Gradient Of Dreams
by Gautam U. Warrier

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“Anarchy at the culmination isn’t the greatest risk of a revolution—the greatest peril is the frantic compromise at its penultimate step! The thing the disruptor is willing to sacrifice at the palpable altar of glory… at the Faustian threshold!” In 2031, there is a man trying to save humanity. From itself. Twelve years ago, humankind had survived nature’s cataclysmic assault, subduing a lethal biological virus. But, in the shadows of the COVID19 pandemic, a more virulent parasite had been unleashed on the unsuspecting masses. By the Platforms. Its target, unlike the virus, wasn’t the human body, but its soul. With its cold and deadly precision, Degenerative AI had infected the social essence of humanity, meticulously splintering the collective consciousness into toxic islands of hate and prejudice. In a defiant race against destiny, with humanity teetering on the edge, Fate has raised the stakes. He would invent a noble, benevolent and omniscient Intelligence – Augment. And, in an audacious gamble, Fate would wager human agency and free will to reclaim empathy and spark a new age of enlightenment, where fear, of the other, doesn’t exist. But the human mind—in all its good and evil—is a harder opponent than even Icarus Fate anticipated. In a relentless battle for light, it would expose his own darkness and challenge him to compromise his integrity. His soul. And in 2031, there is a woman trying to save humanity. From Fate. And his new God…

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Mr.Warrier’s debut novel examines the arc and philosophy of Artificial Intelligence through the critical lens of the human condition – from the soaring ambitions fuelled by extraordinary ingenuity to the venal motivations driven by narrow impulses. He bluntly cuts through the plethora of hype and misinformation surrounding AI to inspect the foundations on which the edifice of technology is rising at uncontrollable pace. Gradient of Dreams is a call for an urgent and honest introspection into the superficial aspirations and philosophy undergirding the AI movement at this inflection point. It provokes the collective conscience to reflect on the profound social implications of AI and begin to articulate a more meaningful ambition for AI. And, indeed humanity, itself.  Mr.Warrier has followed closely the turbulent journey of AI for over thirty years, from the quiet struggles of Artificial Neural Networks in the 90s to the hubristic coronation of Generative AI enveloping us today. He lives in British Columbia, Canada.  

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Gautam U. Warrier