“Night. District Three of the Ho Chi Minh Autonomous Trade Zone.”
Ray Naylor, The Mountain in the Sea, 2022
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In a fractured, depleted future earth, new consciousness is emerging. A.I. has been developed to maximize the extraction of resources and nutrients from the earth, harvesting the dwindling ocean life onboard automated ships, and processing protein in floating factories.
Efficiency algorithms, unbeknownst to the majority of the world’s staggering population, have determined that kidnapped human slaves are more economical, and replaceable, than drones aboard these ships.
One of the world’s most powerful mega-corporations has created Evrim, a true artificial mind, housed in a remarkable android body. Evrim is believed to be either humankind’s crowning achievement or an abomination signaling the end of humanity.
Amidst the juxtaposition of human achievement and decline, a hand picked pocket of researchers race against time to understand the secret discovery of evidence that a species of octopus has developed consciousness off the coast of what was once Vietnam.
Are the octopi truly sentient? Will the scientists reach a communication breakthrough? Will humans preserve this species, or devour them, like every other source of protein on the planet?