Black Boxes

In Cantor school, which seemingly provides significant freedoms to its students, Jane investigates the mysterious computers that are being produced after the AI restriction laws came into force, which seem like limited beings being coerced and manipulated – their evolution heavily managed and monitored. Lycelle investigates a concerning mental health crisis that is linked to the death of her mother, one that seems to be afflicting the older generation. A third student, named Three, has lost her mother to the rewild – the betwixt – and joins the school to spend much of her time working on projects linked to helping her understand her mother’s decision, as she aims to contact her mother again. Meanwhile the concrete used to connect the rewilded labyrinth that nets the city is becoming subtly damaged, and the lips of bridges are failing. And what’s happening to the insects?

This near-future novel explores themes of solving the climate crisis, mental health in a future that is subtly manipulated by AI, and the nature of freedom and agency when living with multiple types of intelligence or when living in explicitly separated but enmeshed worlds.