The Minded Man

Buck Rogers…? what a laugh, an egotistical fantasy. Cyborgs…? A highly unstable mix of high tech and human ambition. Does the Future really need us…? That may depend on how we set it up.

The Minded Man is a novel set in a post-technological future where science in the service of human ego has at last been tamed to serve humanity. The period of tribulation is past, but the steady-state is maintained only through immense effort and at the expense of personal liberty.

In The Minded Man everything on earth is carefully controlled by a Central System. Most individuals are tended by robots called “Personals”. Human education and psychology have been perfected; in many ways it is a golden era of maximized personal development. But human minds can no longer be trusted to wield the machines their forefathers created, and so sports have become our main outlet and ambition.

This is the world of brothers Rob and E-roy, living in their small but sophisticated town of Larosa. Rob is a football hero at the top of his game; E-roy is a loner looking for something beyond the suffocating protection of their robots. Both will soon face life-changing events that open new possibilities for serious romance and for personal tragedy.

Parallel to this steady-state world of optimized technology and mechanical servants are the small communities of robot-hating “Self-Reliants” who resolutely tend their farms using 19th century technology, as far removed from Central as possible. Two of these Selfies show a surprising interest in E-roy, and they come to Larosa to perhaps recruit him into their Plan.

The Minded Man pits brother against brother in an all too human reaction to this world ruled by machines. It is a story about ambition, honesty and love – and the many obstacles that could prevent them. From the town of Larosa to Selfie farms and the various Preserves of reclaimed wilderness, cities and of resurrected ecologies, E-roy and Rob face danger and stark choices as the Selfies’ Plan unfolds around them.

Behind all this are the machines – motivated, they say, with the best values that humankind could provide. Are they good enough?