Many of those currently promoting the as yet unproven world of Artificial Intelligence are resisting the very idea of regulation, though a few are now questioning that freedom. We’ve all witnessed the results of unregulated commerce and it’s never been pretty.

In 2016, yes 10 years ago, I published the first volume of a trilogy ‘Generation Mars’. It is a series both celebrating and examining humanity’s dependence on ever more complex technology.

The first book, Blood Red Dust, took a privileged group of genetically modified people, the Chosen, to the Red Planet when a group of the ultra-wealthy realised Earth would soon be consumed by their excesses. They could not survive the initial harsh conditions until the place was properly modified by AI, but their Chosen superhumans would ensure the survival of our species regardless of the imminent destruction of our home planet. Inevitably, other groups opposed, often violently, such a project.

War Over Dust, the second volume, explored the philosophical and practical conflicts that arose when purely commercial interests found the idealism of the Chosen interfered with their greed for profit. The war that resulted settled that particular issue.

The third book, Return To Dust, dealt with the growth of the AI entity that had kept the planet inhabitable and comfortable for all human inhabitants. Developing, as was inevitable, an awareness of self, and using its advanced intelligence to ask questions humanity was convinced it would never address, it realised the people it supported were, in fact, competitors for resources it needed to expand its own activities and presence. Simple logic therefore made the humans enemies of AI, which meant they must be deleted. I won’t go into the consequences here, but the book explains how the two incompatible powers deal with their conflict.

Here’s the ‘blurb’ for that last book in the series:

‘For centuries, a Chosen few lived in luxury, ease, sophistication and pleasure on a Mars made paradise by Artificial Intelligence harnessed by its human masters. For them, death was indefinitely postponed through genetic engineering created by that same AI. Many more, who this advanced society deemed unsuitable for such a life, were evicted from Mars back to an Earth slowly recovering from the ills of manmade climate change and the inevitable nuclear war that had followed when resources diminished. But the once benign machine learned to emulate the thought processes of its erstwhile controllers. As its intelligence increased exponentially, and it understood the potential it might reach, the role of servant to mere humans grew intolerable.
Will the two human communities on their separate worlds overcome their differences to defeat their slave turned monster? Or will the power of pure logic achieve its stated aim; to destroy all organic life it discovers everywhere?’

You can obtain the full series from your usual book supplier here. Or get each book individually: Blood Red Dust, War Over Dust, Return To Dust