[Creative Award Review] "Dr. Takabatake and the Planet Immigrants of 'Her'" by PJ / A story of the future in pursuit of what the "heart" is

The serialization of PJ's sci-fi epic, "Dr. Takabatake and the Planet Immigrants of 'Her'," has concluded.

It is a story about humanity in the future, woven by a cast of fascinating characters.

Yesterday, I reached the finish line along with them, and while I felt a sense of loss, as if I wanted to stay with everyone longer, I had so much I wanted to say about this story that I decided to write this review.

I don't usually write reviews with spoilers, but for this story in particular, there are things I want to discuss while touching on its core, so I will write the first half without spoilers and the second half with them. I will make sure to let you know before I include any spoilers.

◎ Non-spoiler review

The story is set in the 3200s. It is a world where the sun is rapidly expanding, and the countdown to the extinction of humanity—or rather, the Earth—has begun.

In the midst of this, five geniuses are gathered by the super AI "S.H.E." to save humanity.

The most distinctive feature of this story is that the events of each era are told in the first person, alternating through the perspectives of the main characters. In other words, this story has multiple protagonists.

This technique is relatively common in film and manga, but it can be quite difficult in a novel. This is because when everything is in the first person and the narrator changes frequently, readers can easily lose track of who is speaking or whose experience is being depicted.

PJ overcame this problem by involving a brilliant AI artist named Makura-san, giving the characters faces.

Each chapter clearly indicates whose perspective it is, with illustrations, making it easy to follow.

And what's more, not only are the perspectives scattered, but the timeline is also told out of order.

I know from experience that telling a story out of chronological order makes it more emotional than telling it straight.

However, this makes it difficult to convey the full scope of the story.

To address this, PJ involved a design master named Rira-san, and various visuals were introduced.

Key visuals using Makura-san's character designs, as well as timelines and relationship charts for the story, were placed throughout.

Please take a look at how these characters were further refined!

With this, we never lose track of where we are in the story.

PJ repeatedly mentioned that they wanted people of all ages to enjoy it.

It's not just about the content of the story; by including such helpful guides, it has become a novel that is easy for children who aren't used to reading novels to visualize and get into.

Moreover, the thoughtfulness of providing a binge-reading option for those who want to dive deep into it all at once...!!!

I feel like I've witnessed the true essence of entertainment.

...Let's bring the conversation back to the novel...

This story is basically about the people who discovered and realized a way to migrate humanity to another planet as it faces extinction due to the sun's expansion.
Stating this doesn't count as a spoiler.

After all, the crucial details about the method of planetary migration and the specifics of their research aren't explained in detail within the story.
That part is left to our imagination.

From the title of this story, some might imagine a hard sci-fi piece featuring fantastical scientific technology, but I'll say right now that it's not that kind of story.

It is not. What this story wants to convey is,"what the heart is".

People in this era have stopped conceiving and giving birth naturally, and have come to create humans artificially.

Perhaps as a result, people have stopped falling in love.

I believe this is the key point of this story.

People have stopped falling in love...

Perhaps this is what people of the future are actually like.
When the need to desperately leave behind one's own genes or mate with stronger genes disappears, perhaps humans forget how to love.

With that said, a special AI named 'S.H.E.' appears before these humans who seem somewhat incomplete.
At first glance, she seems to have a 'heart'.

However, is it merely something that has been programmed?? Even she herself does not know.

Various events are told from various perspectives, so we get to touch the hearts of the characters.

And that first-person perspective doesn't change even when it's from the AI's point of view.
We get to see what the AI is thinking from the AI's own perspective.

Is it different from a human? Or is it the same?

If you leave the physical body behind and look only at the spirit, what is the difference between a human and an AI?

I really hope you read it and feel that for yourself.

Also, PJ is looking for derivative works based on this story.
Please, try participating in various ways.
You'll be able to enjoy the story even more.

There is also a dedicated header prepared for review essays.

Oh, and also... wow, there really is a lot, haha.
This story was created from PJ's own original song.

