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Part I: The Question

Before the book can say whether the dystopias of science fiction are coming true, it has to say what exactly is claimed, by whom, and how such a claim can be tested.

Chapter 1 introduces the claim, the events of 2025 and 2026 that made it louder, the scales of threat from the individual mind to the end of the world, and what the earlier volumes of the series establish. Chapter 2 reads the science-fiction canon, from Plato's warning about writing to WALL-E and Her, as hypotheses and distils ten tropes. Chapter 3 maps the voices of alarm, scepticism and optimism. Chapter 4 gives the method: the evidence ladder, the labels observable, expected and speculation, and disagreeing well. Chapter 5 establishes what AI systems can and cannot do in late 2026.

What you will learn in this part:

• Why the dystopian claim deserves investigation rather than belief or dismissal
• The ten tropes and the mechanism each assumes
• Who is warning, about what, and on what evidence
• How to grade a claim on the evidence ladder and discuss it constructively
• What current AI systems can and cannot do