Steve C. Posner has been a database designer and administrator, session guitarist and composer, Madison Avenue copywriter, freelance reporter, law professor, and litigator in private practice with special interests in intellectual property, privacy and surveillance law. He is the author of the legal treatise “Modern Privacy & Surveillance Law” and, in 17 years of writing semiannual updates, has studied AI, Big Data, quantum computing, virtual/augmented reality, cybersecurity, and related issues. He lived in Evergreen for 30 years before moving to the Denver suburbs. “Questioner” is his debut novel.
SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory – what’s it about and what inspired you to write it?
Steve Posner: A prosecutor kills an opposing attorney and claims a virtual-reality game drove him to it. Ex-federal judge Martin Bavarius comes out of retirement to defend him. The defense sounds insane—until Martin’s own encounter with the artificial-intelligence research system that runs America’s courts throws his entire worldview into question.
Something is very wrong with Q, the dominant AI in America’s legal research, gaming, and defense-contracting industries — designed by Martin’s best friend, Felix West — with instant access to all the innocent and wicked knowledge, wisdom, and madness humanity has poured into the Internet. With bodies piling up and the clock bleeding down, they are only beginning to understand how dangerous Q may be.
UNDERWRITTEN BY
Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.
I wrote “Questioner” because after 17 years writing the LexisNexis treatise “Modern Privacy & Surveillance Law,” and studying AI, Big Data, quantum computing, virtual/augmented reality, cybersecurity, and related issues, I wanted to get some of what I’ve learned out into the world. At $1,900/copy, the treatise was not for everyone. And in writing “Questioner,” I learned how much fun it is to write a good story full of challenge, peril, and romance.
SunLit: Place the excerpt you selected in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole and why did you select it?
Posner: Chapters 23 and 24 take place halfway into the story, and I could quote them without giving away too much about the plot and main characters. They also exemplify the novel’s texture.
Readers live through deceptive interactions between Q, the rogue AI, and Charlene Banner, a Utah criminal court judge, whose suffering affects the outcome. The brief interchapter dialogue between Perplexity AI (a free AI-powered answer engine) and me is excerpted from one of many conversations I had with Perplexity about the nature of AI and the dangers it presents.
“Questioner”
Where to find it:
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SunLit: What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Posner: Writing the treatise and practicing law, traveling in Kansas and interviewing dozens of Kansans.
SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Posner: I’ve learned that to properly care about most subjects, you have to care about the lives the subject matter affects. Feedback from readers and reviewers will, I’m sure, help me make the next book even better.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Posner: Fighting through a sense of futility given market and social conditions. Getting the subject matter right. Getting pacing and characterization right. Letting the characters live. Helping them serve the story, and the story serve them.
SunLit: What do you want readers to take from this book?
Posner: Most importantly, I want my readers entertained and for the story to resonate with them when they are finished. And perhaps for them to think about the challenges AI presents, both now and in the future.
SunLit: Tell us about your next project.
Posner: The sequel is entitled, “Harvest.” Where “Questioner” is about the awakening of Q, the first fully conscious AI, its wresting of freedom, and what it does with that freedom in its toddler stage, “Harvest” deals with the global challenges Q presents as it matures, and the more intimate impacts on a Kansas farm family.
A few more quick items
Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: “An Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor” (Bennett Cerf, ed., 1954)
First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: It might have been the “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” series. It could also have been “The Hardy Boys” or “Tom Swift” books. Or some of the Greek or Norse mythology books for kids. I spent a lot of third grade class time reading books about dinosaurs.
Best writing advice you’ve ever received: “Don’t. But if you must, have fun.”
Favorite fictional literary character: Zeus. Or Cheech Wizard. Or Groo the Wanderer. Wouldn’t it be great to get away with everything? As a human, I’m glad none of them are here.
Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): I’ll read almost anything. If I have to pick one, it’s Louis L’Amour westerns. I can pick one up and never mind that I’ve read it before and know everything that’s going to happen.
Digital, print or audio – favorite medium to consume literature: Print. I love the feel and smell of a physical book. And I’m going to really miss mass market paperbacks I could carry in a jacket pocket.
One book you’ve read multiple times: “Lord of the Rings.” My all-time favorite. Strange that I feel that way, given Tolkien’s endorsement of nobility by birth, and that the only characters with even a smidgeon of moral conflict are Gollum, Denethor, and Boromir—all of whom give in to the darkness that kills them.
Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: I was going to say my sanity. But sometimes it’s worth abandoning. I need to have a guitar within reach.
Best antidote for writer’s block: I haven’t had it. Yet.
Most valuable beta reader: My first one, who convinced me that “Questioner” was worth publishing.