ear Harry,
I write seeking representation for my completed 80,000-word neuroscience dystopia novel, bigMind, a work of literary science fiction whose world development and sociological ideas do not overshadow plot, character, and pacing. bigMind has elements of magical realism that are ambiguously attributable to psychological technology, a young adult protagonist, and a commentary on white privilege. Think Lucius Shepard and Octavia Butler rewriting Farenheit 451 for the digital age.
In a dark near-future, Isaac is a member of the elite operator class, on the cusp of his Choosing and obsessed with finding autonomy from the AI implanted in him since birth. He can choose to submit himself to the neural machinations of the AI and step into his “privilege,” or he can choose to discover who he really is without it, risking insanity and a life of near-slavery as a member of the underclass, his body remote-controlled for factory labor by the operator class to which he once belonged. But in a world where nearly everyone has fused their brain to the AI, it would seem autonomy is the one thing universally denied.
In his parents’ basement, Isaac finds a book. But writing has been forgotten, replaced by a dream-language that has subsumed and altered all human knowledge. As he presses to understand the book, the AI manipulates his emotions in ways that feel alien, allowing him to differentiate himself from it. And so he keeps pressing, questing out into the world for anything that would help him learn to read and sharpen his sense of self. In exploring the underclass, Isaac is robbed and left unconscious. Hitchhiking back, Isaac meets Sol, a brilliant teenage girl whose mother left to become an operator and whose rage-stricken father is lost to revolutionary struggle. As she teaches Isaac to read in order to learn secrets that could free her mother, they begin to fall in love. But their love is doomed.
I constructed the neuroscience and philosophy of AI that undergird bigMind out of knowledge pillaged from a degree in Cognitive Science and long research. The novel extrapolates upon today’s technologies for reading and writing to the human brain, always with an eye to limitations rather than technological omnipotence. Throughout the book, QR codes link to a soundtrack created by the electronic musician Spearfisher.
The book’s main character is drawn from my variety of personal experiences: a six-month prison stint in federal prison as a result of a protest action to close the School of the Americas, hitchhiking, hallucinogens, forced teenage drug treatments, and struggles in various social movements like Occupy. These life events are tied inextricably to my platform, glassdimly.com, where I blog as a faith-based progressive radical, contributing to HuffPo, Sojourners, ReadWriteWeb, Good Men Project, and Justice Unbound. I sustain myself as a web developer, technical project manager, and grassroots organizer / social entrepreneur.
I am quite impressed by the books you’ve written on publishing and writing. Let me know if this query falls within your tastes, and I’ll send you my
Sincerely,
Jeremy John
317-966-2281
jeremiahmatthewjohn@gmail.com