon, that can be found in all living beings, including himself. Adam suggest that Art is the product of careful planning and luck whereas he is the product a series of inexplicable consequences that make him a miracle.

Further, we can find this themein the society that is divided in three parts. The philosophers that are in charge of political matters and final rulings, the warriors that protect the citizens and the philosophers and finally the people, who’s activity should be productive and improving to industry and cities, education is divided according to your reasoning ability. Originally this is the ideal model that Plato envisionedin our world and published as “The Republic”

The names that were selected for each of the characters also suggests the authors philosophical approach, for example, Anaximander, Pericles her mentor, Plato the founder of the Republic and Aristotle the woman who collaborated with Plato in the creation of the Artificial intelligence program.
Philosophy is also complemented by other themes...