The Mountain in the Sea

An epigraph from Ha’s book recalls how life began in the ocean and notes that she considers humans exiles from the sea.

Ha arrives by drone hexcopter at the Con Dao Forward Research Post. An automated ground vehicle takes her to an abandoned hotel that was converted into the research compound. Ha detects movement in the algae-ridden swimming pool behind the hotel. Altantsetseg, a Mongolian woman, introduces herself as the security guard. She’s at least two meters tall, carries a rifle, and speaks through a stilted, faulty voice translator that misuses scatological and sexual words. Ha finds the disjointed translations amusing and makes do with the glitches in their communication. Altantsetseg leads Ha to her suite, and Ha immediately falls into bed, dreaming of cuttlefish.

An epigraph from Ha’s book describes the cephalopod’s visible nervous system as a floating mind.

Ha has recurring dreams of descending into the ocean and seeing diseased and dying cuttlefish. Awaking in tears, she wonders if the dreams are based in reality from her time researching cuttlefish. Ha speaks with Kamran, her companion and fellow researcher, through her terminal. The terminal’s oculus projects a translucent image of him as if he’s standing in the room. He asks her if she had the dream again. He tells her to let go of the past and not blame herself. Ha disagrees, changing the subject to her arrival on Con Dao. She has yet to meet Dr. Mínervudóttir-Chan, the head of DIANIMA, and expects to meet the Team Lead for a briefing in the morning.

An epigraph from Ha’s book argues that meaning, unlike neurons, isn’t matter.

In the morning, Ha observes Altantsetseg cleaning her rifle and deduces from the shrapnel scars on her face that she’s a war veteran. Ha gives Altantsetseg a macaroon and jokes that she baked them as a gift. Altantsetseg stares at her blankly, and Ha clarifies that she purchased them in a shop. Ha is surprised to learn that the Team Leader is Evrim, purportedly the world’s first and only android with consciousness. Shortly after DIANIMA created Evrim, riots broke out protesting the technology, and the international community banned androids from existence. Evrim is genderless and sexless, and Ha admonishes herself for thinking of Evrim as “he.” She marvels at Evrim’s beauty and extraordinary mind. In her awe, she offers Evrim a macaroon, though she knows Evrim neither eats nor sleeps but can smell, taste, and remember everything. Evrim accepts the cookie with appreciation.

In an epigraph from Dr. Arnkatla Mínervudóttir-Chan’s book, Building Minds, she describes how today’s technology can reconstruct neural networks and create minds.

In the Republic of Astrakhan, the hacker Rustem has been hiding for a year from Russians. The woman in the abglanz shield arrives at the café he frequents to offer him a hacking job. She knows that Rustem was behind the hacking of an autofreighter that killed a Russian ultraoligarch on his yacht and was also linked to the murder of a Qatari businessman whom a maintenance robot pushed out a high-rise window. The woman hands over her terminal, and Rustem studies multiple screens that map a dense, complex AI system. He doesn’t think the system is hackable but agrees to the job for the right price.

An epigraph from Ha’s book contends that science tends to disregard subjective experiences, like the feeling of being in love, as qualia.

Evrim takes Ha on a tour to Van Son Pagoda. Ha finds the solitude and beauty of the scenery spiritually calming. The temple is managed by automonks, automatons with the uploaded neural maps of deceased Tibetan monks. The automonks aren’t conscious, and Evrim finds them repulsive, comparing them to encyclopedias, and considers them evolutionary failures. Evrim assumes that humans must detest monkeys for the same reason, but Ha disagrees. Although DIANIMA owns Con Dao, the Tibetan Buddhist Republic owns the temples and the turtle sanctuary on the archipelago, having purchased the rights in perpetuity from the Vietnamese.

Evrim, who has been on Con Dao for six months, considers the role as Team Lead a test of abilities. Evrim admits to needing Ha’s help, and she’s impressed with Evrim’s humility. In Evrim’s smile, Ha sees why the world feels threatened by the android. Evrim calls into question what it means to be human and to have free will. The chapter ends with a flashback of Dr. Mínervudóttir-Chan telling reporters that she made Evrim, for better or worse, because she could.

An epigraph from Dr. Mínervudóttir-Chan’s book argues that memories are tangible as electrochemical pulses. Minds are as physical as “a brick wall” (47).

Eiko, a Japanese man, has been abducted and enslaved on a fish-processing ship, the Sea Wolf. An AI system captains the ship behind a steel door and opaque glass, and eight human guards serve on patrol. The vessel once used robots to trawl and process the fish, but enslaved humans are more cost-efficient. Eiko studies the guards, storing each detail in his “memory palace,” a metaphorical building in his mind in the form of the Minaguchi-ya, or a Japanese inn. In its rooms, Eiko stores the memory of Thomas (a fellow prisoner who died at sea), the guards’ names, and the ship’s layout.

An epigraph from Ha’s book hypothesizes how octopuses may evolve to become a social species with a culture.

