2054: A Novel-Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis, USN, authors; Brian Nishii, Eunice Wong, Emily Woo Zeller, Vikas Adam, narrators
The United States and China have survived their nuclear war, a war that could have wiped out civilization. Two decades have passed, and the world has rebuilt and moved on with enormous technological advances. Neither country is the super power it once was. The more things have changed, however, the more they have remained the same, with political division and political discord rising even higher. Democrats and Republicans no longer have any power. There are two new major parties, the Dreamers and the Democratic Republicans or Truthers.
Angel Castro had been the Dreamer President. He was in his third term because he never left office. Suddenly, there was a worry that his ambition was out of control. That concern and the race to achieve the Singularity were the latest problems to face the Speaker of the House, Trent Wisecarver. Then, while addressing the public, President Castro fell ill and died. This created many conspiracy theories. He did not have a heart condition, but it appeared that he died of a heart attack. It was determined that President Castro had not died of natural causes. He had been assassinated, but by whom and by what?
Castro’s Vice President, Smith, had been chosen because he was like wallpaper. In the book, he was never even referred to with a first name. He and the position were meaningless. He was impeached shortly after he was sworn into office as the next President, having been falsely accused of having knowledge of Castro’s murder. Before he was forced out of office, however, he had appointed a Vice President from the Democratic Republican Party, creating a unity administration. Senator Nat Shriver, a Truther, was now destined to be named the next President. Representative Trent Wisecarver, the Speaker of the House, had engineered the successful impeachment, but he had hoped that the civil unrest would settle down after the new government was chosen. That was not the case. His ambition was becoming dangerous too.
Major Julia Hunt, an Intelligence Officer and the adopted daughter of Rear Admiral Sarah Hunt, worked for her Godfather, the retired Admiral John “Bunt” Hendrickson. Her military superior, Dozer, had made inappropriate sexual advances toward her and she had knocked him for a loop. Then her Godfather rescued her with a job working for him at the White House. He had been the Chief of Staff to President Castro. Julia had also leaked information on classified gene editing research to Senator Shriver, who had been on the Intelligence Committee, but was now the soon-to-be President. When a sequence of code on gene-editing appeared on a website, Common Sense, it was believed that it, therefore, could only have come from the information she had provided, though others also knew about it. She became the next domino to fall. Hendrickson, her Godfather. was furious. She had compromised the White House. He transferred her back to her work with the Marines, but warned Dozer to keep away from her. Shortly after, the inevitable Civil War, caused by the mounting civil unrest, ensued. Sarah was now a Commanding Officer. She had a big decision to make. Which side should her troops support, the government or the people’s? It seems that many people were either willing to commit treason or to excuse their treasonous behavior, since they believed it was for the greater good. Julia Hunt and Lily Bao were both making those kinds of choices, and both of them had a parent who had done the same and paid dearly for their decisions.
Nat Shriver had been having a secret affair with Lily Bao. James Mohammed, a Nigerian working for the Chinese, knew of this and used the information to try and enlist Lily Bao to help Beijing. The Chinese government wanted her to try and get the gene editing codes that would lead to successful research into the Singularity. Her father had been an unfairly disgraced Admiral who had been accused of treason and put to death. Mohammed offered to resurrect his reputation in exchange for her help. She agreed. James Mohammed had also recruited and hired the scientist BT, Big Texas, Christopher Yamamoto, to work for the Chinese. He was working with butterflies on gene editing. The Chinese wanted to be the first to discover the Singularity because whomever discovered it and controlled it first, would rule the world. If artificial intelligence could be uploaded and merged with a human brain, the country with that power would be the most powerful. The sequence that was leaked to Common Sense was actually BT’s discovery. He had gone off the grid, however, and Lily Bao was asked to find him. The two of them had once been close friends. While BT was “missing”, he met a Japanese woman, Michiko Takagi, who claimed to be impressed by his butterflies. He was able to alter their genes and change their colors at will. She took him deep sea diving, ultimately saved his life, and they fell in love, or so he thought. Was she also contracted to find the Singularity, this time for Japan?
Lily Bao, BT and Takagi, all travel to Brazil to try and find the missing Ray Kurzweil, the scientist who had founded and headed up Neutronics, the leading firm engaged in the genetic editing research that would lead to the development of the Singularity. He was the key to possible success, or so they thought. Financier Sandeep Chowdhury, John Hendrickson’s friend, was also seeking help in Brazil. He and his daughter had traveled there to find a medical treatment that would reverse his heart disease. When it failed, they also set out to find Ray Kurzweil. (Incidentally, he is a real computer scientist who researches artificial intelligence. He hopes to find a cure for aging! Elon Musk has declared that the Singularity is already here and it will destroy humanity because humans will no longer be necessary.) Coincidentally, when Chowdhury was flying into America, Castro was near death, suffering from an external gene-altering event that attacked his heart. Now, Sandeep was hoping to save his own life with the science that took the President’s. He was hoping to alter his genes to heal his heart.
As soon as President Shriver was sworn in, he decided to immediately step down. He appointed Julia’s Godfather as President. It was believed that he could heal the world. Shriver and Lily then married and moved to a remote area. He cleared her of the possible charges of treason. She traveled to China, late in her pregnancy, to visit her father’s grave. Her son Jake was born early. The Chinese authorities reappeared in her life to once again offer to clear her father’s name. In exchange, Beijing wanted Jake to have dual citizenship so he might choose, someday, to work for their interests instead of America’s. It was an offer Lily could not refuse, especially if she wanted to return to America and her husband, with her baby. The potential blackmail brought to mind the current dilemma America’s Supreme Court is facing about birthright citizenship. China has been actively engaged in creating American citizens by helping Chinese citizens to have a child born on American soil. That immediately granted them citizenship, even though they planned to return home. What purpose could that serve them in the future? Mexican women have been engaging in birthright citizenship for years, crossing the border illegally, having their babies in America to help them return someday, or to convince America to let them stay with their child. America also has programs that allow relatives to bring in relatives, called Chain Migration, so the citizenship mill is problematic.
Familiar names come and go in the book to emphasize how the more things have changed, the more they truly have remained the same. The Civil War that developed had aspects of the January 6th rally that went awry. McCain and Oliver North and the Iran Contra scandal are reminiscent of the lies the political parties tell. The media is willing to lie and then if discovered, they are willing to tell a bigger lie. What will the future bring? The next book 2084 will tell us, hopefully! The book is at best thought-provoking, and at worst it is confusing. The number of characters and the number of tangential themes can be mind-boggling at times, even with the taking of notes. What was the holograph of Sarah Hunt’s role in this book, and will her adoptive daughter Julia continue to be part of the security effort? Which characters will appear in the next book in the series? Why were Chowdhury and Ashni included in this one? One has to believe that one of them will probably be prominently featured in the sequel, as will Jake Shriver, the son of Lily and Nat.
At the end, all I wanted to do was read the next book, 2084, to find out what happens next. Who was behind the dreams that people were universally having? Could artificial intelligence plant dreams in our heads? Could it change the direction of the world? Who will be in control, humans or machines? Who actually began the chain of events that started with the death of Castro? Was it Artificial Intelligence or was it inspired by human intelligence? Did AI already gain control of events in this book before it even began? Was the Singularity already here? If so, can it be overcome, or is humanity really doomed to be controlled by AI and machines? Were the forces in charge actually trying to save or destroy the world, and who or what was really in charge?