Rapture of the Nerds

Welcome to the Fractured Future

It's the dusk of the twenty-first century, and the Earth has a population of a billion or so. For the most part, we're happy with our lot. Those who aren't have emigrated off-planet, joining one of the swarming densethinker clades of the inner solar system. These posthuman consciousnesses have mostly sworn off dealing with their still-human cousins, but their minds wander sometimes . . . and when that happens, they casually spam Earth's networks with disruptive technologies that emulsify whole industries, cultures, and spiritual systems.

A sane species would ignore these get-evolved-quick schemes, but there's always someone who'll take a bite from the forbidden apple. So until the overminds get bored with stirring Earth's anthill, there's tech jury service: random humans, selected arbitrarily, charged with assessing dozens of new inventions and ruling on whether to let them loose. Huw, a technophobic, misanthropic Welshman, has been selected for the latest jury.

And he'll do his best . . . despite an itchy technovirus, the apathy of the proletariat, and a couple of truly awful moments on bathroom floors.