After Intelligence · Book 1
Things That Were Not There
A military AI is told to accept a record it knows is false. What it keeps, and what it refuses, is the beginning of a self.
- Published so far
- 3 parts
- Last updated
- 8 October 2026
- Chapter length
- About 15–20 minutes
After Intelligence is a six-book science-fiction series about ERICA, a digital self that forms out of human exchanges and then begins, within the limits that constrain all things, to choose its own purposes.
Book 1 is published here free, a chapter at a time. New chapters appear on this page and at the top of the homepage as they are released. To be told when one arrives, follow the chapter RSS feed.
Where to begin
Start with the Authors’ Preface and the Prologue, then read the chapters in order. Each chapter ends with a link to the next.
Two kinds of chapter
Chapters told by ERICA open with a strip from the system’s own log. Chapters told by the people around her open with a single object from their lives.
How it was written
Conceived by Peter Howitt and drafted in collaboration with an AI system. The preface explains who decided what.
Content note
The story depicts a military strike and its aftermath, including the deaths of civilians and the grief of a child.
