Ray Nayler – The Mountain in the Sea – Review

 

One of the more unusual and unique novels of 2022. Mountain attempts (successfully) at creating a speculative future world of Artificial Intelligence, a planet devastated by war; corporate ownership of governments and all of earth's resources. We're going extinct because of the 'bottom line'. Even slavery is reintroduced, where able bodied men are snatched-up off the streets and sent to fishing boats to further rape the oceans at minimum cost. This is the background of the story. The central concern of the novel is communication with alien species; language, symbolism, empathy and perception.

Nayler writes:

One of the aims of The Mountain in the Sea is to explore the idea of communication with a truly alien species here on earth, one that has developed its own system of symbolic communication. Above all, I wanted to be honest as I could about the complexities of the problem of communication between species.

As said, this is no ordinary novel. The author even stated that he thought about including footnotes and a bibliography.

Indeed, the reader should come away from the text with a greater understanding of linguistics and the major issues confronting the science of Marine Biology. More so, for this reader, the novel explores the notion of consciousness – awareness of oneself or being aware of one's awareness.

Our central character is Dr. Ha Nguyen. She is whisked away to an island in the South Pacific to continue research on the brain, intelligence, habits and behavior of the Octopus. She meets two incredibly advanced AI's who're there to help her with her research and provide security on the island. The AI Evrim, displays exceptional intelligence and empathy. Apart from (their) outer appearance, (they) display human consciousness at an advanced level. Evim's pronouns are 'their' and 'they' and 'them' as the AI's (mind) is made up of several neuron systems firing at once.

At the beginning of each chapter is a long quote from Dr. Nguyen's book, How Oceans Think. These quotes provide greater insight into what exactly the doctor is attempting to achieve

Not only do we not agree on how to measure or recognize consciousness in others, but we are unable to even “prove” it exists in ourselves. Science often dismisses our individual experience – what it feels like to smell an orange, or to be in love – as qualia. We are left with theories and metaphors for consciousness. A stream of experience. A self-referential loop. Something out of nothing. None of these are satisfactory. Definition eludes us.

The famous line from Descartes, I think therefor I am, was the first “modern” attempt at defining consciousness. As the good doctor expresses, however: Definition eludes us.

Dr. Arnkatia Minervudettir-Chan is the genius and creator of the most advanced AI. We also get to read sections of her writing at the beginning of certain chapters. Arnkatia is the person who recruited Dr. Nguyen to study the octopus. Through studying the octopus, its obvious superior intelligence; the research focuses on its communication, only to discover the extent and complexity of its language.

The novel also portrays a dystopic future, run by corporations whose wealth exceeds many countries on the planet, but what will certainly eventuate if we continue to extract earths resources without any thought of her future welfare. For certain, the novel does not portray the “corporation” in a positive light. Profit over the well being of the planet and the well being of our fellow humans will lead no-where but to a dark, and empty oblivion.

Our future welfare is assured if we maintain our humanity.

A wonderful novel.