It's explicitly NOT AI (It's a distributed expert system)
However, I adored Daniel Suarez's 'Daemon'
Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
21–30 of 106 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#22What's hard Scifi?
Based on the answers here, it's apparent that different people have different definitions.
For myself I take it to mean no new fundamental physics. Any new technology is a reasonable extrapolation from existing, known science. Probably the single biggest narrative restriction that implies is no FTL.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#23i'm surprised no one has mentioned 'the expanse' series of books yet. also, 'a fire upon the deep' and 'a darkness in the sky' by vernor vinge.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#24Surprised nobody has mentioned Heinlein, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". I would say it's harder sci-fi than "I, Robot" (which I also love).
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#25Autonomous by Annalee Newitz that just came out is fantastic fun full of good science - she is a science writer. It also got positive reviews from William Gibson and Neal Stephenson.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#26i'm surprised no one has mentioned 'the expanse' series of books yet. also, 'a fire upon the deep' and 'a darkness in the sky' by vernor vinge.
The first Expanse book and most elements of A Darkness in the Sky are fairly hard, but the later Expanse books and A Fire Upon the Deep, I wouldn't consider hard SciFi.
That said, A Fire Upon the Deep is one of my favorite all time SciFi books and I'd highly recommend it.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#27Most of the other books I'd recommend in this area are mentioned already, but I'll add Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. The primary narrative is from the pov of a generation ship's A.I.. You get to see it learn over time and with it it's vocabulary. Since it's a ship it gives KSR the opportunity to do some very fun info-dumps on the situation.
Probably one of the most thought provoking pieces of scifi I've read.
I'll also recommend Accelerondo, and Seveneves.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#28I always liked the Ben Bova grand tour series. Some are better than others, but they're pretty entertaining and pretty plausible near-future.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#29I'd recommend the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks. It contains some pretty powerful AIs.
Though i wouldn't call it "hard scifi", the Culture series is indeed a classic and i second the recommendation.
Re: Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?
#30Other than those already listed I absolutely loved the Remembrance of Earth's Past [0] trilogy (2008, 2008, 2010) by Liu Cixin. Whilst I wouldn't consider it 'hard' science fiction the Takeshi Kovacs series [1] (2002, 2003, 2005) by Richard K. Morgan is also outstanding, although perhaps more cyberpunk.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_of_Earth%27s_Past