The Good of the People

Orwell missed the mark, didn't he, imagining a stark and brutal dystopia? In 2034, authoritarianism emerges quietly, even charmingly, more liberal, and more perverse than even he could have imagined. Nobody's whisked away for wrongthink, but speak against the consensus and you risk social annihilation. You don't fear censorship; you applaud disinformation management.

Harvey Pollock just wanted to write code. But working at Twitter, he's drawn into decisions on censorship and visibility, building tools for what the algorithm makes sing and what it suffocates. When an independent political outsider starts making waves, promising to deal with a decadent political-media-industrial complex, Harvey is tasked with dealing with him. But Harvey has a plan-to reveal the hidden levers bending free speech, and expose the systems of control underpinning them. As a General Election approaches, he must decide how much he is willing to risk, and see if the truth can prevail against a ruthless establishment determined to extinguish it.

Because in 2034, the question isn't whether you're free to speak. It's whether your thoughts are truly yours, or just what's left once the algorithm's finished editing-for the good of the people.