The Story Behind the Story with author Andrew Butters of Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

 

Let’s welcome a new author to the Scribbler.

I met Andrew through a mutual friend a few years ago. He has kindly agreed to our invitation to be our guest this week.

Read on, my friends.

  

Andrew is a multi-genre writer who also creates content, eats snacks, blogs, freelances, toils over his next novel, sucks at golf, enjoys science, supports equality, and always uses the Oxford comma. He sometimes lets his love of attention override common sense. You can find evidence of this pretty much anywhere you can find Andrew.

 

Title: Known Order Girls

 

Synopsis:

As new technology develops, allowing people to share consciousness, global wars erupt over how to control it and who should be at the helm. A scientist with thirty generations of knowledge fears that those in charge cannot be trusted with what he knows and takes the secrets to his grave. That doesn’t stop The Association from harnessing the power of the AI behind the advanced tech and using it against the citizens in what is now called the Known Order. 

Life in the Known Order is predictable and sanitized. Every action is tracked, and every outcome is known, but when Katherine Webb uncovers vestiges of the old world, it creates a spark. With the help of a small group of trusted friends and confidants, Katherine decides that if anything is going to change, she needs to stop asking for permission and have no interest in forgiveness. Through small acts of subversion, Katherine and the Girls begin a movement hoping to restore freedom, individuality, and choice to a society that's gone without for generations. 

The Story Behind the Story:

The idea for this book came to me while watching my children play in the lobby of the Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara, Ontario. Fitbits were all the rage then. As I checked my steps, I heard a staff member start barking orders to people so they could make room for children to sit in front of the creepy animatronic tree and woodland creatures for story time. My daughter, Avery, who was four years older than her brother, AJ, explained to him what was going on. “Should we do what he says?” he asked her. “No, we’re not in the way. We can keep coloring.”

This was long before AI started growing like mold on society, and by the time I put pen to paper, it was only used on the periphery and hadn’t taken hold yet. In November of 2023, I finished the final draft of the book, and less than a year later, Generative AI was a ubiquitous juggernaut of amorality, misinformation, and theft.  

My hope when I wrote it was to prove a point by viewing society through a highly exaggerated lens. It turns out it wasn’t a lens after all. It was a mirror.  

Katherine and Chadwick’s personalities were modeled (at least a bit) on my daughter and son, to whom this book is dedicated. Katherine Webb’s name is a combination of Katherine Johnson (NASA mathematician) and James Webb (NASA administrator for whom the telescope is named), and Chadwick’s character got his name from the late actor Chadwick Boseman. 

 

 

Website: Please go HERE.

A question before you go, Andrew.

Scribbler: Who was your favourite author, or story, growing up?

Andrew: In elementary school, I read the usual assortment of Dr. Seuss and other children’s books. A big favourite of mine was Alligator Pie by Dennis Lee. A collection of silly and nonsensical poems that are still a joy to read as an adult.

In middle school, I gravitated to The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald, as well as Beverly Cleary’s Ralph Mouse trilogy: The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, and Ralph S. Mouse. Of course, the Choose Your Own Adventure books were always on my bookshelf.

I started high school feeding on a steady diet of sports biographies, with Ken Dryden’s The Game and Vladislav Tretiak’s Tretiak: The Legend, instant favourites. After I discovered Rush’s album 2112, a stolen copy of Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, remained in my backpack for a good year. In fact, a few elements of that album and the book are found within the pages of Known Order Girls. However, over my last two years of high school, I read more Stephen King books than any other author. Tommyknockers was my first, followed by Pet Sematary, IT, Misery, and Needful Things. Today, I keep a copy of On Writing on a shelf in my desk.

An Excerpt from Known Order Girls:

“Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.”

—Stephen Hawking

00000000 [Zero]

Carlton Sedgwick paced in front of the desk in his lab and quizzed his lab assistant and closest confidant, Isaac Valderrama, on the procedure.

“Do you understand what you’re supposed to do?” Carlton ran his hands through his thinning gray hair.

“Completely.”

“There can’t be any deviations.”

