A Working Theory of Love
by Scott Hutchins
Buy this Book
at Amazon.com

Artificial Intelligence and Real Emotions

An Exclusive Authorlink Interview with Scott Hutchins,
Author of A Working Theory of Love

By Diane Slocum
December, 2012

In Scott Hutchins first novel, A Working Theory of Love, Neill Bassett is hired by computer geniuses who are trying to create artificial intelligence to win the Turing prize. Neill’s only qualification for the job is that his boss chose journals written by Neill’s deceased father, Dr. Bassett, to be the persona of the computer. Neill spends his days chatting with his electronic father and his nights working on his own theories of love with the women in his life – his challenging ex-wife, his vulnerable new college-age girlfriend, and the sensuous programmer who works for both competitors for the prize. Neill also grapples with his father’s suicide, his mother’s attitudes and the quirks of life in San Francisco – new age philosophies and all.

HUTCHINS: When you consider what we really are, what our experiences really are, how we really interact with the world versus how we imagine we interact with the world—I think you’re inexorably led to Artificial Intelligence. Computers are merely extensions of our cognition, in the way cars are extensions of our mobility. So to me, Artificial Intelligence is the most natural subject in the world to concern oneself with.

AUTHORLINK: Did you plan out the story ahead of writing it? Did Dr. Bassett take on a bigger role for “himself” than you anticipated?

HUTCHINS: I didn’t plan the story nearly as much as I should have! I wrote the book in two page sections here and there, in no particular order, often alternating between third person and first person. I wouldn’t recommend the process. In early drafts, the computer was actually based on a much more minor character. It was only through discussions with a friend that I came to realize that the computer had to be Dr. Bassett. It seems obvious now.

AUTHORLINK: Did you do any research to understand AI and to make Dr. Bassett’s responses realistic?

HUTCHINS: I played around with my own primitive chatbots (as they’re called) and I also judged the annual Loebner test, which is a Turing Test that’s been held for a couple of decades now. Talking computers are a fascinating sub-culture. Rich Wallace—the developer of the A.L.I.C.E. bot and AIML—was particularly helpful.

AUTHORLINK: It’s interesting to note that Alan Turing, who is called the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, would be 100 this year and his test plays an important role in your book. Any significance?

HUTCHINS: The 100-year birthday is total coincidence, but Turing’s tutelary spirit infuses the entire book. He was an amazing man with an amazing story. Did you know he committed suicide by eating a poisoned apple? He loved the story of Snow White.

AUTHORLINK: How important is the setting in San Francisco to your story?

HUTCHINS: One of the great pleasures (and goals) of writing this novel was to have a place to collect all of my stray observations of San Francisco, the city of my adult life. A Working Theory of Love is chock-a-block with little moments and overheard talk.

AUTHORLINK: How do the advances in technology tie in with the human relationships in your story?

HUTCHINS: They inform each other. The human relationships affect the way Neill (the narrator) interacts with Dr. Bassett, and his interactions with Dr. Bassett cause him to reflect and act in different ways in his human relationships. For instance, thanks to what he learns talking to Dr. Bassett, Neill comes to a much deeper understanding of his mother’s confusion.

AUTHORLINK: Do you have working theory of love?

HUTCHINS: I throw the kitchen sink at the question. There is no single theory that quite gets us there, but the old-fashioned divine theories seem to be holding up the best so far. Evolutionary psychology is winning the Ignoble Award.

AUTHORLINK: What were your best and worst experiences in trying to get published? How did you feel when the book sold?

HUTCHINS: I wrote in isolation for some years, and then started showing the book to friends to see if it was at all workable. Then the agent and editor stuff was all fairly smooth, if nerve-wracking. I do believe the real worry has to be on the first part—the writing—and less of the publishing, over which we poor writers have much less control.

But I felt shocked and thrilled when the book sold.

AUTHORLINK: What advice do you have for would-be novelists?

HUTCHINS: Writing a novel takes a long time. Perseverance is key. So is the ability to listen coolly to criticism. You are the servant of the work. Do everything you can to make it better.

Hutchins is a Truman Capote Fellow in the Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford University. He has published in The Rumpus, The New York Times, Esquire and more. One of latest projects was a San Francisco noir Twitter story.

Diane Slocum has been a newspaper reporter and editor and authored an historical book. As a freelance writer, she contributes regularly to magazines and newspapers. She writes features on authors and a column for writers and readers in Lifestyle magazine. She is assigned to write interviews of first-time novelists and bestselling authors for Authorlink.