I Think, You Read Me

Book excerpt: Society is in the throes of a fundamental change with the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones. The exchange of ideas and opinions occurs instantaneously and across the globe, representing the apex of our achievement as a species, founded as it is on our ability to communicate and coordinate. Building on learned experiences, we disseminate, refine, and spawn innovative ideas. The pace at which we extrapolate concepts results in an explosive expansion of knowledge and supporting data. Social media as a technology is barely twenty-five years old, hinting at undreamed-of potential as it matures in the future. In parallel, harnessing our newfound communication tools, science continues its relentless march in exploring our place in the universe at the macro and micro levels. Unimagined possibilities lie before us such that it is folly to discard what currently seems unlikely. This forms the basis of the fiction in this book. In barely a century, DNA has traced how people migrated out of Africa to inhabit every corner of the world. Forensic science has also used this foundational building block of life to bring to justice so many crimes. It is entirely feasible that undiscovered technologies lie on the near horizon. What happens when communication, the cornerstone of our success, goes beyond the social media frenzy that is already pervasive?