The Robots are Coming

I got the idea to write about a game show host who becomes a superhero after learning about transhumanism. A story about the world’s first transhuman would make a fun read, I thought. So, I forged ahead with my megalomaniac celebrity and turned him into a loveable, humbled, truth-seeking robot. Sort of. He’s entirely human, only better.

After finishing and contracting book one, Wake the Dead, I discovered many of the “betterments” gifted to my hero, Chase Sterling, were actually in the works, planned for our future. Chase evolves into more than his creators had planned. And he rebels against them. In book two, Killswitch, he goes underground. In book three, Transfusion, he resurfaces for battle. So, how do you stop a rogue transhuman? You make more transhumans. In the final pages of my trilogy, an army comes against Chase. An army I invented in the weird layers of my imagination. And now, a year after that book’s release, I find this:

March of the super-soldier: Chilling threat of mutant troops with incredible strength, speed and night vision 'could befighting enemy states by 2048’

Here’s an excerpt:

If you think mutant soldiers with unstoppable physical and mental powers sound like nothing more than science fiction, you may be in for a shock.

A chilling Government report today warns that the breeding of genetically-modified troops could be a reality within a generation.

The creation of bionic soldiers would allow countries to increase their military capability and improve performance of fighting forces.

Within 30 years, mutant soldiers could be able to lift huge weights and run at high speeds over extreme distances, the report by the Ministry of Defence’s think-tank says. They could also have infra-red night vision and be capable of transmitting their thoughts through electronically-aided telepathy.

The article suggests the army is coming in thirty years. I had them marching a decade earlier. Other than the timing, they're pretty much how I wrote them. To read the rest of this slightly terrifying commentary, just click on the article's title. I consider it only slightly terrifying because there is a hero who will save the day. When a writer spends a thousand pages with a character, that character becomes real. Sort of. While I do enjoy the company of those I meet in Fiction Land, I am fully aware that Chase Sterling will not rise up to defeat a transhuman army. But there is another hero in my story. I didn’t forget Him when I wrote about the transhumans. Even Chase comes to the realization that the battle is the Lord’s.

We might be headed into a world we don’t understand, and it might prove to be more than slightly terrifying. But we can trust in Christ, the real hero of the story of the world.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38,39