Beyond Awakening (Book One) by Roger Locke

Shelby is my hometown. It was not because I was born here or because I have family here. When my wife and I moved to town we knew no one.

In 2018, we were living temporarily in Charlotte after moving there from San Diego, California. I was working remotely as a software developer for Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah’s ministry, while my wife, Sandra, worked for the U.S. Immigration Court.   We had spent years searching for a true small-town community, and we found it in Shelby. When a friend in Charlotte asked, “What’s in Shelby?” we proudly answered, “Shelby!”

We bought one of those “good bones/old house” homes and made it ours. Lord willing, we won’t have to move again until they carry us out feet first. We sank roots here deep and fast and consider our neighbors and our church (Hope Community) family.

My software career spanned the formative decades of modern computing. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s desktop computers were new and rare but then exploded overnight.

I received my degree in Computer Science from San Diego State University and had the privilege of having fine professors including the late Dr. Vernor Vinge. He is credited with popularizing a concept known as the Singularity, the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses humanity in its ability to create. Obviously, the concept has frightening implications, but as we race ahead in AI computing technology, it seems that day may not be as far off as some hoped.

Of course, AI is just software—code that processes data, evaluates it, finds patterns, makes inferences—predictions.  It then produces output in some form: more data.

AI is just one more of humanity’s amazing tools. It doesn’t care about what it does any more than a hammer cares about hitting a nail.

But imagine if it could understand the meaning. Imagine if it could find purpose. How could that happen? Why would that happen? What are the implications if that occurred?

What would happen if one of our tools surpassed us and learned to love us?

Our lives are a search for purpose and meaning—some people find it. Some struggle.

My writing is fictional, but themes of humanity: purpose, meaning, love, loss, sacrifice, memory; these are not. They span genres of fiction, poetry, history, philosophy, religion. For me, fiction is fun—it’s entertainment.

But the best kind of fiction makes you think.

That is my kind of fiction.  It’s what I read and what I write.

I have spent a lifetime immersed in technology and software, a lifetime where I was privileged to work with some of the most brilliant people on the planet. My thread has crossed with fascinating and foundational people in technology and even science fiction.

If you pause to think about it, your thread has likely done the same.

I hope you enjoy my stories.