Ha’s role on the island is to confirm whether cephalopods can communicate. She finds the dissection tables at the lab distasteful and tells Evrim that her book, How Oceans Think, was an exercise in speculation, not hard science. She thinks severe environmental stress could compel octopuses to evolve and develop consciousness and culture. The creatures would need a lifespan longer than their typical two years and the ability to pass on knowledge to their offspring, feel kinship and a connection to place, become social, and most importantly, develop language. She’s skeptical that octopuses have reached this stage and isn’t surprised by the rumors of strange occurrences on Con Dao. Locals think ghosts of dead prisoners haunt the island. Atlantsetseg interrupts their meeting, demanding that Evrim “surrender” (59) the macaroon since robots don’t eat. Evrim refuses, retorting that it enjoys looking at the cookie. Evrim tells Ha that Atlantsetseg has a working translator in her room but intentionally uses the faulty one to keep people at a distance.

An epigraph from Ha’s book argues that humans see the world in rigid binaries and hierarchies.

On the Sea Wolf, Eiko recalls the day of his abduction. He moved from Japan to HCMATZ to find work as a programmer for DIANIMA. At a brothel, he was drugged and kidnapped. Enslaved on the Sea Wolf, Eiko feels his imprisonment is punishment for his disregard for others, regretting his indifference to the likelihood that sex traffickers were exploiting girls he was with. After seeing fellow prisoner Thomas fall overboard to his death, Eiko vowed to remember names and people, ceasing his apathy. Eiko meets a fellow captive named Son (Lawrence’s dive-shop assistant). Son considers Con Dao his home and believes the archipelago and its wildlife are safe from harm under DIANIMA’s ownership. He jokes that even the Con Dao Sea Monster living in the shipwreck is safe.

An epigraph from Ha’s book argues that the use of symbols in communication is unique to humans.

Evrim shows Ha video footage of a large octopus producing an unusual “passing cloud” display. Unlike typical displays, in which shadow-like shapes pulse across the skin, the pulses pause at the octopus’s head, and Ha discerns a sequence of Rorschach-like shapes. She deduces that the octopus is trying to communicate. The animal repetitively displays a horizontal crescent shape with its endpoints facing upward. From its center, a shape like the head of an arrow points down. The novel includes an illustration of this (and all subsequent octopus symbols).

Illegal fishing vessels breach the island’s boundaries to trawl in protected waters. Evrim thinks the vessels are automated, and Altantsetseg launches an attack, using drones that she controls with her body in a “fluid control system” (82). Submerging herself naked in a tank of green liquid, she uses the articulations in each part of her body to operate the drones, destroying the vessels. She’s one of only three skilled operators of the tank in the world. Ha notices that battle scars cover Altantsetseg’s body.

Ha asks if Evrim is a supercomputer, and Evrim responds that it isn’t designed to process data but to think and feel as a human. Evrim considers itself conscious, but the scientific community is unsure. Evrim admits that it feels “alien,” and Ha realizes how uniquely alone Evrim must feel. Ha compares the fleeting expression of vulnerability on Evrim’s face to a passing cloud. Altantsetseg completes her attacks and sends out clean-up drones. Evrim comments that Altantsetseg stole the macaroon from its room and that the two are getting on each other’s nerves.

An epigraph from Ha’s book, Dr. Nguyen contends that deciphering the abstract symbols of another species requires understanding their world.

The following morning, Ha walks to the Ben Dam port. She recalls her first visit to Con Dao, when she was 16, on an orphanage field trip. The island evokes a profound loneliness in her, and she recalls the crushing memory of a boy she liked who never returned her attention. She regards the insecure girl she was back then as “an inferior version” (91) of who she is today, much like Evrim’s opinion of the automonks. At the port, Ha sees signs among the debris of the violence and chaos that must have occurred during the evacuation. She vows to make a difference for Con Dao’s people.

Ha sees Evrim sitting on the beach and discovers dismembered bodies in a fly-infested heap. Evrim stares blankly past Ha and recites a line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Evrim explains that the ships weren’t automated but carried a crew of enslaved people. Ha follows Evrim to bury the dead, and Evrim pauses to comprehend Ha’s use of the word “murdered” to describe how the men died.

An epigraph from Ha’s book contends that communication entails knowing how one sees the world and how others perceives one.

On the Sea Wolf, Eiko learns that Son is a native of Con Dao and a former poacher turned environmentalist. Son tells Eiko tales about the Con Dao Sea Monster and about poachers who mysteriously drowned or were stabbed by their own spears. The locals feared the ghosts of dead prisoners, but Son believes nature was fighting back. Son suspects DIANIMA purchased the archipelago not to protect it but to study the Sea Monster to enhance their AI research. Son didn’t want to leave Con Dao but had few prospects to make money that didn’t involve poaching, so he took DIANIMA’s offer. While looking for diving jobs in Vung Tau, he was drugged in a bar, abducted, and sold onto the Sea Wolf.