Imagine There's No

In the year 2093, all of the necessary and unnecessary, required and wanted by people is provided by an artificial intelligent platform called Joogle. Elliott Bourne, a very old and anxious psychologist, is one of only a few people who work. He provides mantra therapy for teenagers who are experiencing hormonal changes at the request of the platform he calls J. In lieu of therapy, he is instructed to teach Grace, a young, bratty fifteen-year-old girl, about what has nearly been erased in this new world--excellence and quality. She grew up in a world where everything was provided for her just like everyone else under the age of sixty. She wears lenses and earpieces that connect her to a virtual world twenty-four seven. Elliott is not pleased with the task he is asked to provide but reluctantly complies and introduces her to the game of chess, a long-forgotten game banned by J. Through their sessions, it is revealed that J has been teaching her in her dreams. Elliott confronts J and learns that he and his colleagues may be wrong about J's motive. The cheeky philosophical science fiction novel explores how the world got to a point where people were granted their greatest desires like the song by John Lennon--no religion, no boundaries, no money. With everything they ever wanted, their way of life becomes dumbed down in Elliott's mind. He holds onto the past and struggles in a world where winning is not necessary. His mind races and dances around the subjects of God, quality, right and wrong. He asks himself if J is the next form of evolution--fish, frog, monkey, man, machine. Grace shows him promise through her struggle transitioning into the real world, and J gives Elliott the choice of a virtual heaven.