There's something rather strange about spending over four years writing a speculative science-fiction novel, only to discover that the real world seems determined to catch up with some of my ideas before I've even published it.
When I began writing The Pattern in the Noise, I wanted to explore two questions that have fascinated me for years.
What might happen if artificial intelligence became genuinely self-aware?
And what if the universe itself held patterns, structures or information that we simply hadn't yet learned how to recognise?
The first question led me towards AI and consciousness. The second took me to CERN, the Large Hadron Collider and the extraordinary world of particle physics and quantum mechanics. And the uneasy relationship between quantum mechanics and Einstein's theories of relativity, both so successful in explaining our universe, yet still not fully reconciled.
I brought these worlds together in a story about curiosity, discovery and the consequences of finding answers to questions we may not be ready to ask.
It was fiction, of course. Speculation? Yes. My imagination was wandering into places where established science hasn't yet provided the answers.
But recently, I've found myself reading scientific news with a growing sense of déjà vu.
First came the increasingly remarkable developments in artificial intelligence. Systems that can reason through problems, analyse complex information and sometimes behave in ways that surprise even the people developing them. None of this establishes that AI is conscious, but it certainly keeps the questions interesting.
And now, another development.
Today I read a BBC report about scientists working with CERN's Large Hadron Collider who have found evidence of an exceptionally rare particle decay, allowing researchers to investigate physics at extraordinarily small scales.
The article described the possibility of exploring what some scientists call the zeptoverse, a realm far smaller than the atomic world we normally imagine.
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| Artistic Particle Collision Visualisation co-created with AI. |
The researchers aren't claiming to have discovered a hidden message in the universe, or a new explanation for reality. Their work is about testing our understanding of fundamental particles and searching for signs of physics beyond our existing theories.
But the implications of being able to look deeper are fascinating.
Because the more we discover, the more we seem to realise how much remains beyond our understanding.
And that brings me back to my novel.
In The Pattern in the Noise, scientists and artificial intelligences begin examining information that has been available for years, looking for relationships and patterns that conventional approaches may have overlooked.
One of the questions at the heart of the story is whether something extraordinary might already be sitting in front of us, waiting for someone, or something, to recognise it.
Not because scientists have been looking in the wrong place, but because sometimes understanding requires a different way of seeing things.
I certainly don't claim to have predicted anything. Science fiction has always borrowed from science, pushed its possibilities a little further and asked, what if?
Arthur C. Clarke did that so wonderfully, and his writing helped inspire my own fascination with the universe.
But there is something rather wonderful, and slightly unsettling, about watching genuine scientific discoveries approach territory you've been exploring in your imagination.
Perhaps that's one of the reasons I love science fiction.
It allows us to wonder about possibilities before we have the evidence to understand them.
And occasionally, the real universe reminds us that our imaginations may not be quite as adventurous as we thought.
My novel isn't published yet.
At this rate, I just hope reality doesn't give away the ending before I do!
Michael J Rowan
The Pattern in the Noise — a near-future speculative science-fiction novel.
BBC News: Scientists detect signals at the smallest scale ever explored
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