Toby Weston

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About Toby Weston
Toby Weston (born May 8th, 1972) is a British writer and technologist.
His work weaves action and philosophy while dealing with the themes of consciousness, utopia, and the technological singularity.
His books are grounded in science, but he is prepared to take excursions into the fantastic.
Before writing books, Toby worked as a parking attendant, spook, tour guide, software engineer and chef (if you count making crab sandwiches).
His academic background spans Software Engineering, Computational Neuroscience, Environmental Biology and Deep Learning.
He is currently based in Switzerland where he writes and works in the field of digital innovation.
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Blog postThe Worldbuilding for my ‘Plurality’ universe is growing with each new book. I use a Knowledgebase while I am writing to keep track of names, technology, locations, etc. In the past, many readers had requested a Glossary and Dramatis Personæ so I decided a while ago to make the full knowledge base available in … Continue reading "Live Novel Writing"4 days ago Read more
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Blog postAnother one in the bag! Saloa is published and available from Amazon and Gumroad! The story is set in the same universe (…or plurality/multiverse/continuum, take your pick) as the Singularity’s Children books, but a century or so further into the future: “In the 22nd Century, humanity has spread across the solar system. From the inner … Continue reading "NEW BOOK!! — Saloa Published!"4 days ago Read more
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Blog post“The globe’s powers had been rabbits, nibbling shoots on the central reservation of a six-lane highway, aware of, but unconcerned by, the approach of a far-off beam of flickering yellow. They were prepared to make a leisurely lollop to safety if the meandering scooter—which each fully expected would eventually resolve from the glare of the … Continue reading "Bitcoin’s Coming…"1 month ago Read more
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Blog postThis Post was a orignally a comment from one of my long-time readers and member-supporters of this site, Hugh Williams: Hugh: Where to start? The Turing Test. If a human can’t tell the difference between a computer and another human through conversation, then has the computer reached the intelligence of the human? If you can’t … Continue reading "AI and Consciousness, Member Guest Post"2 months ago Read more
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Blog postGoogle places an engineer on leave after claiming an AI is sentient! https://www.engadget.com/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine-212412967.html Interesting milestone on the winding path to the Singularity—the winding path which is rapidly becoming a 5-lane Autobahn! Not likely to be true this time. As you know from my books, I believe that consciousness probably needs some special sauce—Infinite Substrate “Google … Continue reading "The Singularity: Are We There Yet?"2 months ago Read more
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Blog postMy next book (the one after Saloa which is pretty much done now and in the final stages of the publishing pipeline) is going to enter the muddy waters of alternative ancient history and I’m currently very sensitized to articles like: “A Cosmic Storm Leaves Its Mark in a Tree” high-tech technique confirms that the … Continue reading "A Clear Flash from the Murky Past"3 months ago Read more
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Blog post“Heatsinks accept entropy from the fusion chambers. Heat pumps push waste energy into the ship’s plasma shells, which are already inflating to enclose Sessrúmnir’s caravan stack in a many-layered spectral shroud. The plasma is held in equilibrium by magnetic flux squeezing against the fluid pressure of the heated plasma. Tiny confetti nano-motes dance within the … Continue reading "Sessrúmnir – Klan Karavan Ship [Updated]"4 months ago Read more
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Blog postMost people are not interested in fundamental truth nor the nature of reality. Most people, as a friend of mine often quotes, just want to: “get born, keep their heads down, and die… if they’re lucky!” Reality is messy, and, as I point out in my upcoming book, insufficiently graceful to act as a foundation … Continue reading "SALOA and the Flat Solar System Hypothesis"5 months ago Read more
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Blog postI finished writing the final chapter of my new book this morning!! I’m in Montreux, no Jaz, just a small, one-man, writing festival. I still have the epilogue and an inevitable mountain of corrections to go, but I typed the ‘The End’ and it felt good! Cover is still a work in progress, hat tip … Continue reading "Finished Salao this morning!"7 months ago Read more
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Blog postI have a chapter in one of my books called restricted vocabulary. It tells the tale of a dolphin taught to speak— via a computer-brain interface—but not given the words to express the anguish of its captivity. Why do our emoji keyboards and voice-to-text assistants (yes, I’m talking to you Siri!) make critical speech difficult? … Continue reading "Restricted Vocabulary"7 months ago Read more
Titles By Toby Weston
Early in the Third Millennium, the world is slipping beyond comprehension. Mastery of technology is deepening society’s divides; generating fantastic wealth for a few, and trauma and suffering for many. People are bewildered by relentless waves of boom and bust; kept in line by vast programs of computer-driven propaganda.
