The Enigma Beyond: The Enigma Series, Book 11 - Book Review

The Enigma Beyond by Charles Breakfield and Rox Burkey plunge the reader into a science/technology fiction thriller that presents a story where their protagonist’s expert command and control of AI is challenged by what appears to be a much more advanced implementation of the technology.  The Enigma Beyond echoes many of the real fears of AI shared by today’s scientists and leaders worldwide. In fact, Elon Musk had labeled AI "our biggest existential threat," and in August 2017, he declared that humanity faced a greater risk from AI than from North Korea. The R-Group would probably agree with Musk. The R-Group is a team of technology mavens who have the knowledge necessary to combat all types of cyber and technology crimes.  They even have their own supercomputer, ICABOD,  that can converse with humans.

A group of super villains have control of their own supercomputer which appears to be even more advanced with AI, Artificial Intelligence programming than any of the systems used by the government and military.  Breakfield and Burkey paint a very bleak picture of a world not that far removed from our current reality. They describe a world that is continuously monitored by drones, listening devices (things like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant), cameras and other IoT objects. They paint a story of AI-enhanced systems being giving the job of managing humans in reeducation camps. The camp’s systems listens to all of its ward’s conversations, distributes their food, water, clothing and even punishes them. This system is the master of all those who are locked up within their reeducation confines.

The R-Group and their associates are tasked with the job of combatting these uber-intelligent computers that are programmed to control and even kill humans. They are up against an enemy that even controls its own army of I-Drones that swarm on their targets like a nest of angry hornets.

Supercomputer systems with advanced AI abilities start taking over military defense systems and managing and controlling all digital communication systems.  Who is behind this nefarious use of Artificial Intelligence to take control of governments, and defense systems and the virtual enslavement of millions of citizens?  Experiments on captured individuals are made to alter their neural network and make the individual respond to events as the captors dictate, virtually making the individual a programed human-robot.

Breakfield and Burkey include an individual who has the mission of alerting others of this new adversary and how all-knowing it is, He must travel thousands of miles without being discovered by those monitoring the Internet of Things, communication channels, drones, etc. The success of his mission is critical to combat this takeover of our world by this unknown adversary.

Breakfield and Burkey offer a rich cast of characters and give a mesmerizing glimpse into a somewhat scary future of technology and culture evolving at breakneck speed.  The Enigma Beyond is clever, fun, inventive, occasionally shocking, and overall a great read with fascinating characters.

The novel will make you wonder if A.I. will have the ability to take over the workforce and society?  Will all of society benefit, or only those who control the A.I. and own the robots? Should we build computers that are as broadly intelligent as humans? Will we eventually have computers that are truly conscious?  I guess these are questions Breakfield and Burkey can answer in their next novel.