When HARLIE was One: Release 2.0 by David Gerrold

When HARLIE Was One: Release 2.0 by David Gerrold
Genre: Science Fiction > Hard Sci-Fi, Soft Sci-Fi, AI | Philosophy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

DESCRIPTION: Originally published in 1972, When HARLIE was One was nominated that same year for the Nebula Award for Best Novel and for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973. A revised version, subtitled "Release 2.0", was published in 1988.

Central to the story is an Artificial Intelligence named HARLIE - an acronym for Human Analog Replication, Lethetic Intelligence Engine. The story revolves around HARLIE's relationship with David Auberson, the psychologist responsible for guiding the AI from childhood into adulthood. It's also the story of HARLIE's fight against being turned off and the philosophical question whether or not HARLIE is human; for that matter, what it means to be human.

The HARLIE intelligence engine appears in a number of Gerrold's other works, including the Star Wolf series, where it is routinely installed as the administrating AI of Terran warships.

REVIEW: Was up until the wee hours of the morning re-reading this novel, unable to put it down. Had never owned a copy before, my first read of it having been a library lend, of the dead tree version and oh-so-many decades ago.

Am going to want to read this novel again, at least a third time. Plus any other stories by David Gerrold, especially any in which HARLIE reappears.

If you like your science fiction full of blood, guts and gore; or replete with military action and the latest materiel; or starred with cyborgs bent on overtaking Earth and destroying humankind; or to be yet one more in a seemingly endless inundation of dystopian novels, then you will hate this book.

If you like your science fiction to make you think, to force those little grey cells to fire excitedly..., if you want your science fiction to challenge your preconceptions..., or even to read like some of the best Socratic dialogues, then you will love it. As I did.

This is the kind of science fiction I like best. More, please!

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