The Terminal Experiment

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

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

Fun Ride Albeit a Bit Dated

Sawyer won the 1995 Nebula Award with this novel. It felt like two novels to me as the plot seemed to take a turn a ways in from the original idea presented. It was set in the year 2011 or 16 years in the future so it was interesting to take in how Sawyer projected our technological progress from 1995, when the internet was just getting going, to current times.

The story centers around brain scientist Peter Hobson, his cheating wife Cathy, and his computer genius friend, Sarkar. Peter develops an EEG machine which detects an electrical impulse leaving the brain as a person dies which is deemed the "soulwave", since this wave is interpreted the soul leaving the body, to the delight of all who believe in life after death. He explores how this discovery changes society.

Then, Peter and Sarkar use Peter's technology and Sarkar's to create three AI versions of Peter. In the meantime, Peter's wife Cathy gets drunk and sleeps with a coworker, which she claims was a mistake but apparently hooks up him two more times on separate occasions. Peter's AI triplets have access to everything on the net and pretty soon mischief happens to those close to Cathy and the novel turns in to a crime whodunit.

The novel was based on some interesting premises which opened up all kinds of philosophical and moral dilemmas. A good read if not a bit dated.

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.

Well written and performed captivating story.

A crime novel with interesting questions of morality and human nature in a sci-fi world not much apart from our current reality.

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!

Interesting mix

An entertaining story. An interesting mix between science fiction, detective novel, and religious novel. Nice nice not thrilling but nice.