The Zombie in The Machine

It's the Great Pandemic of 2044. How would you know if it's real? Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes, the Metaverse, Mixed Reality. The technologies of the future are here today, but 20 years from now, they will be so powerful that it will be nearly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, facts from fiction. Lucy and her two daughters will be confronted with not only a strange virus, but with the heavy-handed response of the society-governing Artificial Intelligence known as The Machine. Determining what is real and what is not will become a matter of life and death.

It's the Great Pandemic of 2044. How would you know if it's real? Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes, the Metaverse, Mixed Reality. The technologies of the future are here today, but twenty years from now, they will be so powerful that it will be nearly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, facts from fiction. In a reimagined South Florida, Lucy and her two daughters will be confronted with not only a strange virus, but with the heavy-handed response of the society-governing Artificial Intelligence known as The Machine. Determining what is real and what is not will become a matter of life and death.

Born on Miami Beach in the late 60's and raised in a mixed Cuban-American household, Marco Metz has keenly observed technology's mixed blessings transform multiple generations. After getting his first desktop computer in the 70's and later an engineering degree at M.I.T. in the 80's, Marco was an early adopter of the Internet in the mid-90's, becoming a pioneering website publisher along with his wife. Three decades ago, many stubbornly refused to see the radical changes coming. Through the lens of fiction, Marco wants to peer over the horizon once again with a conversation-starting, deep dive into how the total transformation of media, biology, economics, cities, and families will define the world his children will inherit. He hopes people will listen this time. He currently resides in Southeast Florida with his wife, two daughters, and no shortage of computers.