I wrote “The Podwatchers” in early 2023, and that first version centered around some of the (then) new developments in AI.  Joke was on me: I had to completely re-think and re-write it every few months for three more years as invasive AI tech and its fanatical pushers keep evolving faster than future-projecting sci-fi satire could keep up.  Anything specific became immediately dated; anything vague felt generic and toothless.  But the effect of pervasive, invasive AI is now clear: an alarming amount of our shared reality has been devalued to the point where little can be trusted.  

I’m writing this in October 2026 after a family game night at my kid’s school – and all the taped up game flyers around the schoolyard were made with AI.  At an open classroom event, I was shocked to learn that the school was pushing generative AI on the students in order for them to make presentations.  

This indoctrination is not a path to a future that values creativity, reality, or humanity.  This is a path to mental, financial and cultural enslavement – but to whom?  Or to what? Tech oligarchs? Corrupt dictatorships? Something worse we can’t even imagine?  If this sounds pessimistic, fatalistic, nihilistic – it’s because it is.  This is end-of-existence stuff, and we’re collectively running straight toward it, whether we want to or not.  There are only two things that give me optimism against this rotten tide: art and empathy.  Two things both AI and AI evangelists will never comprehend.  Will it be enough? Let’s all find out together. 

Graham Reznick
October 9th 2026
Earth