{"product_id":"sensorium-ex-brenda-shaughnessy-9781524712884","title":"Sensorium Ex: An Opera in Verse","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this dystopian tale of a near-future society increasingly threatened by all-consuming AI, a scientist mother and her disabled son rebel against the corporate larceny of their selves, by an award-winning poet (\"Stirring. . . . Wildly inventive and sharp to an edge\" --\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this story of the scientist DR. MEM and KITSUNE, her nonambulatory, non-speaking son, the pair fight CORP, a mega-company developing the most powerful AI robot ever conceived. What MEM learns is that CORP seeks \"To give the robot something real. \/ What it can fake but not make: \/ mercy, compassion. Trust and love.\" That is, CORP hopes to harvest and own not just their employees' personal data but their thoughts, memories, and their sensory experiences, in order to build a robot that will contain all that is and ever was human, and replace the need for humans themselves. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis swift drama, which unfolds in a libretto\/ script format, with dialogue in Shaughnessy's accessible and blistering verse, shows how MEM and her coworkers fight to save their individuality from being vacuumed up. A Greek-style chorus reflects on the state of a world where \"taking leave of our senses\" becomes a serious and quite literal threat, as MEM struggles to fulfill her singular role in fighting the high-tech of corrupt capitalism. At the center of this all-too-relevant speculative drama burns MEM's most powerful weapon against the forces of AI darkness: a mother's love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Brenda Shaughnessy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1524712884\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781524712884\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/21\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 112\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.51lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.13h x 7.00w x 0.34d","brand":"Brenda Shaughnessy","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48014283964671,"sku":"9781524712884","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_812c1019-7119-4899-a4f3-00d9b699a816.jpg?v=1767747824","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/sensorium-ex-brenda-shaughnessy-9781524712884","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}