Children of Arkadia

I read Children of Arkadia over the weekend. This was a fascinating book. The setting is a classic of science fiction: a bunch of idealistic settlers embark on creating an idealized society in a space station colony. There are two unique twists: the artificial general intelligences that accompany them have, in theory, equal rights and free will as the humans. There are no antagonists: no one is out to sabotage society, theres no evil villain. Just circumstances.

Darusha does an excellent job exploring some of the obvious and not-so-obvious conflicts that emerge. Can an all-knowing, super intelligence AI ever really be on equal footing with humans? How does work get done in a post-scarcity economy? Can even the best-intentioned people armed with powerful and helpful technology ever create a true utopia?

Children of Arkadia manages to explore all this and give us interesting and diverse characters in a compact, fun to read story. Recommended.

Arkadia is one of four space stations orbiting Jupiter to which a small group of people have relocated as society on Earth disintegrates. Supported by a limited number of artificial minds, AIs, Arkadias citizens are free to build the colony and establish its rules as they see fit. Only, they decide not to impose rules rejecting oppression in favour of personal freedom and happiness. But for a fledgling community is that even possible? What sacrifices will have to be made, and by whom? Its timely that Children of Arkadia, by M Darusha Wehm, should be released now, as Im currently editing my brothers PhD thesis in law, in which he investigates the rights of society versus those of the individual, so this novel, with its exploration of exactly those issues, sparked a lively afternoon tea debate. Its a novel which forces us to consider how, given the opportunity to start from scratch, society might develop and evolve. Can we ever be entirely free of the social systems that went before, and at what point does our need to survive and be happy, override that of another individual? Or, indeed, society as a whole? And just to make things interesting, Wehm throws technology into the mix, making us question the very essence of what makes a being human, thereby giving them a claim on those same rights. Children of Arkadia is one of those books which makes you think, while also being engaging and entertaining — something all good books do. Populated with recognisable and believable characters, the narrative follows individuals from several families in both rural and city communities on Arkadia, and over four generations. There is no mad rush, the novel unfolding as a new civilisation might, thoughtfully, over time. It is a contemporary alternative to Lord of the Flies without the graphic violence, although there is all of the tension that pervasive feeling that at any moment Arkadia could degenerate into violence. I note that there are three other space stations orbiting Jupiter, which leads me to hope that Wehm might provide us with more provocative stories of this nature.

Which came first? The utopia or the artificial intelligences who were programmed to create it? M. Darusha Wehm explores what happens when humans rely on AIs to achieve their dream of a civilization with no war, no confinement, no commitments, and nowhere to run. Whem creates such a utopia on four space stations orbiting Jupiter. The citizens are free to create and contribute to their new home, or not participate at all if they so choose. There’s true freedom on Arkadia — except for a few mechanical glitches that the AIs can handle, or at least cajole a few of the less-than-participatory humans to fix. Arkadia might not be perfect, but anything is better than the Earth they escaped.

Or is it? Are the AIs truly the benign helpers most of the humans assume they are? Or are they interfering in the humans lives in ways the humans never anticipated? What happens when humanity surrenders their more disagreeable or violent impulses to chemical “correction” as advised by the AIs. Shades of “a gramme is better than a damn” can be found all over Arkadia.

What do you do when you have Utopia, but to maintain it you have to keep secrets from your fellow humans. Are the AIs the true dictators of Arkadia’s citizens or are they merely doing what the humans had programmed them to do in the first place? What do you do when you have nowhere to run and you’re not sure you want to?

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