The Turing Option [Import] [Paperback]

Harry Harrison (Author), Marvin Minsky (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: VIKING (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670831271
• ISBN-13: 978-0670831272
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A.I. - Absolutely Intriguing, May 3, 2000

By 

Anthony Hinde (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Turing Option (Questar Science Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)

As far as I know this novel is the only collaboration between Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky. And given the quality of this book I find that truly sad. Harrison is of course one of the most prolific writers in the field of Science fiction and Minsky is a scientist with MIT, working in the area of A.I., who is more used to writing scientific articles than fiction. The two together bring a great story to life in an extremely believable way.

The "Turing Option" is set in the near future and concentrates on the experiences of a brilliant scientist who has just suffered a major brain trauma. His own cybernetic researches help doctors to bring him back to life and allow him to pursue his murderers. This pursuit leads him back to his research into artificial intelligence which it seems was the motivation behind the first attack.

The plot and story telling, whilst top notch, are not what prompted me to include the book on this page. No, it was the A.I. or M.I. (Machine Intelligence), that I became fascinated with. As far as I am concerned, the concept of a robotic entity has never been explored so well as in this novel. (yes I have read all of Asimov's robot stories). If you are at all interested in this area of science, then this book must be read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About building a super-intelligent machine., November 9, 1995

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Turing Option (Questar Science Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)

This adventure novel explains some of the theories in my non-fiction, "The Society of Mind."To find more about how the robot Sven was created, there are additional chapters at http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/minsky/minsky.html or ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/minsky/option.chapters Best wishes, Marvin Minsky, MI

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the book was dynamite, June 14, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Turing Option (Questar Science Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read a lot of science fiction, and I believe that this book tops the list for me. It was beautiful complex, knowledge permiated through this book, but most of all was if machines have a right to chose what OS they use, and I believe they say "I choose linux".