The Adolescence of P-1

Ryan, Thomas. The Adolescence of P-1. 1977. New York: Baen, 1985. Dist. Pocket Books.

The late adolescence, early adulthood, and death of Gregory Burgess, who creates and sees through adolescence and apparent death P-l, a computer program with the ability to learn and become an AI and then a person. Computer take-over motif where we sympathize with the computer program doing at least a partial take-over. Caution: the backcover blurb on the 1985 edn. is misleading.

From "Out of This World: Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy," an annotated reading list from the National Library of Canada: "In this carefully constructed story about artificial intelligence [AI], a hack job by a young man seeking money, high grades[,] and women takes an ominous turn when the hacker's computer program refuses to be shut down and begins to take over" (p. 21).

Caution: "Out of This World" incorrectly assigns the work to Phyllis Gotlieb. 

Novel discussed usefully in the Wikipedia entry, linked here.[1]

RDE, Title, 10Aug19; augmented 5Jan22