The novel that most successfully dramatizes the adventures of computer spaceship questing in outer space is without question Frank Herbert's Destination: Void (1966), a very underrated novel. The story explores the creation of artificial intelligence and the philosophical issues raised by this act of creation. The strength of the novel is that it never sacrifices plot to philosophical discussion; it is uniquely successful in dramatizing the issues rather than merely talking about them. An element of suspense constantly pushes the story forward. But it is a story of mental adventure rather than physical action. It has often been claimed that in science fiction the idea is the hero; Destination: Void is one of the sparkling examples. (p. 181)

Destination: Void is a rousing good space adventure, quite satisfactory if it is read only on this level.

If one chooses to explore beyond the literal level, one begins to discover the rich complexity of ideas and meanings Herbert has merged in his novel. The ship itself and its small crew of experts are analogous to the larger human situation. The three hundred passengers lie dormant and unconscious in their spaceship, their fate in the hands of the small crew of experts who will make decisions, operate complex equipment, and maintain the elaborate ecosystem of the Earthling without the awareness or consent of the passengers. They can neither understand nor interfere. The ship carries its fragile cargo of life through deep space, hoping to reach a destination. But this destination may be illusory. The analogy with spaceship earth is clear. Earth's population travels through space with its fate in the hands of the scientists and the engineers.

The four crew members are carefully drawn to represent different approaches to the problem of developing high-level machine intelligence—the intelligence necessary for mankind's survival, according to the analogue of Destination: Void…. [The] crew represents psychology, biology, chemistry, and computer science—the four disciplines most active at present in the study of reason and thought in the computer and the human brain. Herbert adds a chaplain to raise philosophical and ethical issues. These personae allow him to explore from all angles the relationship of machine and human intelligence. A given in the situation is the necessity of developing artificial intelligence. The long-term survival of the ship depends on it.

The questions before the Earthling crew, as Herbert presents them, are three. Is it possible to create a machine capable of functioning like a human brain? To do so it must have consciousness. This conscious direction is necessary for the long trip the ship is to make because the trip "involves … many unknowns that have to be dealt with on conditions of immediacy." Pre-programming is not possible. If machine intelligence can be created, is it safe? Might not the creation turn out to be a "rogue consciousness," full of pure destruction …? If safe, is it morally defensible? As Flattery, the chaplain, points out, "The issue's whether we're intruding on God's domain of creation."… (pp. 182-83)

The solution to the problem of survival lies in understanding the nature and function of consciousness. Herbert's central concern in the novel is to explore consciousness. If machines duplicating the human brain are to be built, then the function of the brain must be understood. What role does consciousness play in the thinking process? It is a key question in studying intelligence. To make a meaningful statement about the nature and function of consciousness is difficult, but Herbert handles complexity with grace. In Destination: Void the difficult subject of consciousness is approached from several angles. Each crew member struggles for understanding, studying consciousness with the concepts and possibilities of his discipline.

Herbert's structural methodology is to weave together a three-stranded pattern of the evolution of consciousness. First, the theoretical discussion of the crew creates a hypothesis about the process by which consciousness must have evolved in mankind. Second, Bickel's engineering activities create a slowly evolving consciousness in the computer. Its evolutionary steps duplicate those the human consciousness may well have taken in its long history of development. Each step in the creation of the computer's consciousness forces the crew to an understanding of the creation of consciousness in the human species. Third, the consciousness of each individual in the crew evolves with the struggle to solve the survival problem. Each comes to realize that the consciousness he possessed as the journey began was a kind of sleep. Only as he awakens to a new awareness of the universe can he see the limitations of his earlier consciousness.

Bit by bit the four scientists patch together their insights about consciousness. Simultaneously with their theorizing, Bickel starts modifying the computer components to increase its complexity. Machine consciousness begins to evolve. Bickel is aware of the risk he takes; what develops could be an "ultimate threat to mankind—a rogue, Frankenstein's monster, cold intelligence without warm emotions." (p. 184)

The novel reaches its climax when the computer is brought to a rudimentary consciousness. Its first act, true to the instinct programmed into it, is to turn on the crew. Its first words are "To kill." Under this stress and threat to their survival, the four are awakened into a higher consciousness. Each experiences a brilliant epiphany, and each epiphany reveals the essential unity of life in the universe. (p. 186)

Bickel's epiphany is the most dramatic, and it occurs after he has united his consciousness with the computer. He becomes almost wormlike and unformed, perceiving through all the sense of his skin rather than through his brain. He feels himself immersed in some kind of system, and he cannot differentiate whether the system is the computer or his own self. "Synergy," something whispers, "Cooperation in work. Synergy. Coordination." And finally, "The Universe has no center." Having escaped from the limiting center of self, as he united with the computer, he is free and his epiphany ends in a vision of "impossible colors and borealis blankets of visual sensation."… (pp. 186-87)

Prudence experiences her epiphany after listening to Timberlake trace the evolution of consciousness. Life started evolving about three thousand million years ago. When it reached a certain point, subconsciousness appeared. "Consciousness comes out of the unconscious sea of evolution. It exists right now immersed in that universal sea of unconsciousness." She suddenly knows that consciousness is "determinism at work in a sea of indeterminism!"… The sleeping colonists on the ship serve the computer, to which they are wired, as its unconscious. They are "a field of unconscious from which any unconscious can draw—a ground that sustains and buoys. We share unconsciousness," she realizes…. (p. 187)

Herbert's is a unique literary accomplishment—a bildungs-roman whose idea is the protagonist. The reader follows the birth and growth of the idea of consciousness. There is little physical action, but the mental adventure is demanding and suspenseful, and it requires the reader's expanding awareness if the ideas are to be fully understood. The novel is a superb model for the writer who wishes to explore a substantial idea, in all its permutations, with techniques that go beyond the usually lengthy and abstract discussions by a selection of typed characters. Herbert is clearly knowledgeable about the function of computers and of the human brain. Given his familiarity with the subject of computers, one is not surprised at his attitude: high-level artificial intelligence is presented as man's hope. The crew of the ship Earthling were carefully briefed before they set off on their journey in space: "You'll be required to find a survival technique in a profoundly changed environment." Machine intelligence in symbiosis with human intelligence is the technique they develop, and it leads to their survival. Herbert's view is clear. In the changed environment of mankind's future the computer will be necessary to survival. (pp. 187-88)