(NewsUSA)
- As Artificial Intelligence advances across the globe with inexorable speed, untold predictions of promise and peril amass. All in all, it’s a perfect time for Amazon bestselling author William Jefferson’s new book, 2102: Pretense, the Play, which catapults present-day technology angst into a stunning future-cast of tomorrow.
In today’s culture, dominated more and more by distant, discarnate, mediated connectivity, 2102: Pretense, the Play takes readers on a journey where wily artificial intelligence challenges the wisdom of the ages.
In this very literary work following Jefferson’s acclaimed Presence, the Play, the new book is set in Onglander, where crimes are tried on stage and the accused must act while donning masks. The better the act, the greater the prospect of acquittal; to refuse, to be real and transparent, brings swift condemnation.
2102: Pretense, the Play is equally terrifying and thrilling, but it’s also a heartwarming tale of unswerving determination, resilience, and hope. In an age of brimming technological advancement, 2102 pays homage to those locked out, cast aside, cowering and unseen.
Richly spirited, the heroine of the novel could possibly be Joan of Arc, mystically incarnate in 2102. Yet no one really knows for sure.
Alias or not, the riveting character goes by the name of Margin, and she travels into the future with Lesser Light, the moon also incarnate, and Shadow the same. Their mission is to seek out the marginalized, those who abide in the shadows and lesser light.
They set their sights on 2102, to see what’s happened to the future, now marginalized. The trio, though, needs an official record of what takes place in the future, so they choose a poet named Quillingsworth to be their scribe. Quillingsworth lives in Poet’s Lodge—a current-day setting that’s most enchanting. Quill and his blue-headed parrot, Loreto, join the trio, forming a quartet called the Eventide Ensemble.
William Jefferson is on the board of the Marshall McLuhan Initiative (MMI) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and is an active member and supporter of the Media Ecology Association, as well as the Institute of General Semantics. The author of several books, Jefferson is the creator of the mystical Isle of Estillyen, beyond of the Storied Sea, introduced in his debut novel, Messages from Estillyen (www.estillyen.com).
Jefferson is no stranger to the literary world, with his latest work following Presence, the Play, a novel in which we, as readers, are treated to an allegorical tale woven across multiple levels: Christian theology, media critique, the hero’s journey, poetic reimagining of classic works, and sheer entertainment. All wrapped in an exploration of the concept of presence and its many manifestations, both divine and mundane. The meticulously crafted storyline evokes the imaginative prose of J.R.R. Tolkien, the spirited perception of C. S. Lewis, and the dramatic flair of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Back in 1966, the cover of TIME magazine posed a most provocative question in asking, “Is God Dead?” Today, in light of the explosive use of AI, many might ask, “Is Wisdom Dead?” to which this author replies, “Not yet, but AI may be digging wisdom’s grave.”
Writes Jefferson in 2102: Pretense, the Play: “The present world is a theater, the conditions of men are roles: wealth and poverty, ruler and ruled. . . . When this day is cast aside, and that terrible night comes, or rather day, night indeed for sinners, but day for the righteous, when the play is ended, when the masks are removed . . . then the truly rich and the truly poor are revealed.”