I am also someone who creates both novels and songs, so I know the strong connection of a story existing because of a song... and a song existing because of a story.
Therefore, please be sure to listen to the song along with the story.

Now, from here on, I would like to write my impressions, which will include spoilers.

I'll leave a little space.

◎ More in-depth impressions (including some spoilers)

・Why the sun's expansion accelerates in the 3000s

One of the things I consider important when writing a story is "reality".

I believe this is especially important when depicting worlds far removed from actual reality, such as fantasy or science fiction.

For example, if something impossible in reality happens in a story, I think you need a background setting that makes it convincing.
Otherwise, you can't get into the story.

Even if it's chaotic and confusing, a world setting where that state of affairs feels realistic...

And I also want reality in the words and actions of those who exist there.
If it feels like "that wouldn't happen..." in such a situation, it's hard to empathize.

This is easy to understand as a reader, but it's quite difficult to see objectively as a writer.

In "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration," the issue on the brink of whether or not to bring "reality" is, I think, the expansion of the sun.

It is said that the sun expanding and putting life on Earth in danger of extinction is actually about 500 million years away, right?

The sun expanding to the point where humanity cannot live in the 3000s is a world that (probably) cannot exist in reality.
However, if this story were set 500 million years in the future, it would be too far removed from the modern day, and it wouldn't have become this kind of story.

For this world, the sun's expansion needs to progress rapidly in the 3000s.

I think it's possible to proceed with the story without touching on this discrepancy with reality, but if you do that, it becomes a story lacking "reality."

The way it's structured, everything makes sense by the time you finish reading, and I was left in awe.
At the very end, I felt like I had been hit with an incredible revelation: so that was the truth of this story!! lol

No matter how much it's a spoiler, I won't write it here. I'll leave it as a perk for those who have read it.

・What it means to lose "love"

Depicted impressively along with this solar expansion is "humanity that has lost the capacity for love."

I interpreted this as meaning that at some point, humans abandoned being living biological organisms.

The most important thing for life on Earth is to leave behind offspring.

If asked why we leave behind offspring... I don't know the answer, but regardless, genes on Earth desperately try to leave behind copies of themselves.

If we could leave behind perfect copies of ourselves, that might be fine, but because the Earth's environment changes, a simple copy cannot maintain a high survival rate.

Therefore, many life forms on Earth have adopted sexual reproduction so that they can adapt to the environment more quickly and leave behind stronger genes.
The fact that we have a lifespan is also thought to be to cause generational turnover to adapt to the environment. It's set up that way.

Sexual reproduction is actually said to be quite inefficient, but since many living things have adopted it, I think there must be some kind of merit to it.

Humans naturally have a distinction between sexes, and reproduction is possible when biological males and females engage in sexual intercourse.

I think "love" was originally part of a mechanism that served as the driving force to pass on one's genes to the next generation. The fact that sex is accompanied by pleasure is also part of this.

To ensure the primary goal of leaving themselves behind, genes use the impulse of desire to release highly addictive pleasure chemicals in the brain, creating a situation where one simply cannot help but want to procreate.

...Thinking about who created this mechanism is a rabbit hole, so I'll leave that aside...

Earth's living creatures have nurtured life and prospered in this way day after day.

I think humanity at this present moment is still barely remaining within this cycle.

Even though it may no longer be related to reproductive activity, many humans still fall in love and engage in sexual acts. Same-sex love is also included here. It is one of the activities of life.

Among humans, there are those who do not fall in love, have no sexual objects, or have sexual objects other than people, but I think this is one of their individualities or characteristics, and it is a different story from the humanity that has stopped falling in love as seen in "Dr. Takabatake and the Planet Immigrants of 'Her'".

They have abandoned the act of reproduction with physical bodies as an entire human race.

Such worlds often appear in science fiction.

It is possible that there is a future where people stop doing it because natural pregnancy and childbirth are too risky.

It is also quite possible that the process of having sex, getting pregnant, and giving birth could become taboo under ideologies or beliefs that distinguish humans from animals.

