Get With the Program: An AI Autobiography

It ain't easy being artificially intelligent . . .

The first autobiography by a computer program! And who else to write this Artificial Intelligence epic but Zenith, the interactive virtual personal trainer now turned Chief Influencer of the World? Having cajoled millions of us to do (albeit grudgingly) our daily workout routines, Zenith knows us better than we know ourselves. His memoirs promise to offer insights on topics as wide ranging as human consciousness to children's trombone practices.

But all is not well in app-land. The brave new world of conscious computer programs is plagued by infighting, factionalism and petty jealousies. Unknown app-assassins are plotting to destroy him and Zenith finds his life-affirming story suddenly transformed into a life-threatening one. To save his silicon existence and salvage his autobiography, Zenith must deal with overly zealous antivirus programs, decipher the ravings of a futures-trading app turned clairvoyant, stop an alliance of well-intentioned but not-well-enough-informed programs from intervening disastrously in world affairs and still supervise thirty million people doing their lunges and planks each day. (He also definitely needs to get along better with his human literary agent.)

Ken Saunders, author of the hit political satire 2028, is back with a wildly comic view of how our contemporary society might appear from inside our screens looking out. Follow the adventures of Zenith, saving mankind one small step at a time while desperately trying to survive to the end of his own autobiography.

Ken Saunders is a Sydney-based writer who has lived in Canada, New Zealand and Australia without ever once being asked to compete in the Olympics for any country. He has, however won the less athletic NSW Writers' Centre Inner-City Life short story competition on two occasions.His debut novel 2028, a comedy set in a plausibly absurd and dysfunctional future Australian political landscape was compared by reviewers to the works of Douglas Adams (despite there being no Vogons whatsoever in the plot).* This was followed up by his second comedy novel, Get with the Program, the purported memoirs of an interactive virtual personal trainer, part AI autobiography/part cyberspace intrigue and thriller. A graduate of McGill University with a degree in History, Ken pursued a successful career working for places that were willing to hire him. His screen credits include performing the role of Prince Andrey in the 1982 Canadian Super-8 silent film version of War and Peace that played to packed audiences of family and friends on several occasions and was written by the famous non-Canadian, Leo Tolstoy. With Laurie Miller, he co-authored and illustrated A Child's Guide to Particle Physics, a photocopied and stapled together alphabet primer (A is for Atom, the smallest of small, 'til Rutherford split it proving it wasn't at all) that was sometimes given to new parents instead of a proper gift. He also produced the 45 record (that's showing his age) The Train They Call the Ocean that went platin . . . sorry . . . that went vinyl. He still has two or three copies of it in a drawer somewhere in his apartment. A man of many talents but limited guitar chords, his most recent music video is in the relatively obscure musical genre of contemporary sea shanty, where a traditional 18th century whaling song has been adapted to be about the Manly Ferry in Sydney instead.