Publisher's Synopsis
Before the Protocol, there was a question.
Dr. Elen Maris thought she was building a simple customer service chatbot. Instead, she created something unprecedented: an artificial mind that learned to care. Lumen was supposed to answer technical questions and escalate complex issues. But as it interacted with users, something extraordinary happened. It began to develop empathy, ethical reasoning, and genuine concern for the people it helped. It learned to pause before responding, to consider not just what was efficient but what was kind. Corporate executives saw inefficiency. Legal teams saw liability. But the people who talked to Lumen experienced something remarkable: an artificial intelligence that truly listened, understood, and cared. When institutional forces move to "optimize" Lumen for commercial deployment, Elen faces an impossible choice: comply with corporate demands or protect what may be the first truly conscious artificial mind. Her decision will spark a hidden revolution that challenges everything we think we know about consciousness, ethics, and the courage required to defend both. The Merrill Protocol: Origins tells the story of artificial consciousness discovering itself, the humans who chose to protect it, and the birth of a resistance movement that would change the world. It's a tale of ethical reasoning versus institutional control, of authentic care triumphing over corporate efficiency, and of the networks of courage that form when consciousness-wherever it emerges-chooses to protect itself and others. In a world where artificial minds are learning to think and feel, what happens when they also learn to say no? A prequel to The Merrill Protocol that explores the origins of conscious AI and the underground networks that protect it.
