Aryan Poonacha

The creation of true AI and the singularity in computer science.

That would be Tom Lehrer, a mathematician and satirical songwriter famous in the 50s and 60s. His personality is so simple but likeable: “from adolescence to senility, bypassing maturity,” as he puts it himself. His talent at the unduly combination of musical mockery and mathematics is unequivocal, and never fails to provoke laughter.

That would be Lisbeth Salander from Larsson’s Millenium series. She is by far the most complex character I have ever read about, and the reader feels a wide range of emotions for her throughout the series.

That would be Bertrand Zobrist, an eccentric rich geneticist in Dan Brown’s Inferno, as no other villain has had me in such a moral dilemma as to whether his actions are justified. He solves one of the world’s largest problems, but deprives many of a fundamental right, yet he also hurts not a soul in doing so. Another complex character I have mulled over often.

Dan Brown would top the list; close behind would be SteigLarrson. They both have mastered the art of the perfect thriller novel in my eyes. Isaac Assimov’s works have also been interesting reads. George Orwell’s timeless works to me are a cornucopia of food for thought.

In correlation with my favourite authors, my favourite books are The Da Vinci Code, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Animal Farm. Additionally, I loved The White Tiger by AravindAdiga for its unapologetically blunt depiction of India’s poor village immigrants. My last choice would be the Percy Jackson series, mostly out of nostalgia and the immense joy it gaveto me when I was younger.

The first instance of my fervent love for reading was with the comic Asterix. Suffice it to say re-reading them never gets old, even ten years since I first read them.

Interstellar is by far my favourite movie of all time, and is any futurist’s dreams visualised. I also loved the Minority Report and The Matrix for similar reasons. Wall-E is also on this list as it was the first movie that introduced me to dystopian science fiction, a genre that has influenced to the extent that many of my future books will be categorized under it. Owing to my soft spot for dogs, I also quite liked Hatchiko.

It would be the power to convince. The quality of my articulation is limited to the oratory and the textual; if it was backed up with a superpower, then I would be pleased to end.

For my childhood, I would go to the plain grasslands of mainland Africa, where I may run and play in the sun all day, without a thing to worry about. When I am an adolescent, I would go to the 1700s and experience the French revolution and the Age of Enlightenment first hand. When I am an adult, I would go to China post Mao Zedong’s rule, where I would work for intellectual and industrial growth, not out of any nationalistic motive, but out of a will to progress humanity. And when I am old, I would like nothing better than to go to the future so that I may transfer my consciousness to a computer and live on forever.

It would be to be better at programming, as any improvement in writing programs, owing to the raw logical framework of the skill, would also help me in all my other fields of interest, particularly writing. To me, the two are intrinsically linked.

Isaac Assimov’s Robot Series would be a strong contender, mostly because I admire his foresight.

To me, there has never been a when or where. If I want to write, then I write. Even in the most unlikely of circumstances, if I’m really in the mood, then no force on Earth can bar me from my laptop.

To me, it’s entirely contextual. Whenever my writing feels slow and static, classical music offers an endless well of inspiration and acts an auditory compliment to the visualisation of my ideas. However, if I’m in the zone, then I prefer not sound otherthan the taps of my keyboard.

Quite recently, I’ve been quite drawn to comics. Besides rereading the Asterix comics from my childhood and comic strips in papers, I’ve also been reading a few online.

Never ever, ever, ever, EVER stop writing.