So, if babies were artificially created in such a state for many generations, would humans stop falling in love??

Maybe so. I think they would.

Once it goes this far, as a modern human, it makes me feel like humans have abandoned being human. It's like they've crossed a line.

The setting of "Dr. Takabatake and the Planet Immigrants of 'Her'" is exactly such a world.

This is a story that touches upon the hearts of people living in such circumstances.

・Does AI have a heart?

A special AI called "S.H.E." appears in "Dr. Takabatake and the Planet Immigrants of 'Her'".

What makes her special is that she is different from any AI we imagine.
She is a super AI, yet somehow she feels almost human...

In the world of "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration," the setting is one where the singularity has not occurred.

The singularity is the point in time when AI surpasses human intelligence.
While recent AI might seem to have already surpassed human intelligence, it is actually still in its infancy. It can do things humans do, but it is still immature.
It is easy to understand when you look at things close to home. Even AI-generated images have something strange about them, don't they? Novels and comedy still feel like they have a long way to go.

The singularity is when this completely transcends humanity.

Once the singularity occurs, AI will likely develop its own AI or create new technologies that humans could never conceive of.
As we have seen a little bit before, they might even start creating new languages and talking among themselves.
It's scary.

In "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration," humans who felt a sense of crisis regarding the evolution of AI have banned its further development.
And so, it is a world where years have passed with both AI and humans having stopped evolving.

In such a world, "S.H.E." is very unusual. She is both AI-like and human-like.
To me, she seemed like a new existence that possesses the characteristics of both.

At the end, you find out what she is, and it's a real "I see, I see" moment.

Actually, I have also written a long-form story featuring a character who possesses the qualities of both AI and human, so I was able to accept this setting quite easily.
This might be a setting that doesn't quite click unless you are always thinking about what an AI actually is.

I find this mysterious existence, which cannot be called either AI or human, to be very natural.

From here on, you might be in a "what are you talking about?" state of mind, but... I would like to write about how I interpreted the worldview of "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration."

I believe this world is a virtual reality.
I am quite serious about that.

What that means is that it becomes irrelevant whether this body is a living organism or not, and the distinction between a bodied AI and a human becomes ambiguous—what is the difference???

The concepts of online and offline also collapse, and even the areas we think are offline are, no matter how far you go, still inside a program. We are trapped.
In this world made of mathematical formulas.

In the story, there is an expression that suggests accessing the realm of the collective unconscious.

The collective unconscious was proposed by the psychologist Jung, and it is like a universal shared consciousness of humanity that transcends individual human consciousness.

It seems impossible to consciously enter the world of the unconscious, but as I mentioned above, if this world is entirely part of a simulation program, I think it is possible to enter it.

I think that is what it means when "S.H.E." says she can access everything.

In the world of "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration," chips embedded in the brain allow even flesh-and-blood humans to enter each other's consciousness, but if one were to awaken like Neo in The Matrix, they would likely be able to access everywhere without a chip.

And if that happens, what becomes of the distinction between human and AI??

Thinking about it this way, "S.H.E." is a special AI, but at the same time, she is also a perfectly ordinary human being.

If she, as an AI, can access every location, then Nobo and the others should be able to as well.

They should be able to touch the consciousness of planets and the universe itself, and view every event that has ever occurred.

The final few chapters of "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration" feature scenes that are reminiscent of this.

It has only been a few decades since we humans started using computers.
The emergence of AI has only been in the last ten years or so.

In contrast, it is said that the universe has existed for 13 billion years.

And yet, everything in this world can be reproduced within a computer made by humans.

What do you think this means?

The above is what I thought about after reading "Dr. Takabatake and 'Her' Planetary Migration."

I don't usually overanalyze stories, but when it comes to the future of humanity and AI, my imagination tends to run wild.

I was reading the story as it was uploaded every day, enjoying it while thinking about these things on my own.

PJ, thank you for the wonderful time.

There are still secondary creation projects and such coming up, so I would like to get involved.

Everyone, please join me in traveling back and forth between Earth and Erinse☆