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The Deficit of Critical Thinking
The Ascent of Greed and the Audacity of Mind Stealing follows a young graduate who enters the corporate world with high hopes, only to encounter greed, manipulation, and the unsettling rise of artificial intelligence. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration came from my observation that many young graduates leave college with little critical knowledge about the rapidly developing transformative technology of artificial intelligence. Certainly, this technology is giving a helping hand to different sectors of society, resulting in improvements in people’s well-being. However, drawbacks are also emerging from its application. My observation is that young graduates are rightly enthusiastic about the positive aspects of this technology, but they pay little attention to its impending negative effects. That is why Adam, the main character of the book, was shocked when he learned from a layman in a café about the dangers of brain-reading technology. Does this mean that our teaching institutions are failing to instill critical thinking in their students? Or have the latter become so venal that they only focus on securing employment and earning good money? Some of these graduates, like the book’s protagonist, appear to have left college with little awareness of the consequences of the indiscriminate use of AI.
Yet our planet is full of news about unwanted initiatives driven by AI. The most critical issues raised by the media concern the destabilizing nature of fake news, as well as the threat posed by the excessive replacement of human jobs by machines. Obviously, there are many other sophisticated applications of this technology—such as in strategies for war games—about which we have little information.
In the past, we were used to seeing the younger generation fighting against perceived or real threats to society. Nowadays, however, despite the warning signals from subject matter experts and intellectuals about the unchecked development of AI, there is little outrage directed at those who push for its unregulated expansion. Why is the younger generation not outraged by this fact?
The book narrates a successful remedy to the deficit of critical thinking regarding AI development: the formation of an Action Group aimed at creating awareness about the dangers of unregulated AI within society. The Group was organized by a few enlightened young men and women who decided to act together in sensitizing the wider population about this impending danger. In a way, consciously or unconsciously, the Group was striving to instill in people’s minds a critical perspective on the unchecked development of AI, thereby compensating for the deficiency they had suffered at school. Eventually, they managed to raise awareness across entire populations, who fought for the regulation of AI and ultimately convinced policymakers to accept it.
Some events in the book were chillingly like real-life events. Did you take any inspiration from real life when developing this book?
Some of the chillingly realistic events are indeed based on real-life experiences, most notably those related to fake news. I took inspiration from a true story about a politician from a small locality whose reputation was tarnished by fake news, ultimately affecting his eligibility for public office. Likewise, the harmony of an extended family I knew was destroyed by false news created by certain individuals.
It is unfortunate that in such instances, the effects of fake news continue to linger even after the news has been exposed as baseless mendacity. Victimized people no longer seem as spontaneous as they once were. That is why Chapter 12 of this book, a product of my creative writing, is dedicated to the devastating impact of fake news.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Three important themes have inspired this book. The first is the wickedness of fake news, which I mentioned above. The second theme is the news about research in some Asian universities regarding their advancements in reading the human brain. Apparently, this research has progressed to the point where scientists expect to be able to scan people’s thoughts and convert them into text. The possibility of such an occurrence blew my mind and compelled me to deliberately create a state of confusion between reality and fantasy, so that due attention would be given to this sensitive issue of tampering with the most important human organ.
The third theme is the loss of jobs, as many tasks are being replaced by AI. This process is happening right in front of us. Simple examples include the replacement of cashiers by self-checkout machines; the introduction of chatbots in place of customer service representatives; and the replacement of bank tellers and loan officers by ATMs and online banking. Of course, even more significant job replacements—less visible to the public—are taking place in the industrial and transportation sectors. The book focuses on this issue, and explores the darker aspects of unemployment by imagining the disaster it could unleash in a once-happy community.
Will this novel be the start of a series, or are you working on a different story?
At present, I am busy developing a story about the misfortune of an African migrant family that almost made it to Europe, but in the end did not, because the boat on which they were traveling was swallowed by the hungry Mediterranean Sea. The book is, once again, a product of my imagination, but it closely follows the true experiences of thousands of individuals and families. Although the reasons for emigration to Europe are numerous, the book will focus on political themes related to the lack of freedom and democracy in the migrants’ countries of origin.
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Driven by an insatiable greed for profits, the corporation prioritizes sales above all else, disregarding cultural values, beliefs, and ethical boundaries. Employees are trained to focus solely on increasing revenue, with little regard for the moral implications of their actions. To achieve their goals, the corporation deploys advanced AI systems that not only replace human ingenuity but relegate staff to subordinate roles beneath the machines.
In its quest for dominance, the corporation ventures into a controversial new realm: brain-reading technology. By accessing the minds of two young individuals, it seeks to uncover consumer preferences at an unprecedented level, triggering widespread outrage over the invasion of privacy and the potential for exploitative mind control. This reckless experimentation not only exposes the dark side of AI but also raises profound ethical and legal questions.
As the societal backlash intensifies, activists and thought leaders rally to expose the dangers of unregulated AI development. They document the devastating impacts of these technologies and demand immediate action from policymakers to prevent further harm. Public outcry ultimately forces governments to enact strict regulations, averting the catastrophic consequences of an unchecked AI future.
Through a thought-provoking narrative, AI and the Ascent of Greed explores the collision between humanity’s ethical values and the rapid advance of technology. With a powerful blend of corporate intrigue and societal critique, Pietros Kidane crafts a cautionary tale that challenges readers to consider the implications of technological progress on our collective future.
The Ascent of Greed and the Audacity of Mind Stealing
The Ascent of Greed and the Audacity of Mind Stealing by Pietos Kidane follows Adam Green, a young graduate who enters the corporate world with high hopes, only to encounter greed, manipulation, and the unsettling rise of artificial intelligence. Through Adam’s eyes, we see how corporate culture feeds on deception, how AI edges toward frightening autonomy, and how society’s values collapse under the weight of unchecked ambition. It is part cautionary tale, part social critique, and part thriller. The story begins with an almost surreal outburst about AI in a New York café, then steadily escalates into explorations of job exploitation, psychological manipulation, fake news, and even mind-reading machines.
I found myself caught off guard by the rawness of the writing. At times, the prose feels unpolished, almost abrupt, yet that roughness gives the book a kind of blunt honesty. The pacing varies wildly. Some scenes linger on workplace politics while others sprint through shocking revelations about AI’s reach. It was sometimes disturbing to see how some of the characters showed no remorse in exploiting people’s fears and weaknesses. But that emotional whiplash kept me hooked. It felt like being tossed into a storm where greed is the wind and technology is the lightning.
I was fascinated by the moral questions the book raises. Do we want machines to think for us, and worse, to think about us? Can progress that tramples on dignity still be called progress? The story made me angry at the coldness of the corporations, angry at the indifference of leaders, and angry at how plausible it all felt. Yet I also admired Adam’s stubborn streak. His refusal to cave, even when threatened, gave me a spark of hope in an otherwise grim landscape. The book may not be subtle, but its ideas hit hard.
I would recommend this book to readers who want to be challenged. It is a raw and provocative story for anyone worried about where technology and greed are steering us. If you like your fiction mixed with sharp warnings about the future, and if you don’t mind rough edges in the writing, this book will make you think.
Pages: 276 | ASIN : B0DFX1F9WQ
LITERARY TITAN 