I have to get the details right.I'm David Matuszek, known to my students as "Dr. Dave."I got my PhD in computer science from The University of Texas in 1978. I've taught there, at the University of Tennessee, at Villanova University, and most recently at the University of Pennsylvania. At UPenn I was the director of the MCIT (Masters in Computer and Information Technology) program from 2000 to 2017.Maybe that's irrelevant to being a science fiction author. On the other hand, I've been involved in Artificial Intelligence for several decades, so I think my opinion is as good as anyone's as to what AIs will be like in, say, another hundred years.

I think an AI like Hypatia is perfectly plausible.I've always thought of myself as a scientist. However, I ended up in computer "science," which (in my not so humble opinion) is a technology, not a science. That's not to put computer science down; it's a wonderful and fascinating field. It just isn't based on the scientific method.My first novel was Ice Jockey, about a couple fighting for survival against criminals in the remoteness of space. While writing it, I came to think of weightlessness as an additional character; it informs everything that Bob and Holly can do.All True Value is much more philosophical.

It's one thing to imagine a different kind of society, but quite another to figure out what would have made it come about. I'm currently working on a sequel, A Prophet in Paradise, which will pit our colonists (and natives) against a second group of colonists with rather different views and values.In order to support my fiction-writing habit, I'm also writing a series of "quick start" books on various computer science topics.I hope you enjoyed All True Value, and I hope to see you again in the sequel.