Cover image of "Artificial Wisdom,"

Recent years have seen an increasing volume of science fiction on environmental themes, and no wonder. Of course, the world has known about global warming for decades. But it’s only in the past decade that the trend has become obvious to millions. And scientists who have dedicated themselves to studying climate change have become more and more strident in warning that the existential threat may soon become irreversible—assuming it’s not already too late. That has led a growing number of writers to set their stories a few decades in the future when catastrophe has begun to unfold. And Thomas R. Weaver grounds his new novel, Artificial Wisdom, on one such scenario. It’s a sadly realistic portrayal of the future our children and our children’s children will live in if we do not now begin to take the drastic steps necessary to arrest the trend to an ever-hotter planet.

Conditions so extreme the world turns to dictatorship

In the scenario Weaver paints, rising heat, and especially increased humidity, have begun to kill millions of people at a time—more than 400 million, in one extreme case. Protracted drought and ever-lower agricultural productivity have led to famine that affects billions in sub-Saharan Africa. And hundreds of millions of climate refugees are gravitating toward the more prosperous nations of the Global North, only to meet closed borders defended by armed soldiers.

Under these extreme conditions, it has become clear that truly drastic steps will need to be taken. But there is no authority, and no force within existing society, willing to or capable of contemplating such extreme measures. And in those circumstances the nations of the world have reached agreement to elect a dictator who can take the necessary steps to address the problem. Then, it’s expected, that they will retire in the fashion of the occasional dictators in the ancient Roman Republic. But what few have consciously thought about is the prospect that one of the candidates for the post of dictator might not be human at all. And one extremely advanced AI has emerged in the final round of voting, facing off with a former President of the United States.

Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver (2024) 362 pages ★★★★☆

Artist’s conception of an artificial island city far smaller than the Floating Cities of the novel. They’re at least two orders of magnitude larger. Image: New Atlas

An investigative journalist holds the balance of power

The protagonist in Weaver’s novel is Marcus Tully, a London-based investigative journalist with 500 million readers and a reputation for unsullied integrity. It’s been years since Zainab, his wife, was one of 400 million killed throughout the Middle East when a blanket of humid air combined with triple-digit heat. But Marcus continues to mourn her. And then he receives an anonymous tip that Lawrence G. Lockwood was personally responsible for the deaths of those 400 million Middle Easterners. Lockwood is that former two-term US President who is now one of two candidates for the dictatorship of the world. And Marcus goes into overdrive, pushing his team into digging out even the most obscure evidence that might support the accusation.

Meanwhile, the campaign for Lockwood’s opponent, the artificial intellect, or artilect, named Solomon is gearing up. Dr. Martha Chandra, Solomon’s designer, heads the operation. She’s the older sister of his brilliant programmer, Livia Chandra. And with that entree Marcus gains an invitation to visit Martha and ultimately Solomon in the Floating States, the island nation Solomon serves as Governor. “The six Floating States were for the wealthy, society’s elite, the smart-smarts like Martha.” There, in the balmy security of the domed island city of New Carthage, Marcus encounters a host of complications and contradictory evidence for the tip he received. Sometimes together with Martha, sometimes in opposition, he undertakes the difficult task of sifting through the evidence—and making a fateful decision that may determine the fate of the human race.

About the author

Thomas R. Weaver. Image: Amazon

According to Google Books (adapting the author’s own words from his website, “Thomas R. Weaver writes stories about tomorrow to help make sense of today. A tech entrepreneur turned author, he holds a degree in Computer Science but never expected to actually use it in his career. After spending years exploring how technology could transform experiences in the places outside of the home and the office, he founded a tech startup in the restaurant hospitality space, which was later acquired . . . leaving him with no more excuses not to pursue a long-held dream: writing fiction.” He admits to having gray hair.

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