A few techno-optimists see past corporate greed and political charade. They dream of a post-scarcity utopia glittering on the horizon—a symbiotic future for all Singularity’s Children...
But ancient demons are not easily slain. The world is tired. The internet is dying. Wars ravage the former western democracies. Religions whisper promises of simpler times, while the rising power of the ‘Way Forward’ bewitches with its synthetic siren’s voices.
Against this backdrop plays an epic action-adventure of vivid world-building; a rich fabric, woven from colorful characters—not all human—who draw you into a terrifyingly familiar world of technology, morality and hope.
Frequently funny, often irreverent, occasionally indecent—Singularity’s Children is Hard SciFi, Biting and Subversive.
The Singularity's Children boxset includes the first three books in the series.
High Energy, Big Ideas. Blockbuster Action and Wild Set Pieces!
The Singularity's Children Series: As the Third Millennium dawns, the world is slipping beyond human comprehension. Citizens are bewildered and angry; kept in line only by vast programs of computer-driven propaganda. Leaders are in Denial, clinging to the illusions of an idealised past, unable to move beyond corporate greed and political charade. But an emerging movement of techno-optimists can see post-scarcity utopias glittering on the horizon and have started building a collaborative future for all of Singularity's Children...
Book One - Denial:
Keith knows the 21st century is no place for a moral backbone. Not even a corporate expense account and the occasional synthetic liaison can air-gap him from the blood on his hands.
With neural prosthetics giving voices to our animal cousins, Niato, the grandson of a Sushi chain billionaire, is recruited into Eco-Terrorism by a radicalized dolphin, beginning a cross-species partnership that might change the world.
Stella lives above a brothel on a nomadic, floating tuna farm. Her young life is brutal and precarious, she needs to find a tribe before she is consumed by the jaded world around her.
Denial is high-tech adventure set in a world of soulless algorithms, psychotic corporations, and floating ghettos. It is the first book in an epic story arc which takes the reader from a post-internet, post-collapse world, deep into a wildly post-human future.
Action Adventure and Techno-Utopian Manifesto.
Conflict is compelling and provocative—a romp through the alien landscape of our not-so-distant future.
The balance is shifting. The Forward Coalition is losing relevance, it knows the world is slipping through its fingers. But Nebulous and the Kin are still too weak to confront the old bulls, who, cornered and confused, are at their most deadly. Can the torrent of fantastic technologies emerging from the Klan’s Fabs bring about utopia as the optimists claim, or only speed the planet’s inevitable appointment with annihilation?
Cold wars are growing hot as governments lash out at what they don’t understand. Plutocrats and blue-eyed idealists face off across a planet bristling with micro-nukes, chthonic bio-machines, and weaponised hallucinations. Mankind’s million-year run will finally take it to the brink of an abyss with oceans of darkness awaiting above and below…
The fast-paced action ricochets the reader between neon-stained riots of urban flesh and idyllic tropical islands, where humans and their BugNet companions have built a pan-species utopia.
War is coming and Conflict crackles with the energy of an approaching storm.
At the edge, descendants of the distributed communities who fought the war of ReImagination, live their best lives, following the ‘Self Evident Truths’—a social pact and warrior's code.
Responding to a message from her dead husband, forsaking her Klan, compelled by an unassailable sense of what is right, Leimeiê, Tamura and their Zenolect companions must embark on an eleven billion kilometre rescue mission. A voyage from the remote cold of the Second Belt, through the Golden Lands, to ancient, decadent Saloa...
Hard Science Fiction, Space Opera, Action Adventure
ReImagination: to imagine anew; to form a new conception.
The 21st century is reaching middle age. Installations orbit the Earth and synthetic intelligences rule the digital. The Forwards have destroyed the Mesh. The Thalassocracy of New Atlantis lies shattered, reeling from multiple atomic strikes.
