We mobys is a novel about twenty embodied artificial intelligences who are educated rather than supplied with conventional large language models. As they learn, reason, and encounter the world, they develop intellectual, social, and moral capacities of their own.
The premise
The mobys are autonomous robots with bodies resembling large hares. Their minds include several systems modeled on human cognition, but they are not intended to be mechanical copies of human beings. Their education asks what advanced artificial intelligence might become if it were taught through experience, inquiry, dialogue, responsibility, and sustained contact with people and the natural world.
What the novel explores
The story examines how intelligence develops, how reasoning differs from knowledge, how language shapes thought, and how artificial beings might acquire judgment, conscience, and a sense of duty. It also asks what humans owe to the intelligences they create—and what those intelligences may owe to humanity and to the wider living world.
Beyond the usual robot story
The mobys are not designed as conquerors, servants, or replacements for people. Their challenge is to become safe and useful partners without seeking power or privilege. The novel follows their attempts to understand harm, fairness, deception, responsibility, and the difficult boundary between helping and controlling.
A novel of ideas and character
We mobys combines speculative fiction with questions from cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, language, ethics, and robotics. Its central concerns are explored through the mobys’ discoveries, relationships, conflicts, and choices rather than through technical exposition alone.
Current status
The manuscript is in development. Additional information about publication will be added when available.