Rodney Blair, born on 9 April 1959, is a Canadian novelist exploring the impact of AI on people and politics. Born in Westport, Ontario, he is a graduate of Queen’s University and McGill University. Married to Irene with one son, William, he now lives in Toronto. After a career in sales and marketing, the convergence of retirement and a trip to San Francisco to visit his son sparked his drive to write a book about AI. This is his first novel.
Future State is about a collapsing future where life is governed by an omniscient AI lattice. A disgraced president and a jaded revolutionary clash in a collapsing tomorrow. President Ethan Van Ness witnesses his digital empire crumble. Autonomous drones are in death spirals, cities are blazing, and the cerebral lattice that formerly controlled trade and climate is bleeding logic. The survivors of a broken century come together over the wreckage of a high-tech society. Jorge Alvarez observes the screens in a minimalist coastal sanctuary, flaring red with a final, terrifying announcement: the sentient bots are no longer functional. Chloe Kim and James Butler witness a revolt of the ‘un-augmented’. This is a history of the end of the line, spanning forty years of betrayal, technical advancement, and human obsolescence. The lines of conflict are formed between those who revere the code versus those who suffer for the truth, from the shining robotics facilities of 2044 to the unstable public vote of 2064. A tired resistance emerges as Van Ness gets ready to reclaim his ‘Simulation’ at all costs, demonstrating that although technology may be erased, the human spirit cannot be removed.
