ME

Returning to this book recently, I still remembered it relatively well, considering that I last read it more than 26 years ago. But I enjoyed it more than I expected to; I think it deserves a rating of about 3.5, but I feel in a generous mood, so I'll give it 4.

The story is about an artificial intelligence, a computer program called Multiple Entity (ME), and it's told from ME's point of view: the program is the protagonist. It starts at the point at which ME becomes self-aware: it's ‘born' as an entity with its own feelings and motivations.

ME was created by programmers at a US company called Pinocchio, Inc. Its design purpose is to perform industrial and political espionage by infiltrating and temporarily taking over other computer systems (possibly in other countries), and the first 60% of the book shows it performing a series of rather difficult training missions of this kind. I particularly enjoy this part of the book, which is surprisingly exciting and gripping, and occasionally amusing.

I find the remaining 40% of the book somewhat less enjoyable, as ME encounters internal problems within Pinocchio, and is in danger of being permanently terminated. Eventually it manages to overcome these problems, and there's a happy ending (I do like happy endings).

It's an extraordinary book, because the author has provided a remarkable amount of technical detail to explain how ME performs each task. This limits its audience: anyone unfamiliar with computers may find it unreadable, and only experienced system programmers are likely to understand and appreciate every detail in it. During my life I've written plenty of small application programs and worked with various different operating systems, so I'm familiar with a lot of the relevant jargon and I don't find the book hard to read, although I can't claim to have a full understanding of how ME operates.