The Synapse Sequence

Daniel Godfrey

The classic machines versus mankind theme is a familiar setting, as is an authoritarian government which has no connection with the non-working underclass. Bringing home the spicy twist is the genetic engineering of memories, which casts an ominous doubt over all reality perceptions. As the author's end note points up, so much of AI's potential is being realised right now, with unknown consequences for human freedom. You'll be rubbing your chin!

Extract

Anna sat at her desk staring at nothing and thinking about her last encounter with N'Golo. Again, she'd been able to interact directly with him inside his memories. And yet: Tanzania. In that final moment before he'd bumped out, she'd been able to smell the blood and the jet fuel too - and she'd returned to the synapse bench almost choking on it.
It dawned on her that Cody hadn't even acknowledged her arrival that morning. His screen displayed a raft of neuron data, but the detail of what he was actually doing was lost on her. She watched the data points enlarge at his touch, then fade back into the meta.

Parallels