“There won’t be.” Isaac clenched his teeth and swallowed.

“Recite it back to me.” Carlton leaned against his desk and folded his arms.

“You lie down on the stretcher at the side of the plastic tub in the containment chamber. I’ll

hook the IV into the PICC line you’ve already got in your arm. Once you give me the word, I’ll inject the general anesthetic.”

Isaac paced back and forth in front of Carlton.

“Once you’re unconscious, I give you the diazepam-digoxin-morphine sulfate-amitriptyline cocktail. I confirm death, put on my chemical protective suit, and slowly slide you into the tub filled with concentrated sodium hydroxide, keeping the rubber stretcher between me and the chemical bath. Then I exit the chamber, close the door behind me, take off the suit, and wait. Once you are sufficiently—”

His voice hitched, and he inhaled to collect himself. 

“Once you are sufficiently dissolved, I push the green button to start the timer and press the red button to release the aluminum tubes. Once the last tube is in the tub, I turn on the gas by your workbench and exit the lab, leaving the door unlocked. I walk home via the exact route you specified.”

He sat down on a lab stool and folded his hands into his lap, making eye contact with his mentor.

“When I hear the explosion and the sirens, I do not pick up the phone to make a call. I wait for it to ring. When it does, I sound surprised. When the authorities come, I act inconsolable.”

“Good. They’re going to question you after this. They may even arrest you.”

“I’m prepared. The answer to every question is ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know.’ Aside from what happens here, now, it’s not a lie. I don’t know anything. In fact, I know less than they do about your work.”

Carlton stood up and put his hands on Isaac’s shoulders. “They won’t believe you. For thirty generations, we’ve protected this and only provided enough wisdom to outside influences to move humanity forward, albeit slowly. We’ve gone to great lengths to ensure a single chain of humans is involved, and no computer has spent so much as a millisecond connected to the internet. They will not accept that it’s all lost forever.”

Isaac pulled his friend into an embrace. “I want to know more.”

“You can’t. It’s not safe for you or for humanity.”

“You’re being hyperbolic.”

Carlton broke from Isaac’s hug and stood ramrod straight.

“I’m not. You don’t realize how special you are. You’re one of a thousand people in the world, if that, whose brains are clean. Since Shared Intellect and Inherited Consciousness was created thirty Carlton Sedgwicks ago, only a few people have opted out. You come from the longest known line of those who have. It’s why I chose you.”

Isaac shook his head.

“Once scientists understood dark matter, dark energy, and quantized gravity to build the Grand Unified Theory, there was nothing left to discover. There are no more unanswerable questions. We live as part of The Known Order. What of The Association? Surely, they have the Commander computer and countless humans working around the clock to fill in the gaps you and all your predecessors intentionally left.”

“You are aware of the differences between information, knowledge, and wisdom, yes? All you need to know is Commander X-15 possesses all worldly information, and The Association all knowledge. I, and I alone, thanks to my twenty-nine former physical hosts, possess the wisdom. No one can be trusted with it. No one can, not anymore, and certainly not The Association. It must die with me.”

“I understand.”

Carlton met his assistant’s eyes.

“Do you?”

Isaac nodded.

“Good. It’s time.”

Carlton stripped off his clothes and entered the clear acrylic containment chamber. It took some doing to find six seven-foot-by-seven-foot sheets, discreetly acquire them, and get them into the lab, but he’d made more than a few friends over the years, and he got it done. Room- darkening fabric with thermal-image-blocking capabilities adorned the windows. Eavesdropping-proof devices sat every few feet around the perimeter of the room. With everything in place, he lay face up on the stretcher, being careful not to touch the inside of the tub.

Isaac attached the IV to his PICC line.

“Goodbye, Isaac.”

“Goodbye, Doctor Sedgwick, all thirty versions of you.”

Carlton Sedgwick lost consciousness and died before his smile faded.

 

Buy the Book HERE.

 

Thank you for being our guest, Andrew. I look forward to reading your story. We wish you continued success with your writing.

Thank you to all our visitors and readers.

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