As Stephen Fry wrote, The Consciousness Company by M.N. Rosen addresses the “enormous ethical, metaphysical and existential waves threatening to engulf us”. It is a novel which speaks to our fears about Artificial Intelligence in a fresh manner. In conversation with Cherwell, the author agreed with the view that it is not dystopian, but ‘pre-dystopian’. The consequences of The Consciousness Company are foreshadowed through a witty blend of irony, style, and a starkly accurate depiction of business procedures, but never fully realised. It feels as though the novel ends on the precipice of dystopian-style havoc.
The Consciousness Company follows two friends who found a company that uses AI to stimulate mindfulness in users. Their programmed ‘Consciousness Company’s Consciousness’ records diaries of (what is defined as) people’s inner consciousness. As the company develops, technology is used to inject algorithmically individuated thoughts into people’s minds and it seems to increasingly blur the lines of individuality and autonomy. As Rosen himself told Cherwell, this novel is a thought-experiment: what if we used AI to create a “Headspace on steroids”? What would this mean for our sense of identity?
Naturally, this concept invites interesting philosophical questions. What is identity, and does AI erode it? Rosen does not use names in the traditional sense – there are merely “the first founder”, “the second founder”, “the first investor”, and the player-style names of each of the company’s users. It also invites a consideration of what consciousness is. There are moments when Rosen shows that consciousness is more than just thoughts – the ‘Consciousness Diaries’ of users do not capture their physical reactions to external stimuli, for example.
Particularly impressive was Rosen’s handling of existential and political zeitgeists. Most notable was the chapter entitled “The Consciousness Diary of The Consciousness Company’s Consciousness” (the concept of being ‘meta’ reaches humorous complexity, here – AI is used to record the programmed consciousness of AI). What is truly distinctive is that, through this, Rosen seems to write a ‘pre-dystopia’ that is aware of itself. The Consciousness Company’s Consciousness is worried about the extent of its own computational power and even suggests to itself that it write a dystopia for the founders. We tend to approach the threat of AI as ‘humans harmed by their own creation’. It is truly subversive to see the creation worry about its own impact in the same way that its creators do.
Rosen’s experience in the finance sector, working with early-stage technology and impact businesses, is evident. Through his insightful dissection of the business sector the existential implications of The Consciousness Company take an extremely disconcerting shape. His chapters entitled “A letter from a thousand scientists” and the final, “The prospectus drafting session” are key to this. In “A letter from a thousand scientists”, the first founder confronts the fact that his creation could have disturbing existential implications: the scientists write: You are causing the extermination of the human race. Something non-genetic has taken over… you are destroying the sacred concept of identity that our world is built on.” This, again, creates the sense that Rosen is writing a pre-dystopia that is aware of its own progress. The same can be said of “The prospectus drafting session”, where the participants of the meeting debate the ethical concerns of The Consciousness Company. Rosen’s decision to write a self-aware ‘pre-dystopia’ suggests that the biggest threat to today’s society is not a lack of awareness, but an over-intellectualising and overly-bureaucratic dealing with the awareness of such threats, which prevents actual meaningful action from occurring.This, to me, speaks to the modern world: the source of this frightening stasis is not the remarkably sinister intentions of those responsible, but banalities such as procedural and legal technicalities.
I would highly recommend The Consciousness Company to anyone who is philosophically-minded and shares concerns about technology’s impact on individuality and freedom of thought. Rosen masterfully approaches these ideas with a balance of humorous irony and existential anxiety, making The Consciousness Company a novel which sends out a warning in a fresh and distinctive manner.
