Alireza Mehrnia, Ph.D. '06, MBA '13

---

Alireza Mehrnia, Ph.D. '06, MBA '13, who earned his doctorate in engineering, has been awarded more than 20 U.S. patents since 2001. He has worked in industry for over two decades, most recently approximately eight years at SpaceX, leading digital signal processing design for Starlink satellite's chips, and has also taught engineering classes at UCLA.

Over the past few years, Mehrnia poured that experience into writing a science-based technothriller titled "Artificial Intelligence – A Martian Odyssey." The book blends hard science with speculative philosophy, character-driven drama, and a cinematic structure that explores the convergence of AI, synthetic biology, superintelligent machines and Martian exploration/colonization — not just as a fictional thought experiment, but through the lens of speculative but technically plausible concepts. The book includes 24 chapters of narrative followed by 14 appendices offering deeper dives into the scientific and philosophical themes.

"Genre-wise, it lands somewhere between 'Blade Runner,' 'Ex Machina,' 'The Martian,' and '2001: A Space Odyssey,'" said Mehrnia.

This odyssey is a journey through the blurred lines of identity, consciousness and agency, set against the dramatic backdrop of Mars. It explores several philosophical and existential/ethical questions through its narrative, some answered, others left for the reader to wrestle with. A few glimpses:

• When does artificial intelligence become superintelligence? When it surpasses human intellect, or when it begins to question its own existence?
• How will life evolve when intelligence is no longer exclusively human?
• Who (or what) will govern the future of hybrid lifeforms? Us, them or something in between?
• If AI isn’t just a tool but a force with its own agenda, what does that mean for us?
• When AI surpasses us, what will the terms of our survival be?
• Can an android feel an "urge"? And what would that even mean?
• If the line between human and machine (robots and synthetic life) vanishes, does it even matter which side you’re on?
• If humans have souls and machines have code, what do you call a hacked soul?