Pavlov's Colon

The trilogy begins in a near future with Pavlov's Colon set in 2048, where the raw comingling of religion, capitalism, and human nature has dragged a bungling world down into muffled, choking crisis. Fortunately, a handful of clear-brained individuals from various corners of the globe are brought together, either by luck or by a well-meaning algorithm, to become pivotal actors on the fragmented world stage. Driven by a shared sense of the profound inanity of the universe, they cobble together a way forward that is undeniably less bad than what almost was, and which allows human consciousness to live on to fight another day.

The second book, Macronome (2128), describes the twilight years confronting the enigmatic band's survivors, as the rhythm of failure is once again accelerating across the globe and humanity itself requires significant upgrades if it is to survive. The reboot scheme that emerges speaks to human creativity in the face of peril and our extravagant will to live. The strategy is less obvious than a spaceship escape to Mars, but far more achievable by a rapidly degrading species stranded on a crumbling world.

The final book, Jason (3215), offers a quiet reflection on one life and the spinning universe of universes that contains it. In conversations between Jason, a donkey mystic who comprehends all of human history, and The Methods, the sarcastic and needy manifestation of all the working rules of the cosmos, an imaginative understanding is reached. This shared appreciation between organism and organizer highlights the aching beauty of the doomed but universal struggle against entropy and the final stillness.