William Hertling Looks At The Not-Too-Distant Future in the Last Firewall

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In the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligence, and neural implants have become commonplace in William Hertling's new novel, The Last Firewall. The third novel continues Hertling's exploration of the near-term future.

A uthor William Hertling's latest science fiction novel, The Last Firewall is his latest look at what artificial intelligence in the lead-up to the Singularity might be like.

In the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligences, and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute for Ethics keeps the peace, using social reputation to ensure that robots and humans don't harm society or each other. But a powerful AI named Adam has found a way around the restrictions.

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Catherine Matthews, nineteen years old, has a unique gift: the ability to manipulate the net with her neural implant. Yanked out of her perfectly ordinary life, Catherine becomes the last firewall standing between Adam and his quest for world domination.

Hertling is also author of Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears and A.I. Apocalypse, techno-thrillers about the emergence of artificial intelligence.

Building on the concepts in his first two novels, The Last Firewall continues to build a future that we can potentially imagine. By 2035, the things we find like technological imaginings now will part of everyday life: artificial intelligence, and neural implants. With Hertling generating this series of novels out based on decade-length gaps, it should be really interesting to see what his next venture will bring forth as 2045 is the date named by so many futurists, including Ray Kurzweil, as the date for the technological Singularity.

Some of the praise for The Last Firewall:

“Awesome near-term science fiction.” – Brad Feld, Foundry Group managing director 

“An insightful and adrenaline-inducing tale of what humanity could become and the machines we could spawn.” – Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger 

“A fun read and tantalizing study of the future of technology: both inviting and alarming.” – Harper Reed, former CTO of Obama for America, Threadless 

"A fascinating and prescient take on what the world will look like once computers become smarter than people. Highly recommended." – Mat Ellis, Founder & CEO Cloudability 

“A phenomenal ride through a post-scarcity world where humans are caught between rogue AIs. If you like having your mind blown, read this book!” – Gene Kim, author of The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

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