Steel Beach

Varley, John. Steel Beach. New York: Putnam's, 1992. "An Ace/Putnam Book."

Perhaps most usefully viewed as a sequel to R. A. Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, in dialog with Heinlein's political and social philosophy and with a number of other works dealing with human identity and immortality, AI, computer takeover, containment within computers, and computer insanity—from Kubrick and Clark's 2001 to W. Gibson's Neuromancer series. Central to SB's story is the interface between the humans on Luna and the Luna Central Computer: a computer that is intelligent, conscious, self-aware, volitional, godlike in power, developing a subconscious, feelings, and emotions, and going crazy enough to have a deadly "evil twin" for part of its personality (457-64 and passim). Rev. Arthur O. Lewis. SFRA Review #201 (Nov. 1992): 60-61.

Discussed by Gregory Benford "Verne to Varley: Hard SF Evolves," which see. There is also a useful Wikipedia entry, here.[1]

RDE, 09/02/93, 27/02/93; finishing 9Jan22