After being detained at the border of the New Canadian Protectorate, university counsellor Slaton meets an AI, Julian, who works interviewing detainees at the Canadian/American border. As a plague ravages the planet, they encounter a strange bubble of super-rich elite, whose ploy for immortality will spell danger for them all.
In a near future ravaged by illness, one woman and her AI companion enter a dangerous bubble of the superrich.
It's 2035: a fledging synthetic consciousness "wakes up" in a lab. Jenny, the lead developer, determined to nurture this synthetic being like a child, trains it to work with people at the border of the American Protectorate of Canada. She names it Julian.
Two years later, Slaton, a therapist at a university, is framed by a student for arranging an illegal abortion. She follows the student to America and is detained at the border, where she meets Julian in virtual space. After a week of interviewing, he decides to stay with her, learning about the world, the human condition, and what it means to fall in love. Meanwhile, a mysterious plague is spreading across the world. Only the far-seeing and well-connected Julian can protect Slaton from the impending societal collapse.
Autonomy is an ambitious philosophical novel about the possibilities for love in a world in which human bodies are either threatened or irrelevant.
A RARE MACHINES BOOK
