ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Curtis is a writer living in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tell us about your background
I am retired from a career in education where I worked as a philosophy teacher in a high school honors program and assistant football coach. Prior to that I was a political operative working in congressional and presidential campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s.
What attracts you to writing?
I am fascinated by language, both its structure and function and how and why humans use language as they do.
What inspired you to write Book of Life?
Mainly reflections on modern culture and society. Other than that I would refer to the enduring question, “Where do ideas come from?”
Your book is described as an “AI Political Drama.” Are you as concerned about AI as many appear to be at present?
Yes, but not as much about the “machines taking over” concern. It’s more about intentional human manipulation of artificial intelligence. The AI I worry about most is not “artificial intelligence” but rather “anonymous intent.”
Doran Nastov is one of two primary characters in the book and he is a tormented figure. What is the source of his torment and how does it reflect in to plot of the story?
Nastov was a Slovakian orphan raised as an adoptee in a US Midwestern evangelical family. In his youth, he was enthralled by evangelical Christianity. But during his adolescence and as he acquired the celebrity-level success of his adulthood, he became saddled with irresolvable doubt. He is constantly tormented by the question, is there a God, and if so, what does God want from us?”
In many ways, Nastov’s personal journey, and possible descent, parallels the path of human history, transforming from eras dominated by faith into a time of widespread social and moral disorientation.
What is the significance of the title, Book of Life?
In my novel, Nastov designs a female android to conduct a massive hacking operation to acquire power. He names her Book of Life, referencing a passage in the book of Revelation in the Bible. The passage describes a judgment day and the role of a book called the Book of Life, which contains a record of all the events that every human has done in their life, and it is used as the basis for divine judgment.
There is an ironic and prophetic parallel between the time when Revelation was written and the digital society of two thousand years later. As Nastov tells the President, “If there is a God, when he judges the people of the digital era, he won’t need the reports of the angels who watched us; he’ll just need our online history.”
Is Book of Life a science fiction novel?
No. All the scientific knowledge detailed in the novel has been in existence for years.
What do you hope readers will take from Book of Life?
An understanding of the level to which cyber and social media are the new “hidden hand” in modern society. To quote a passage from the book regarding social media, “When people weren’t sure what to think about a subject, they knew just where to go for help with the process.”
