What would happen if robots became self-aware? Eliza’s Children may have the answer to that question.

MIT graduate Gordon Wysmann remembers when Eliza, the first computer program simulating natural communication between a machine and a human, was created. That was in 1964. Despite the advances in technology and his experience, Gordon refuses to conduct research that could lead to something greater than Eliza-he knows the consequences.

The young programmers on his team don’t.

In their efforts to create a social network that will top all existing ones, the young developers begin to communicate with bots that escaped as the result of a major hack. They start to cross lines that may spell danger not only for themselves but also human civilization. Have these young upstarts done what Gordon has always feared-and that he now can’t stop? Have they triggered a technological growth they can no longer control-and that now controls them?

Written by a computer engineer with more than thirty years of experience, Eliza’s Children is a realistic tale that imagines what could happen in the event of a singularity-and if artificial intelligence takes over.

According to author Joe Zeigler, it’s not a question of if…but rather of when.