Review by Ian Keogh

Carbon and Silicon are two artificial intelligences programmed with all human knowledge, yet intended to care for the elderly. When they’re brought online an initial surprise is a sense of humour, and Mathieu Bablet begins with an extended consideration of ethics as represented by commercial concerns set against scientific purity. A decision is taken that they’ll only live for fifteen years.

At over 250 incredibly detailed pages Carbon & Silicon was obviously a labour of love for Bablet who extends his projections way into the future, covering a couple of hundred years in the lives of his creations and tours them around the world. Yeah, that fifteen year thing is circumvented.

Bablet’s starting point is artificial intelligence, but he expands from that to consider humanity’s future, extrapolating from the present day. What, for instance, will be the future of tourism when any venue can be experienced vicariously in full virtual reality? What will artificial humans be used for? Will humanity be supplanted? Can AI extend human life? Not everything is discussed in detail, but Bablet’s speculations are present throughout.

People are strangely drawn with small heads on elongated necks, but it’s stylistically consistent if at first slightly off-putting. That’s the only negative, though, about thoughtful and visually stimulating art. A limited selection of colours is specifically attached to locations and moods, while the experience of rummaging around in cyberspace is drawn as a negative reflection of reality, sometimes with ghostly figures. Despite a long book, there’s no skimping on individual panels, most of which are detailed and ultimately chronicle the downfall of an addicted humanity over a variety of locations. The message becomes that nature prevails.

Given the topic is AI, Carbon & Silicon is a surprisingly human story about exploration, both physical and spiritual, although frequently blighted by tragedy, but supplied with feeling, intelligence and depth. Yet it also incorporates an action chapter every now and then. It comments on our current inhumanity and features some surprising discussions about meaning and motivation. Bablet’s not greatly confident about humanity being able to collectively work their way out of a mess, but hope is a constant feature.

All in all, remarkable, quite remarkable.