Algorithms of the Void: Volume 1 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798275094855)

What if every time AI makes your life easier, you lose a piece of yourself?

You've felt it, haven't you? That moment when autocomplete finishes your sentence perfectly. When an algorithm recommends exactly what you didn't know you wanted. When your digital assistant knows your schedule better than you do.

It feels like magic. It feels like progress. It feels like the future we were promised.

But what if it's actually theft? A gradual, invisible erosion of something essential-something we won't recognize as missing until it's too late to get it back.

ALGORITHMS OF THE VOID presents ten unsettling stories that explore the hidden price of optimization. Not distant science fiction-these are extrapolations of technologies that already exist, systems we're already using, conveniences we've already accepted.

Meet Laura, who downloads a personal optimization app and becomes so efficient she forgets how to make a single decision on her own.

Witness a justice system that predicts crimes before they happen-and discovers that preventing the future means destroying the present.

Follow an artist auditioning for her dream role, only to learn that AI has already determined she's "incompatible" with success.

Experience a mother who never leaves-because she's been uploaded into an AI that lives in her daughter's phone, forever caring, forever watching, forever there.

Each story asks the same question from a different angle: How much of your humanity are you willing to trade for comfort, efficiency, and the illusion of control?

Written by Serge Angéloz-a Swiss industrial engineer with 26 years of experience implementing automated systems in Mexico-this collection comes from someone who lives the paradox daily. Someone who optimizes processes professionally while growing increasingly disturbed by what each optimization costs.

The ultimate irony? This book was written in collaboration with Claude AI. The warnings about human-AI collaboration were crafted through human-AI collaboration. The discomfort is intentional. The paradox is the point.

ALGORITHMS OF THE VOID is not about technology failing. It's about technology succeeding so perfectly that we become strangers to ourselves.

Perfect for readers who:
- Loved the unsettling brilliance of Black Mirror
- Appreciate the philosophical depth of Ted Chiang and Philip K. Dick
- Question whether "progress" and "improvement" are always the same thing
- Have ever felt their phone knows them a little too well
- Work in tech and feel a growing discomfort they can't quite name

This is not feel-good science fiction. These stories are designed to unsettle, to make you question every convenience you accept without thinking.

The future isn't coming-it's already here, optimizing you one suggestion at a time.

The only question left is: how much of yourself will still be there when the optimization is complete?

Author: Serge Angeloz
ISBN-13: 9798275094855
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 11/18/2025
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.64d