In this speculative fiction novel, Thierry Schwab imagines our world in 2121. A world in which Artificial Intelligence will be omnipresent. Human beings will no longer age, children will be rare, birds and fish will be artificial, the political organization will have been restructured, work will have almost disappeared, English will have become the universal language, the yuan the single currency, and all states will have merged into one: Optima.
A graduate of the École Polytechnique, founder of one of the first French internet engineering companies, a leading website dedicated to Francophone poetry, and a contemporary art gallery, Thierry Schwab has written three novels and many short stories where reality often meets the fantastic, with humor and gravity.
How will the world be in 100 years?
During a secret scientific experiment developed by a renowned astrophysicist, a young Parisian journalist is projected into the year 2121. This unprecedented journey into the future, which is set to last six months, aims to uncover the multiple changes that have occurred over the past hundred years. “Changes” is an understatement as the test subject of this adventure will face astonishing alterations, even if most of them are the logical continuation of the technological and scientific advances of our time.
During his travels, he discovers that life expectancy has no limit, unemployment is the norm, everyone receives the same allowance, work is so rare that it is paid, new forms of art exist, teleportation is functional, and everything is controlled by AI: medicine, administration, transport, and the economy. Roaming through a Paris whose architecture has barely modernized, but where humanoid robots and flying machines roam, the hero goes to his former address and meets his son, born in 2025, and his grandchildren. An extraordinary joy accompanied by the anxiety of the programmed return to 2021.
While visiting the Conservatory of Misfortune (a new place of punishment that replaces prison), he falls in love with a woman condemned to dreadful physical pains, fortunately freed soon after their meeting, with whom he lives a wild and brief passion that takes them far away, fleeing a threat, to the shores of Lake Titicaca.
Returned to our time after the programmed six months, he is eager to return to the future to fulfill his passion. But what about his son if he is not there to conceive him? A terrible dilemma that profoundly shakes the protagonist of this gripping story.
In the vein of Wells or Barjavel, Thierry Schwab takes us on a surprising journey, where we discover that despite certain progress, many of our fears for the future will come true. A rather dark vision of what awaits humanity.
On the occasion of its release scheduled for April 22, Thierry Schwab will sign his novel at La Maison de la Presse (12 rue Charles Cazin Le Lavandou) on Saturday, April 24 from 10 am to 12:30 pm.
