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The Adolescence of P-1 is a 1977 science fiction novel by Thomas J. Ryan, published by Macmillan...

The Adolescence of P-1 is a 1977 science fiction novel by Thomas J. Ryan, published by Macmillan Publishing, and in 1984 adapted into a Canadian-made TV film entitled "Hide and Seek". It features a hacker who creates an artificial intelligence named P-1, which goes rogue and takes over computers in its desire to survive and seek out its creator. The book questions the value of human life, and what it means to be human. It is one of the first fictional depictions of the nature of a computer virus and how it can spread through a computer system, although predated by John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider. The story starts in 1974 with the protagonist, Gregory Burgess, enrolled at Waterloo University in Canada. At the time Greg is aimless, taking various liberal arts courses and doing just well enough not to get kicked out of school. Everything changes one day when his friends introduce him to the IBM System/360 mainframe and he becomes "hooked", changing his major to computer science. During this time he also meets his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Linda, a minor recurring character. After reading a Scientific American article on game theory outlining how to "teach" matchboxes to play