Spreadsheet Cultists - Book Review

Author Dane Sullivan has explored a dystopian world that will enter the mind of the reader and not let go. “The Spreadsheet Cultists. A Cyberpunk Office Satire for the Age of Faulty AI, with its many devout zealots and evangelists” is a futuristic fantasy thriller with undercurrents of contemporary fears and predictions.  Young adult readers will say, “Oh yeah, that’s feasible in the future.”  Readers old enough to remember George Jetson TV cartoons and Apple 2+ will gasp at the possibilities of future artificial intelligence and what that could mean for civilization.

Set in the year 2393, in Atlanta and other major cities, the author introduces multiple distinctive characters and interlocking backstories that converge into the main plot of intrigue and political and economic mind games. Elton Gaius, a computer major and programmer, is one of the majority of out-of-work college dropouts living in an AI-controlled world. The real world of poverty and the virtual world of metrax, a world without limits using real-world cybercoin to fund fantasy, clash when humans must sell their intelligence in order to survive and thus power the electrical needs of AI tech corporations.

Elton is fortunate to land a job with a policing organization. The safety rules and regulations are excessive, providing humor, and are designed to protect the vulnerable and disenfranchised in the workplace. Diversity is not allowed; only inclusivity is rewarded, thus eliminating creativity and critical thinking.  Paper reduction in the office is an oxymoron. Paper isn’t involved, just multiple online forms, requests, plans, and billing issues that have to be multi checked and approved by successively higher supervisors. Busy work is rewarded with treasure boxes, surprises, and cybercoins.

Elton finds himself being conned into a dangerous position, especially when his girlfriend, Rose, becomes involved in a “copperbrain” strike designed to end AI's takeover of humanity.

Elton is confronted with bots, AI-created mimics of humans that often cannot be differentiated from true humans. They are nonsentient imitations of humans. There are indications of technological deep fake tricks into chimera.

The underlying theme is of political distractions from pursuing problems of survival and universal poverty that are brought about by mass automation. Synthetic scarcity means maximum profits with inflated pricing.

The reader will question, “Where are my beliefs on the science continuum?” This imaginative and thought-producing novel will delight the reader’s sense of fun as well as awe.