Rethinking the Future:
Science and Ethics
When I was in high school,
science was my least favorite subject. I didn’t object to the subject matter --
theoretical chemistry and physics were rather similar to algebraic math which I
loved -- but I dreaded class. See, I completed all my science classes (and many
others as well) a year ahead. So when it came time to pair up with your lab
partner…I was that lonely, quiet kid no one really knew or cared to partner up
with. I’ve always hated group projects, but that kind of synched the deal.
It may come as a surprise to you
that, after high school, I took to science with a lot more fervor. I read
scientific journals and try to keep up to date with progress in certain fields
simply because it is amazing what we can do. What we are doing. Really, the
possibilities are endless.
I’m sure it will come as no
surprise that I often add in a bit of science to my stories.
My latest, Hellish Haven, takes place in the near future. It’s a dystopian
book about a government take-over. I borrowed many of George Orwell’s themes
for this book, but having written it over sixty-five years in the future, I
have an advantage that he didn’t: I know what science can do.
So I can take those themes to the
next level by utilising not-so-far-fetched ideas. Video surveillance in
people’s homes becomes unobtrusive digital photo-frames. Propaganda can be
delivered across a variety of systems simultaneously, not only through
billboard ads or television, but also through radio, downloadable music, email
and the internet -- even through speakers set in the chests of self-propelling
combat robots sent into pockets of resistance.
Controlling a population in this
way might take years to master, if done on its own. So I invented another tool
to keep the citizens complacent little sheep. Hidden in medicine injections and
vitamins, a serum heightens the target’s susceptibility to suggestion. Pair
that with the suggestions you have blaring from every corner, and you’ve got a
pretty complacent flock. And if one or two happen to not be as quiet as the
others, you can always erase them. From the records, from the earth, and from
people’s memories. Suggestion is a powerful thing, especially when the brain is
in an off-balance state.
What is stopping this from really
happening? Ethics boards, scientists who have more important areas to study,
and hopefully no megalomaniacs aiming to take over the world.
Science fiction is a wonderful
genre for experimentation. Sure, I could have made the world a utopia instead
of a dystopia, highlighting the way I believe the world could be with a little
encouragement. But it wouldn’t be the same book, of a brainwashed wife sent to
spy on her husband in the resistance movement.
In an ideal world, there wouldn’t
be enough conflict to sustain a book at all. I guess that’s why I took to the
darker side and plied my pen, armed with an arsenal of science.
Hellish Haven
L.K. Below
Genre: Dystopian Romance
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.,
Lyrical Press Imprint
Date of Publication: November 17, 2014
ISBN: 9781616506254
ASIN: B00NJ0VL6A
ASIN: B00NJ0VL6A
Number of pages: 72
Word Count: 33,718
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book Description:
Two lives. Two realities. But only one truth.
The Senator reigns all-powerful in a manifested picture-perfect world. No worries. No wars. Only the unspoken threat of oblivion if you step a toe out of line. On the other side of the divide, the rebels face a debilitating war against an invulnerable robotic army. Every day is a struggle to earn back their freedoms. Freedom to feel. Freedom of speech. Freedom of thought.
Sergeant Grant Baker is pivotal to the war effort. But ever since his wife’s abduction, he’s been walking around in as much of a daze as the Senator’s brainwashed citizens. Then Eva reappears—without memories of him or their son. And he’s willing to do anything to keep her. Even if it means jeopardizing the war.
Eva doesn’t know which side to believe. Her predictable life as a single nurse, or the man claiming to be her husband. All she knows is she needs to discover how to end the war, quickly. If she doesn’t choose sides soon, she may lose the man—and the life—she never knew she wanted.
Available at Kensington Books BN Kobo Amazon iTunes
Excerpt
Acting as
vanguard for the injured squad, Grant turned a corner and froze. A hulky man
carried a limp woman over his shoulder.
Grant
automatically reached for his gun. Even if they weren’t yet across the divide,
he couldn’t stand idle as a man accosted a woman. Or worse. He aimed the rifle
at the criminal. “Set her down nice and easy.”
The man froze.
He glanced over one meaty shoulder, his unshaven mouth set in a scowl.
“Set her down,
or I’ll shoot.”
A gold tooth
flashed as the criminal grinned. He hurled the small woman at Grant and dashed
for the slim space between two buildings.
Grant moved
without thinking. His gun clattered to the ground as he lunged forward to catch
the woman before she split her head open on the sidewalk. He grunted as he
caught her with her weight against his bruised forearms. He shot a flickering
glance her way. A riot of brown curls obscured her face. He set her gently on
the ground.
He dashed for
the opening the shady figure had disappeared into, but saw no sight of the man.
The delinquent was long gone.
Ashland panted
as he jogged to Grant’s side. “What happened?”
If Grant never
heard that question again, it would be too soon. He shook his head wearily.
“Mugging, I guess.”
“They still have
those here? I thought the Senator brought an end to violence.” Ashland drew
sarcastic quotes in the air as he spoke.
Grant didn’t
bother to answer. He turned to the woman and where his squad was now gathered.
A horrified private glanced from the woman to Grant and back again. “What do
you want us to do with her…sir?”
If they left
her, the Senator’s people might find her and stick her back in the pen with the
rest of their brainwashed sheep. Then again, that same goon might double back
to continue what he started.
He crossed to
the woman and crouched to lift her into his arms. Her tangled hair fell away
from her face. He nearly dropped her. “Eva?”
Frantically, he
pressed his ear to her chest. Her breathing was shallow, but her heartbeat
steady and strong. He clutched her tighter. He couldn’t believe it.
He’d found his
wife.
About the Author:
L.K. Below wrote Hellish Haven to bring her love of Orwell’s classic 1984 into the modern day…or near future, as it turns out.
She reads as obsessively as she writes and likes to Tweet about both at @LBelowtheauthor.
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