The Terminal Experiment

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

An experiment has gone terribly wrong. Dr. Peter Hobson has created three electronic simulations of his own personality. One will test life after death; another, immortality. The third one is the control unit. But now all three have escaped from Hobson's computer into the worldwide electronic matrix. And one of them is a killer.

Robert Sawyer has won many awards for his science fiction, which is praised for its blend of high-tech mystery and suspenseful pacing.

©1995 Robert J. Sawyer (P)2003 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1995

Murdering AI

The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer is an early exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) running amok across the internet. Peter Hobson (named for the reference to Hobson's choice) is an engineer who develops a device that demonstrates when brain activity completely ceases (in order to establish death for organ harvesting) and discovers evidence of an electrical field that seems to leave the body upon death. Dubbed the 'soulwave' this appears to establish some form of afterlife beyond death. To study this phenomena further, with the aid of a colleague who dabbles in artificial intelligence, Peter develops AI versions of himself, one purely intellect, one imbued with the notion of immortality, and the third serving as a control. Soon, crimes begin to appear that are linked to Peter and he concludes that one of the AIs is acting upon his own feelings and must figure out which one is the culprit before the police close in on him. At the same time, the AIs replicate themselves across the internet seeking to roam beyond his reach.

For its time, Sawyer was quite prescient in his notions of AI as well as the distributive and exploding power of the internet. While the idea of mapping individual neurons may be ambitious, embedding concepts into their own neural nets that can be selectively deleted is intriguing and offers the opportunity to discuss unique approaches such as how certain situations are viewed in the face of immortality. At the same time, Sawyer sets up an engaging police procedural as the crimes occur and are investigated.

The narration is well done with a solid range of voices and good character distinction. Pacing is fine.

Don't listen to the prologue

Good story, but I found the prologue to be a spoiler that diminished it somewhat.

It was "meh"

If you have extra credits, it is worth the listen. The technology (which is the centerpiece of the story) is on such weak foundations that to me much of the story lacked credibility and kept me from engaging. The characters were well written and the overall premise interesting, but there are so many GREAT books out there leave this one for a long summer vacation when you leave your critical thinking hat at home.

Excellent story and narration was superb.

Excellent and very intriguing story line. Narrator did a superb job in reading the book and making the characters very individualistic.

Fun story, bland writing.

Peter Hobson creates a scanner that can map the neural nets of the brain, and in the process discovers the soulwave. His wife reveals an affair she had. Hobson and his best friend Sarkar scan Peter's brain and develop three AIs to study immortality and life after death. Now, one of the AIs is behaving very badly. How can it be stopped?

Sawyer makes me think of John Scalzi. His writing isn't too good, but the story is entertaining.

Narrator Paul Hecht is OK but not great. He doesn't do women well and there is a general lack of excitement and suspense in his reading.

SF Murder Mystery dealing with Moral Questions

In the style of Isaac Asimov this novel is about “the idea.” The characters are just necessary elements of the plot to advance the idea. Sawyer does well in giving the characters logical motivation but they behave in a fashion that is so clearly useful to the story that they never seem real. But, after all, this is an idea story and not literary fiction. This book sometimes feels like a noir mystery. The writing style is very stark and spares few words that don’t advance the plot. There are several ideas here; the key ones both related to a quantum leap in the resolution of brain scan technology.
The first “idea” is the scientific discovery of the human soul. This allows Sawyer to explore several moral questions: We are challenged to explore the consequences of the effect such a scientific announcement would have on society. Sure, many people are religious and such a discovery would only confirm their beliefs, but many materialists would be forced to reevaluate their concept of reality. Sawyer also interjects the morality of abortion, given the fact that the soul enters the fetus at an early stage in gestation. Animal lovers have to cope with the fact that Old Yeller has no soul.
The other key “idea” that drives the story is that of computer artificial intelligence (AI). This is a spin-off technology from the brain-scan that discovered the soul. Now a personality can be captured. All this happens by the half-way point in the novel.
This book does what a good book should do: It provokes deep thought. Some novels accomplish this by means of great insights into the way people think and feel; expressing that humanity with great depth of characterization. Some non-fiction books do this by revealing something profound about the way the world works. This novel qualifies as a good book by raising some of the grand themes of all time: When does human life begin? Is there life after death? And on top of it all is a satisfying mystery thriller.
I have read several of Sawyer’s books and find that he is typical of many Science Fiction writers. Like Arthur C. Clarke and the aforementioned Isaac Asimov, Robert Sawyer, although a supposedly a materialist in his personal life, he often writes stories dealing with spiritual, ethical and moral questions. Clarke wrote the stories “The Star” (Christ’s natal star), and “The Nine Billion Names of God” (God is real) both revolving on religious matters. Asimov’s famous story “The Last Question” postulates the origin of God Himself. Sawyer, too, explores such themes. His novel CALCULATING GOD revolves around the idea of an advanced race of aliens that are theists, in contrast to the scientific community on earth which is largely atheistic. Sawyer’s FLASH FORWARD deals with determination and free-will. I raise this subject to make the observation that such curiosity is probably endemic to the human condition. Moral questions, like those investigated by Sawyer, and his fellows, form the basis of their most compelling work. It seems that the poetic muse for atheistic writers is thoughts of God.

Paul Hecht reads this novel in straight fashion. His tone is deep and pleasant. I usually gravitate toward the narrators who give flamboyant performances, but I found that Paul Hecht here allowed me to fully engage with the words of the story. His performance was unobtrusive and very enjoyable. As a bonus he does something that most narrators get wrong: he correctly pronounces the word “sentience” as SEN-shunce; for that alone he gets kudos.

A look at transhumanism

In this novel, Sawyer takes a foray into transhumanism as the protagonist seeks to determine the significance of the newly discovered "soul wave", which leaves the body at death. Coupled with one of Sawyer's trademark characters, a scientist who's been badly hurt emotionally, the novel is both thought-provoking and entertaining, as well as astonishingly prescient given the decade in which it was written.

Four stars, easily.

Will make you ponder life’s big questions

The story was another home run for Mr Shaw and his use of AI in the future sense. This gave me plenty to think about while listening to this audiobook. This is the second book that I have listened from the author and both made me question a lot of things that are today unknown.

Mind hormones & senses role explored in good story

Would you consider the audio edition of The Terminal Experiment to be better than the print version?

No. The narrator would drink water without unkeying the microphone. Minimally acceptable. Good story carried me through.

What did you like best about this story?

Exploration of technical angles of the components of the mind.

What didn’t you like about Paul Hecht’s performance?

No

Any additional comments?

More. Please.

Typical Sawyer-Mind-Bend

Yet again, another thought provoking book by Robert J Sawyer… but I expected no less!

The book was written in 1995 and was set about 20 years in the future - which means right about now. This was comical to read because we now know if his future predictions about our culture have come to pass.

He missed the mark on a few things like: Curbside Newspaper Printers, we don’t have VCRs anymore (although his VCR had all the same capabilities and programming parameters that our PVRs have), Donahue and Leno are no longer on air, and poor Peter Jennings passed away.

He got things right like: Queen Elizabeth II is still alive and well, that there would be a Pope Benedict XVI (impressive!) and electronic readers (did we envision reading tablets in the 90s? It’s so long ago I can’t remember.

Of course he did not predict the Iphone but he did conjure up video-phones.

Aside from the fun of picking those details apart, the story itself was a typical Sawyer-mind-bend. I love his books, they never ever disappoint!