Lauren Steates

Book Review #2

He, She, and It: Do you have to be human to be a “person?”

Over the last couple of decades, there have been several books written in the genre of cyberpunk and science fiction that contain stories about cyborgs and their unique interactions with humans.  Among these books is Marge Piercy’s 1991 He, She, and It.  But there are a few things that separate Piercy’s book from many others in the same genre.  Piercy provides traditional science fiction with a brand new angle.  Her book touches on an extensive gamut of controversial issues including Judaism, gender roles, feminism, environmentalism, and most provocatively, artificial intelligence.   Among one of things that makes this book so different from many others is the way that it explores the meaning of this type of  “life”.  Humans breathe, think, and have souls.  But what if something else, something entirely man-made, meets or begins to develop these criteria?  At what point, if any, does this type of entity cross the line from artificial intelligence to truly being alive?

            The book is set in 2059, where present-day earth has been transformed into an environmentally ruined world politically dominated by huge multi-national corporations. Within this setting, the story begins with a custody battle between the main character Shira and her ex-husband, Josh, over their son, Ari.  Because Ari is considered “property of the father’s gene line,” Josh wins custody of Ari, and Shira is heartbroken. In order to have “time to heal” and figure out how to regain custody of Ari, Shira returns to the independent free town where she grew up.  Once home, Shira’s grandmother, Malkah, provides her with family companionship. 

            Shira decides to take a job working in network programming, and is assigned to work on the programming for an illegally created cyborg, Yod.  Yod (the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and (coincidentally?) a symbol for God in the Hebrew discipline of Kaballah) is the tenth generation of a physically embodied artificial intelligence, and is to be used to protect their home city from attacks from the multi-nationals.  Yod has been built with a human physical appearance, and designed with human-like mannerisms and thought processes.   Piercy intertwines her story with the 16^th century Jewish narrative of the Golem of Prague, a being created from clay by a Rabbi, to protect the Jewish inhabitants of that city.

Previously, Malkah who has helped program Yod, had “introduced a counterweight,” into his programming, to make him use “his strength more wisely.”  Even though Yod is physically superior to any man, Shira begins to realize that the feminist programming that Yod received from Malkah has made Yod lack several undesirable masculine traits.  The more time Shira spends with Yod, the more she begins to realize the benefits of a “programmable man.”   She grows emotionally and physically attracted to him, and eventually they become lovers.

In the book, the people of the town, learning of his true nature, immediately reject Yod, seeing him only as a machine.  However, those that are close to Yod soon realize that he is not just a machine but also something that has feelings and aspirations.  As the story progresses, Yod is called upon to defend the city, and enters into a phase of defense against outside attack.  Yod finds himself in a position of having to choose whether or not to sacrifice his own well being for the protection of the city.  The decisions he makes raise the question of whether or not Yod has risen to a different level of existence.  Is he simply a programmed automaton, or has the programming he has received evolved to a point where he existence embodies the essence of life itself?  Marge Piercy would seem to argue the latter.

Piercy makes it clear that other species can and should be considered “people.”  Even though Yod appears to be a typical man, Yod is actually a cyborg that was created to act like a man.  However, even though Yod processes the inner workings of a robot, he overcomes his limitations and begins to show characteristics of a human being.   Piercy portrays Yod, through the eyes of Shira, as being a near-perfect companion and lover.  Because much of Yod’s programming was completed by women, he processes many of the characteristics of a man that women are attracted to, and lack many of those that offend them. 

Yod seems to have an independent consciousness.  When Shira asks Yod, “Do you consider yourself alive?”  He responds, "I'm conscious of my existence. I think, I plan, I feel, I react. I consume nutrients and extract energy from them.  I grow mentally, if not physically, but does the inability to become obese make me less alive?   I feel the desire for companionship." 

Piercy seems to be leading us to the conclusion that Yod may, in fact, be alive.   However, when a reader compares Yod to a human, several differences are apparent.  Yod requires no sleep or nourishment.  Although he has physical responses, he can withstand more pain than an average human.  He has strength of moral character, and possesses a lack of “bad” personal traits and normal human weakness.   But does this make him more human, or less so?  Despite Yod’s ability to use his programming to make independent moral decisions, and develop an independent personality, the reader may conclude that this is merely the result of extremely clever and sophisticated programming.  Is the presence exhibited by Yod any more or less alive because it is encapsulated in a shell that emulates the human body?  Presumably, the artificial intelligence created within Yod could just have easily been deposited into a non-human form, or merely stored in computer memory. 

Marge Piercy has many intertwining themes throughout her book He, She, and It.  She immerses us in a world that is not too difficult for us to imagine, and asks us to explore the definition of life.  At this juncture, it may help the reader to reflect back to the story of the golem.  Jewish lore tells us that a golem, being made of man and not of God, is imperfect.  It cannot speak, has no soul, and can act only at the request of a man.  Its seems as if Piercy is drawing upon her Jewish heritage to present us with futuristic thought-provoking issues.  Future technology may soon lead us to a future-day golem.  How (or if) we limit its capabilities, and how we treat the entity that results are questions that have yet to be answered.