Prey

Jack and Julia's three children—Nicole, Eric, and Amanda—offer Crichton a way to explore issues of ethics and politics in the domestic sphere. At the opening of the novel, the children are immediately presented as a source of tension between Jack and Julia. They each find themselves possessive of the kids, as well as of the domain of the house, with conflicting ideas of parenting, including when to reward or discipline and what constitutes inappropriate behavior.

This mirrors their conflicting approach to scientific research—while Jack is methodical, patient, and responsible and deliberately cultivates a calm and trusting atmosphere, Julia is impatient and makes short-term calculations based on her immediate reactions. She fights with Nicole over bedtimes instead of strategizing to create a structured routine and strikes the baby when she won’t hold still. Her behavior at home mirrors her unwillingness to adopt a long-term perspective with her work, illustrated in her ill-advised decision to treat the swarm like a pet despite knowing its capacity to quickly evolve.

The children also represent the next tier in human evolution; as Jack notes, “Kids are more advanced these days. The teenage years now start at eleven” (35). Jack views them as a symbol of the next generation, which allows him to act in service of future generations and envision the path of humanity’s evolution.

PREDPREY is the algorithm that Jack wrote while working on agent-based programs at MediaTronics. It is “a goal-seeking program based on predator/prey dynamics. But it was extremely simple in its structure” (83). PREDPREY represents the relationship between predators and their prey and allows Crichton to explore a dynamic in which humans, typically the predator, become prey and must learn to adapt for survival, subjugating their pride.

PREDPREY and the expertise that allowed Jack to build it offer a unique perspective on different species and their survival mechanisms. The swarms are compared to termites without a centralized command, as well as “lionesses chasing a gazelle, so purposeful was their behavior” (148); meanwhile, the humans, typically lone predators, are forced to work in sync, like a flock of starlings or a herd of zebras, to protect themselves. The implication is that working together for a greater good—whether building a termite mound or methodically testing the capabilities of a new technology—is more effective and sustainable than pushing for a scientific breakthrough solely for personal glory.