Book Review: Immortality Bytes

Reviewed by Peter Hassebroek

A surprising speculative thriller about an artificial intelligence innovation promising digital immortality

Artificial intelligence (AI), robot security guards, self-driving cars, and other functional innovations in their infancy today have become ubiquitous in a Near Future year (aka 20NF). They’ve reduced employment to about sixty percent, most of those part time. The other roughly unemployed forty percent rely on Universal Basic Income, which is calibrated to a concept called The Living Year. It’s enough to eke out a comfortable existence for these Subtirees, a denigrated social class. 

Then there’s Stu Reigns, a freelance AI programmer / entrepreneur living in the San Diego area. He has projects for which he hopes to gain funding from Gwendolyn Graham, a wealthy old-fashioned southern belle ready to invest. 

However, Gwendolyn’s more interested in Roxy Zhang’s offering, Vekhuman. Roxy is Stu’s ex-girlfriend. She’s developed a digital product enabling immortality by infinitely preserving its users’ wills, albeit in a non-somatic, non-corporeal sense. Which raises obvious moral and philosophical concerns, as well as marketing ones:

“Was the absence of pleasure a definition of pain? And vice versa? If so, what’s the lack of both? How could a purely sentient being, even given a human brain’s entire memory of a fully lived life, continue to “feel” if their brand-new existence was devoid of all new feelings?”

Gwendolyn and Roxy must contend with dying billionaire and indicted public bad guy, Chuck Rosti, as well as Pyotr, a ruthless Russian mobster. Each wants first dibs on Vekhuman and, like Gwendolyn, their interests are not limited to commercial gain. Each party is willing to do just about anything to gain control of an innovation that is like a MacGuffin, except with a distinct functional value.

Stu becomes involved in the Vekhuman tugs-of-war when Chuck Rosti recruits him to become a mole in Roxy’s organization. Their past connection gets him the job, but it becomes awkward when old feelings between the former couple surface. Stu’s current girlfriend, Maria, a social justice warrior whose current cause happens to be anti-immortality, isn’t happy about it. Then she becomes entangled in the intrigues when Pyotr takes on her loan shark debts.

The multi-tiered conflicts and betrayals blossom into a thrilling story that delivers on its promise of un-guessable twists. This is enhanced by a writing style that’s screenplay-like with its omniscient, conversational narrator who uses many present-day cultural references as metaphors to describe action.

Aside from the main narrative, the book encompasses “bonus material,” a series of topical excerpts, articles, and essays of background information, presented after the main narrative ends like an appendix.

In a way it’s like riding a limited access highway with optional exits or detours “for those feeling nerdy” and wishing to go beyond the brief, inline Too Long; Didn’t Read descriptions. For instance, to learn how the universality of SocialMui (Social Media User Interface) came about:

“TL;DR — SocialMui gave users total control of their feeds. They could layout and prioritize whichever posts they wanted according to keywords and favorite sources. Social media companies could no longer optimize user engagement by maximizing outrage.”

The fuller description is far more extensive, as are others that cover sociological, political, and technological areas, including the aforementioned Subtirees and Living Year. Other pieces explore individual characters and their experiences or beliefs. As with the current story, they are satirical but nevertheless provide depth to the main narrative.

The opportunities for digression end after about two-thirds when, to extend the earlier metaphor, it’s all express, the speed limit soars, and the speculative aspects yield to pure thriller. It’s a sustained series of unexpected turns of events, startling surprises, and humor, as each party goes for broke.

Immortality Bytes is a fun, fast-paced novel with a satirical perspective projecting a credible future.

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