A Human Computer

The most interesting part of this novel for me, other than how similar it seemed to the attacks from September 11th (as that is today's date). Mike starts out as a genius child and turn into a leader of a new nation. It is hard for us to think about how that is possible as we have so often defined what is human based off of the idea that humans are the only beings that are capable of higher level intellectual thoughts. This challenges that law of humanity and forces us to question what it is that really separates us from a machine. Not only a machine, but one that enjoyed telling jokes, da? I was happy that the author never made the computer go mad and start killing everyone, which is what I anticipated. Strange also that we learned of the computer through its concept of playing. I think the parallels that the author was attempting to draw with Mike is that we, human beings, can be very intelligent but when we are left alone we become mechanical. Mike, as a computer, started in a reverse position. As a computer and inherently lonely, he had a human intellectual awakening. He became a character that we connected with, not a human. I think I mourned his "disconnection" from his personality more than Profs death. Prof was always about to die, that was his fate. However, Mike seemed to represent a new beginning. He was "Adam S.", a revolutionary and able to see the basic logic in every situation.

What would happen to our world if something like Mike were invented? No one on Luna knew how powerful he was, and yet he changed the course of history through his abilities. Perhaps there are other forces for our world like Mike, yet not a superhuman computer. The catalysts here for social change does not come from the moon, they come from discontented people with a plan. Mike wasn't the being that came up with the plans for revolution, he simply computed the risks and made the technology possible. Does that mean then, that a group like a terrorist organization is empowered through the technology and information that they can gain from other groups? Do people give terrorists information because they too are lonely and want to make friends? I do not see any reason for helping them other than local social prestige. Is that a universal factor, or is money or revenge a more real reason?