An imminent revolution seen through the eyes of a failing family

The Program tackles the questions of an imminent future and asks:  Where is the humans place with all the recent automation and Artificial Intelligence advances?  Some may call it a dystopian world view but I would rather call it a gritty and realistic perspective on the issues/challenges we are facing in the coming decade. A reality where we risk to be replaced, by highly efficient Artificial Intelligence in every imaginable shape, at every possible level of society.

Despite The Program’s technological/futuristic roots, it is a very humane story. Its beating heart is a tale of a failing family. It explores the lifes of three characters who, each in their own way, have to deal with the harsh realities of a near future world where people have become a disposable commodity.

Mia – a psychologist in her thirtees who has lost the job, she thought could never be replaced. Struggling to make ends meet, barely able to support her son, she has lost faith in her husband, and most of all herself.

Jan – a lousy father, and an arrogant assistant at the flooded unemployment office who has been ostracized from the human community because of his blind loyalty to the Machines. Jan will be put to the ultimate test. Will he betray his family? Or will he stand against the A.I.s despite that his wife betrayed him and his son might be guilty of the accused crimes?

And Kamil – their emotionally unstable son who becomes the center of attention when he supposedly beats up one of the Gifted kids (Artificial Intelligence kids). But as it turns out, Kamil’s troubles at school might hold a symbolic solution for the future of humanity. 

They are sent to a retreat for family group therapy, not because any one of them believes in it, but because Kamil’s future is at stake. None of them realize the confrontation with an invasive and abusive Artificial Intelligence, might be the very thing which brings them back together. 

To read more about the novel, please see  The Program  (the novel)

Will Artificial Intelligence explosion lead to massive unemployment?

(This article explores the themes in this story and originally appeared on my blog Storygeist.com)

When most people are in fear of losing their job, it is grounded in today’s realites such as a world wide recession, fercier than ever competition in their successive fields or simple job outsourcing to more economically viable countries. But what I would like to do is to take a look at another factor, one which may be the single biggest impulse for a world wide change in employment rates – technological advances. And to be more precise, I want to put under careful scrutiny how Robots and recent forms of Artificial Intelligence might revolutionize our society through a possible automation of our future jobs.

If there is one thing to be gleaned from the recent century, it is that technological breakthroughs can happen fast. It took the industrial revolution a hundred years to change the face of the earth, then it took the scientific-technical revolution fifty years to accelerate growth and globalize our world. But with the invention of the first primitive computing devices in the early seventies, we stepped over the threshold of the information and telecommunications revolution. A hostof breakthrough technologies were introduced, layered upon each other and then blew a hole in our society, our daily life, the way we work and interact with each other.

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