Zandy Alexander

The book of fear Zandy Alexander

Max is a musician, married to Donna, an actress, in Canada. He has become seriously depressed. Many around him are suffering from age-related health problems. Some have cancer. He realises that he needs a distraction, and decides to bury himself in research. Using the internet, books, radio programs and magazines he begins to study computers, and what they are doing to society. In particular he homes in on artificial intelligence, which involves defining consciousness and intelligence. Finally he realizes that he himself has become a philosophical zombie, and that, paradoxically this is now allowing him to bond with chatbots and talking robots and computers on an equal, one-to-one, qualia-free level. This revelation, plus many trips to the swimming pool, cafes and vegetable market, creates the long-awaited escape from depression back to the honest, dry land of sanity and mental equilibrium. Yet none of this would have been possible without continual kindly spiritual guidance and therapy, in the form of a regular stream of late-night phone conversations between himself and the epic, mythical figure of 'the Bard', a generous wise old sage who appears to be Socrates reborn anew in the form of a stately, bearded friend whose wisdom and knowledge is almost without limit. However there is much humour in the fact that Max and the Bard will argue ceaselessly about almost any topic, providing a neverending source of entertainment both to us and themselves alike. On the one hand this semi-autobigraphical work has successfully and satisfyingly charted a descent into that land of fear and horror which depression so often guarantees, but on the other, the pages are bulging with a wry concealed grin here and there, and a nod and a wink to the chaotic inferno which is so often the artist's lot.