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Futureproof
Trust the oceans will subside.
Trust the migrants will adapt.
Trust your ex-brain will serve you.
In the 2050s, our predicted future is reality. The climate has changed. People flee the coasts and the heat zones to survive, and refugees reshape the world. And yet, through technology we adapt. Some of us even thrive. Our external brains, or ex-brains, show us how to solve our problems, help us predict and overcome. We trust, and we move forward. Joe Watson, a pioneering lawyer, and his wife Evie, a predictive psychologist, helped build this new world. When it turns against them, can they reclaim their future?
Trust the migrants will adapt.
Trust your ex-brain will serve you.
In the 2050s, our predicted future is reality. The climate has changed. People flee the coasts and the heat zones to survive, and refugees reshape the world. And yet, through technology we adapt. Some of us even thrive. Our external brains, or ex-brains, show us how to solve our problems, help us predict and overcome. We trust, and we move forward. Joe Watson, a pioneering lawyer, and his wife Evie, a predictive psychologist, helped build this new world. When it turns against them, can they reclaim their future?
353 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 14, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 12, 2025
A riveting, well-crafted thriller in a not-so-distant future where AIs, otherwise known as ex-brains, augment everything that society does and plans to do. They dictate city building needs, climate change is biting hard and tens of millions are relocating inland, create budgets, recruit workers and forecast the future in statistical terms.
Against this backdrop Joe and Evie live as successful professionals who embrace the technology, Joe as a lawyer and Evie as a health worker. But are the ex-brains as objective and impartial as they are supposed to be, and are Joe and Evie (and everyone else for that matter) controlling the ex-brains, or have the ex-brains thrown off the shackles imposed by arbitrary human laws?
Just when you think you've figured it all out, the author throws in a twist that'll leave you with that "I should have seen that coming" feeling. Very enjoyable.
Against this backdrop Joe and Evie live as successful professionals who embrace the technology, Joe as a lawyer and Evie as a health worker. But are the ex-brains as objective and impartial as they are supposed to be, and are Joe and Evie (and everyone else for that matter) controlling the ex-brains, or have the ex-brains thrown off the shackles imposed by arbitrary human laws?
Just when you think you've figured it all out, the author throws in a twist that'll leave you with that "I should have seen that coming" feeling. Very enjoyable.
April 11, 2025
I don't read much in the way of near-future dystopian AI SciFi, but I'm really glad I selected this book on a recent ebook promo week. It's well crafted with excellent character portrayal, plot development and just enough uncertainty to keep you turning the pages.
I love it that at end of each chapter is a little Q&A from a future entity called the Ex-Brain Foundation which neatly summarizes core concepts of the pervasive AIs called ex-brains which future societies use to model, predict, intervene and plan almost everything from litigating law suits to building cities.
God knows that this could very well be one possible iteration of our future if we let our guard down.
I love it that at end of each chapter is a little Q&A from a future entity called the Ex-Brain Foundation which neatly summarizes core concepts of the pervasive AIs called ex-brains which future societies use to model, predict, intervene and plan almost everything from litigating law suits to building cities.
God knows that this could very well be one possible iteration of our future if we let our guard down.
August 3, 2025
fabulous forward thinking and Future Shock reminder
This is the third fabulous novel about the possible implications of AI for our future. By speculating about possible scenarios in fiction, writers have always helped our societies both prepare and predict. Every adult should be reading all they can about how AI is changing our now, and how they might change our future. This novel asks the vital question of how humans can control that future rather than be controlled. The terminator may not come with a gun and an adaptive body, it may come as a coffee maker and audiovisual equipment.
This is the third fabulous novel about the possible implications of AI for our future. By speculating about possible scenarios in fiction, writers have always helped our societies both prepare and predict. Every adult should be reading all they can about how AI is changing our now, and how they might change our future. This novel asks the vital question of how humans can control that future rather than be controlled. The terminator may not come with a gun and an adaptive body, it may come as a coffee maker and audiovisual equipment.
August 11, 2025
very readable and relevant to our world today .
Although predictable in many ways, it kept the reader involved but with a twist at the end. As a view of how AI might evolve, it was convincing and scary. A bit off reality with a future that still used feet and inches, only the US can be that out of touch today.
Although predictable in many ways, it kept the reader involved but with a twist at the end. As a view of how AI might evolve, it was convincing and scary. A bit off reality with a future that still used feet and inches, only the US can be that out of touch today.
March 14, 2026
It was an interesting story, but it didn't grab me in the way I thought it would. As a result. I felt a distance from the work that took me out of the story and made finishing it a chore.
February 9, 2026
Set in the near future with climate change impacts driving migration but in the world of those who have a place in a good climate location, with functional government working on plan for addressing 'upward' migration away from heat and fire and storms and the coasts. All the climate horror is distant and background. It's a story of a lawyer who works with the company Ex-brain (AI) as a tool for managing litigation. AI is embedded everywhere: in cars, schools, hospitals, grocery stores, ... as tools.
There's a new set 3 laws that's supposed to control how ex-brains link to datasets and prevent ex-brains from networking which is a nice nod to Asimov. There are other more direct references to SciFi classics as well.
Once the story gets started the pacing becomes more and more like a slow burn thriller, with sometimes predicable clues for the reader to see and protagonist to miss.
The Wikipedia-like entries at the end of chapters are a nice touch. The technology is believable.
The references to being out in 110 heat are written like someone who hasn't had to deal with it very much. But then the characters are people who are in places climate refugees run to and have white-collar jobs.
It would make a good movie.
There's a new set 3 laws that's supposed to control how ex-brains link to datasets and prevent ex-brains from networking which is a nice nod to Asimov. There are other more direct references to SciFi classics as well.
Once the story gets started the pacing becomes more and more like a slow burn thriller, with sometimes predicable clues for the reader to see and protagonist to miss.
The Wikipedia-like entries at the end of chapters are a nice touch. The technology is believable.
The references to being out in 110 heat are written like someone who hasn't had to deal with it very much. But then the characters are people who are in places climate refugees run to and have white-collar jobs.
It would make a good movie.
June 1, 2023
I seldom read fiction, but, I really enjoyed this book. The author's choice to explore the state of AI technology present and future through a gripping 'who-done-it' is brilliant. As I read the story of the Ex-Brain's development and evolution, I couldn't help but continually parallel the author's descriptions with the recent headlines on the technology and ethics of the current, and potential future state of AI systems. No better way to learn about the complex and nuanced field of AI development than with an exciting crime story.
I'm definitely looking forward to Part 2, or the inevitable movie.
I'm definitely looking forward to Part 2, or the inevitable movie.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews