Code Red: Dark Tales from Tech Paperback - 2024

Some of my readers might glance through this volume and make a few assumptions about the author. Some would look into the details of many stories and think I am an eternal pessimist. Still others might conclude that I am paranoid. A last group might claim I am a crazy conspiracy theorist as I was recently accused by a company manager who was aghast that I didn't want to receive his store's coupons in the mail!

I promise you that I am neither conspiracy theorist, nor paranoid. Certainly I am also not a pessimist...but I would like to warn my readers, and that is the purpose of these stories. While they are fictional (or at least were at the time I wrote them), every story in this book is connected to technology or legal theory currently in progress somewhere in our modern world.

Glancing through the titles, our first story relates to artificial intelligence used in ways that are unsettling, but being used consistently with many studies in progress right now. These technologies are not only common in Asian countries where it originated, but also in the American state of New York where the government is testing this frightening AI application.

Before digging deeper, I wanted to explain the purpose of this book is both to entertain with stories that are close enough to life to be real, but also, as always in my media, I love to learn. I want to teach people to think through the consequences of our technology. It is not that I am a Luddite. I do possess phones and computers...heck, I even use Linux and custom phone ROMs. But often our technology is given to us under marketing fanfare, and not rational thought. We have moved too fast to see if we can do something, we never stopped to ask if we should do it. Before we know it, a new technology enters our world and the first thought is, "How can this be monetized." Before we know it, stalkers see the cool tracking device designed to silently track your backpack and decide to silently track their victim instead. Henry David Thoreau was correct in saying that our improved technology gives us improved means to reach our deteriorating ends.

I agree with his quote because it aligns with my take on human nature. I realize that my audience may disagree, but I believe that human beings are inherently sinful. Our best attempts at using technology to improve our world (and it can improve many aspects of life), can also be commandeered to increase the evils in this world. To that end, these stories are cautionary tales about how our most praised technologies can be used to cause serious harm.

We need to learn to embrace technology, but we also must safeguard ourselves from it's possible harms. Hopefully these tales might impress on my readers more caution about the latest gadget designed to make our lives better. If it gives you enough pause to think through possible consequences, I will have done my job.

To that end, enjoy these stories that hopefully will never come true (though as I write this, an American motor company just patented a technology very similar to what I wrote in Cars Have Eyes).