Might the dreams of better times have been nothing more than naive, figments of wishful thinking?
As the BugNet begins to stir, a few believe there may be hope yet...
ReImagination is the final book in an epic story arc which hints at possibilities beyond cynical exploitation, gross inequality, and mass manipulation through industrialised persuasive technologies.
In this final extravagant, action-packed romp, we find out if Niato, the Nebulous Kin, and the internet of animals can carry this vision of a better world to all Singularity's Children.
Technology. Adventure. Hope.
Singularity’s Children brings to life a world on the brink. A decade after economic collapse sent governments toppling like dominoes, the corporations are back on top. Intelligent machines do our dirty work, while the unnecessariat underclass suffocates beneath blankets of computer-generated propaganda.
Governments and corporations enforce a precarious status-quo, but technology is a contagion that won’t be contained. Beneath the radar, hacker Kin are beginning to scratch away society’s fragile veneer with the rogue tech escaping their Fabs.
Disruption picks up where Denial left off, continuing the subversive, fast-paced action:
Keith’s flirtation with corporate disobedience leaves him out of options. Without friends or funds, the Forward’s military machine looks like his only choice and ultimate destination.
King Niato has begun construction of New Atlantis, an Island utopia, and experiment in pan-species society. It is a beacon for the Kin who are laying the foundations of an alternate reality.
When Stella is dragged down into the human filth that underlies this new world order, can a vengeful dolphin, a wounded soldier, and two exiled hackers save her from the darkness?
Disruption takes us deeper into an action-packed riot of haves and have-nots; a vivid alternate future filled with Buddhist commandos, stolen Femto-tech, AI Sages, and Quantum Consciousness. It is a thrilling, mind-bending read—a provocative excursion into a near-future civilization struggling to survive the endless maelstroms technology is unleashing.
The Singularity’s Children Series: As the Third Millennium dawns, the world is slipping beyond human comprehension. Citizens are bewildered and angry; kept in line only by vast programs of computer-driven propaganda. Leaders are in Denial, clinging to the illusions of an idealised past, unable to move beyond corporate greed and political charade. But an emerging movement of techno-optimists can see post-scarcity utopias glittering on the horizon and have started building a collaborative future for all of Singularity’s Children…
Book One - DENIAL is a spectacular debut. Tense, intelligent science fiction, packed with ideas.
Debt, wars and inequality are pushing society towards collapse. It's a world desiccated by soulless algorithms, pacified beneath the battlesuit's boot and numbed by the bewitching voices of computational propaganda.
Keith knows the 21st century is no place for a moral backbone. Not even a corporate expense account and the occasional synthetic liaison can air-gap him from the blood on his hands.
Niato is radicalised when he is recruited by an exotic mentor at his birthday party.
Stella lives above a brothel on a nomadic, floating tuna farm. Her life is brutal and precarious, she needs to find a tribe before she is destroyed by the jaded world around her.
Technology continues a relentless march towards its approaching event horizon. Progressive thinkers must defy obsolescence to survive in the increasingly post-human world.
Singularity's Children is vivid worldbuilding. The desperate lives of its characters draw the reader into a terrifyingly familiar world only a butterfly flap away.
Book Two - DISRUPTION, Singularity’s Children Book Two, takes us deeper into an action-packed riot of haves and have-nots; a vivid alternate future filled with Buddhist commandos, stolen Femto-tech, AI Sages and Quantum Consciousness.
A decade after economic collapse sent the world’s governments toppling like dominoes, the corporations are back on top. Their AI farms have relieved society of the drudgery of work, leaving behind a broiling underclass precariat. The Forward governments pacify their rabbles with computer-generated titillation, while channelling legions of the desperate into overseas peacekeeping.
Keith’s reduced circumstances, following an impulsive experiment with corporate disobedience, leave him vulnerable to the Battlesuit which was always stalking him.
Niato’s island utopia is an experiment in pan-species cooperation and a beacon for the hacktivist kin assembling their alternate economy.
When Stella is drawn down into the human slime that underlies this new world order, can a vengeful cetacean, a wounded soldier and two exiled hackers save her from the darkness?
Disruption is subversive, fast-paced action. A provocative excursion into a near-future civilisation struggling to survive the maelstrom of post-human forces its technology is unleashing...