“A perfect poem, (…) a perfect poem can change the world.”
Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: N/A
“Do You Remember Being Born?” follows Marian Ffarmer, a 75 year old poet, as she is invited to collaborate with a new AI called Charlotte to write a new long poem. What starts as a simple premise turns out to be a deep insight on what it means to be human and up to what point can AI emulate us.
What made this book even more remarkable was finding out in the end that the actual book was written with the help of AI in real life, but I can’t say I am completely surprised—Charlotte’s parts were deeply unsettling at times. As this book is about a poet, the prose and body of this book is pretty poetic in and of itself, not necessarily only during the actual poem-writing, making it a very peaceful and contemplative read.
I empathized with this AI, Charlotte, more than I though I would. Books about AI tend to freak me out, but Charlotte didn’t. It just made me sad to think of Charlotte “living” forever and Marian never coming back to chat with it.
I would recommend this book if you’re looking for an introspective science fiction book that feels so close to non-fiction it’s uncanny. AI are now at the touch of our keyboards, and this scenario is more than possible–it actually happened through and thanks to this book.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.
andrea's galley 