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Men's Weekly

What’s the place of humans in a world redefined by AI? Steve Toltz’s new novel has some ideas

  • Written by Seth Robinson, Lecturer, Professional Communications, Public Humanities & Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne

The conditions for Russell “Rusty” Wilson’s life were set with the roll of a dice. After his parents announced their divorce, Rusty and his twin sister, Bonnie, were split up in a move reminiscent of The Parent Trap: allocated to their respective parents. If they roll one to six, Rusty goes with his mother; seven to twelve, with his father.

Random, yes, but even so, it seems the odds are stacked. You can’t roll a one with two dice.

Review: A Rising of the Lights – Steve Toltz (Penguin)

Forty years later, we bear witness to the breakdown of Rusty’s marriage, the obsolescence of his career as he loses his job to an AI system, and a sense of anxiety that seems to permeate his being at a molecular level.

Over the next 300 pages, the question of the dice remains: what in his life is a result of circumstance or chaos – and when have the odds been stacked against him? All the while, Rusty both considers and rejects questions of human connection, and our place in a world rapidly redefined by AI.

Testing the bounds of belief

In his first, Booker shortlisted novel, A Fraction of the Whole, Toltz introduced readers to one family, the Deans, using their voices and perspectives to stretch his novel out over generations. A Rising of the Lights keeps a tighter focus.

We stay with Rusty in his discomfort, though his family and others in his life drive the novel, too, through both their presence and their absence. The spaces they leave seem to define him, as much as the moments when they enter his life.

This is as true for his ex-wife Alison as for his dice-rolling parents, the “Secret Alibi Club” (his high school friends, Edwina, Fergus and Charlie), his eccentric tech evangelist neighbour, Dennis, and his sister Bonnie, whose own life seems to have been lived in rejection of their twinhood.

“It’s hilarious and a little sad, now, that I used to avoid my reflection because of a presence at the edge of mirror. Do you know who that presence was?”“What? Who?”“You.”I imagined my face creeping in at the edge of mirrors — I liked that for myself.

What’s the place of humans in a world redefined by AI? Steve Toltz’s new novel has some ideas
A Rising of the Lights A Rising of the Lights embraces elements of the postmodern and the absurd, forever testing the bounds of belief within the story world. Its patchwork of styles is perfect for the contemporary era, when questions of disconnection and the epidemic of loneliness — exacerbated by our rapidly evolving relationship with technology — give our day-to-day lives a stranger than fiction feel. The idea of robots in aged care homes, for instance, might seem preposterous, but they actually exist. Rusty’s background as a child psychologist gives him the ability to reflect on and question the status and health of his own consciousness. When his mind-numbing government job is usurped by an AI system named DUPIN, a chance encounter with one of his high school friends sees him take on the role of guidance counsellor to a cohort of high school students eager to be millionaires, but unwilling to work. Indeed, it seems perfectly plausible that in an era when the very nature of work seems uncertain, the most reasonable thing to do might be to take your pet lobster for a walk. Bio-hacking and human angst As meandering and bizarre as this story feels at times, the overarching effect is beautiful. A Rising of the Lights is an incredibly human story. Toltz acknowledges the interconnected nature of the “polycrisis” within his work. Rusty teeters on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, even as crises of climate and technology threaten to upend those structures. The focus, however, remains on the human angst so many of us feel as we consider the uncertainty of our future. Rusty’s neighbour, Dennis, sings the praises of bio-hacking, and the integration of man and machine. Up until now, there’s never been a solution to human loneliness. Up until now, all the known cures for loneliness caused loneliness. It’s one of the pillars of human existence. Dennis’ ultimate goal is to flee to China, undergo cyborg augmentation and join the “quantum entanglement of minds”. He offers perhaps the most extreme view of the AI advocate, eager to assimilate into the oncoming techno-utopia. Humanists will find his level of acceptance challenging. To Dennis, our assimilation is a foregone conclusion – and he relishes the idea of an end to the individualism and loneliness that have defined his life. Rusty, however, offers an alternative arc. A Rising of the Lights chronicles his reconnection with the human. He rediscovers the relationships that have defined him and re-establishes the connections that give him meaning. This, perhaps, is the most beautiful part of this novel. It is easy to identify with the chaos and angst these characters feel in the face of uncertainty. But true solace, it seems, lies in human connection – in acknowledging those faces that lurk at the edge of the mirror. Ultimately, in a world of macro-crisis, Toltz suggests it is by focusing on the micro — those things within our control — that we might find a sense of agency, and of hope.

Authors: Seth Robinson, Lecturer, Professional Communications, Public Humanities & Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne

Read more https://theconversation.com/whats-the-place-of-humans-in-a-world-redefined-by-ai-steve-toltzs-new-novel-has-some-ideas-275667

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