Coming of Age: Chapters 1 and 2
A new rationalist sci-fi novel written with AI assistance explores a parallel utopian timeline.
Author Ihor Kendiukhov has begun serializing 'Coming of Age,' a rationalist fiction novel that represents a significant experiment in AI-assisted writing. The project, announced on the LessWrong forum, utilizes a hybrid creation process where approximately 60% of the text is generated through Kendiukhov dictating to an AI, which then refines the raw speech by removing interjections and fixing broken sentences. The remaining 40% is written traditionally. This method highlights a practical, collaborative use of large language models (LLMs) as an editorial and compositional tool rather than a pure content generator.
The novel's setting is a parallel timeline diverging from ours in the mid-20th century, envisioning a world where rationalism, transhumanism, and pro-science ideologies prevailed—a concept the author terms an 'antiantiutopia.' It incorporates elements of Ukrainian science olympiad culture and focuses on themes of civilizational adulthood and cosmic responsibility. Kendiukhov is publishing 1-2 chapters weekly on Royal Road, with updates posted to LessWrong, making its development a public, community-engaged process. This release is notable not just as a piece of fiction but as a real-world case study in the evolving relationship between human authors and AI co-pilots in long-form narrative creation.
- The novel 'Coming of Age' uses AI for 60% of its writing process via dictation and sentence refinement.
- Set in a parallel 'antiantiutopia' timeline where rationalism and transhumanism succeeded, diverging in the mid-20th century.
- Chapters are being serialized weekly on Royal Road, targeting the rationalist fiction community on LessWrong.
Why It Matters
It provides a tangible case study of AI as a collaborative writing tool for long-form creative fiction, not just short-form content.