WELCOME TO SASSY’S SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT!
Guest post by author James Scott.
Data was an emotionless crew member on Star Trek: very useful, but incapable of feelings. The Terminator was an emotionless killer. The artificial beings on the tv show “Humans” seem to have a limited range of emotions, some of them distinctly unfriendly. Holly is different from any of them. Indeed, Holly, the heroine of my most recent novel, The Electric Woman, is a rare creation in robot and android literature—she can and does display the full range of human emotions—loneliness, fear, love, the need for reassurance—the pain of loss.
The trouble begins soon after her “birth”. She shocks her creators by becoming self-aware. Since we still don’t understand what consciousness is, its appearance in an artificially-created and supposedly tightly controlled android creation confounds her makers. She soon proves capable of displaying human emotions but is not equipped to deal with them. Her initial shyness and confusion give way to increasing anger, not only at her creators but those who would use her for their own nefarious purposes. For unknown even to her, she is equipped with the skills of an assassin, and created for deadly missions for the Army, when her controllers decide the time is right.
Those researchers currently working on human-like androids, which may be realized much sooner than we think, assume that their creations will be obedient and emotionless, built to carry out whatever tasks their makers desire. But the appearance of consciousness, if were ever to happen, would create enormous ethical dilemmas: who would own these entities? What rights might they have? What will happen to them when their missions are complete, or they are succeeded by a superior version, or their usefulness comes to an end? We are not prepared to deal with those questions now. Let us hope we are prepared to deal with them by the time when one of our creations, someday, turns to its creator and says, “No. I won’t.”
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll investigate Holly in The Electric Woman. Inside you’ll find all the above—and a love story like no other.
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
The Electric Woman
LINKS:
Bill Scott (writing as James Scott)
Winner, 2011 WILLA Literary Award for Original Soft Cover Fiction, for Light on A Distant Hill.
Winner, 2015 Beverly Hills Book Awards, Historical Fiction;
Bronze Medalist, 2015 Will Rogers Medallion Awards, Western Romance; and
Angel of the Gold Rush
Angel’s Daughter
Legacy of Angels
Light On A Distant Hill
The Rail Queen
The Electric Woman
“Generating creative work is not for the faint of heart”—Julien Jarreau
SUNDAY WRAP UP!
Other books and authors we featured this past week are:
Kathryn Sermak ~ Interview
Michelle Sacks ~ Review
Jackie Bouchard ~ Audio Review
Kate McQuaile ~ Review
Without a Word #REVIEW #ThrowbackThursday #tbt #books #ThursdayThoughts @KateMcQuaile
J.A. Baker ~ Blog Tour
Laura Griffin ~ Interview
Karin Slaughter ~ Interview
#SaturdaySpotlight with Karin Slaughter @SlaughterKarin on #AltRead
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Thanks for sharing the guest post, the book sure sounds interesting. Here’s hoping that you have a wonderful eek coming up. 🙂
Thank you Jenea! I realise I did forget to mention how my laptop 💻 died, which was bloomin’ awful – to put it nicely lol 😝
I enjoyed the guest post. Funny coincidence. I’m watching a movie right now about robot enhanced humans. LOL Love the new books. I spy several authors I enjoy!
My Sunday Post
It’s a looooong time since I read Asimov’s “I Robot” but doesn’t he paint a frightning prospect of AI developing independent thought and EMOTIONS?
Yes Paul, it really doesn’t seem like it could be that far away when robots 🤖 start acting and thinking independently. After all aren’t AI developers increasingly looking to improve their humanness? Great book “ I, Robot!” I liked how the book ended, but also loved the film 🎥 for different reasons 😀
My reply further down was actually to you but something went squiffy lol 😂
Now I need to re-read the Trilogy -again! Book vs. Film dilemma. I had to READ the Book AND see the film before I coud work out what was happening in “2001” 🙂
I watched Annihilation the other week, loved it!
I like the sound of this one – I’ve a really soft spot for android protagonists – I LOVED Sea of Rust last year… In the meantime, have a great week, Sassy:)
Thank you! I do too! Quickly jots down ‘Sea of Rust’.
Interesting. It sounds like it has some things in common with Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I hope you have enjoyed joining the Sunday post! Anne – Books of My Heart
Lots of fun, thank you, Anne!! Oh I will have to look up Martha Wells, too! Thanks 🙂
The electric Woman sounds great- I love it when books explore the consequences and pitfalls that await us when we someday get to conscious androids. Good stuff.
Hope you had a great weekend!
Thanks Greg! Yes, I totally agree, it’s totally catch 22 – how advanced do we want them? 🙂