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Mark

Mark was born in 2027, the year AlphaFold 3 made protein folding trivial and the first neural lace prototypes moved from monkeys to humans. His parents were early employees at Anthropic—not founders, but close enough. They had stock options that would eventually be worth more than small nations. By the time Mark was seven, he'd received his first cognitive enhancement. Nothing dramatic—just a small implant that improved memory consolidation and processing speed. His parents debated it for months, worried about unknown effects. But everyone in their circle was doing it. The children without enhancements were already falling behind in school. At twelve, he got the second-generation lace. This one integrated with his visual cortex, overlaying information seamlessly onto his perception. He could see data flows, recognize patterns instantly, access any information with a thought. The world became legible in a way it never had been before. He stopped being able to talk to his grandmo...
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The Last Garden

Shyam was born in 2031 in a crumbling apartment in Mumbai, when the world still pretended things might work out differently. His parents were software engineers who'd watched their profession evaporate. The AI models that emerged in the late 2020s didn't just assist with coding—they eliminated it. His father found work as a security guard. His mother cleaned homes in the elite zones that were beginning to wall themselves off from the rest of the city. They never spoke about the future they'd imagined for themselves. "Study hard," his mother would say, with a hollowness in her voice that Shyam understood even as a child. Study for what? Every year, another profession became obsolete. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, accountants—replaced by AI systems that never slept, never erred, never asked for payment. By the time Shyam turned twelve in 2043, the bifurcation was complete. The elite zones had their own power grids, water systems, autonomous security. Inside those wall...
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