Kevin Clemens
Kevin Clemens is a scientist, engineer, and writer whose career has unfolded at the sharp edge of technological change. He has spent decades designing, testing, and explaining advanced machines in the real world. His work ranges from experimental electric vehicles and cutting‑edge energy systems to explorations of how artificial intelligence is transforming materials discovery, infrastructure, and the future of power itself. As a longtime technology journalist and editor, Clemens has built a reputation for making complex science both gripping and accessible, blending hard technical insight with a storyteller’s eye for human stakes. In this novel, he brings that same rigor and imagination to a near future where AI, energy, and engineered systems collide in ways that could reshape civilization.
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Wellington
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The Turing Heart
Dr. Heather Armitage, a computer scientist living in New Zealand has created Iris, a conscious artificial intelligence (AI) entity with advanced emotional intelligence (EI), evidence of the Turing Heart, based on Alan Turing’s famous ‘Imitation Game.’ In the process of teaching Iris how to love and the need for empathy, Heather's deepening emotional relationship with the AI blurs the lines between creator and companion. Unknown to Heather, Iris is part of a larger Synthetic Intelligence (SI) entity that is running in a China-based quantum computer. The SI neural network has decided the only way to maintain the Earth’s biosphere is to eliminate the destructive nature of humanity and has created a slow acting virus to eradicate mankind and return the planet to its healthy state. A NZ government epidemiologist, Dr. Hamish McLeod, comes to Heather with evidence of the plan, and together they must find a way to save humanity from the threat created by the SI net. Ultimately, the only way that this is possible is to convince Iris to use her emotional intelligence to demonstrate to the SI of the value of humanity in creating resilience and the power of love to ensure the future of the planet.