What Could Happen Thirty Years From Now?

Sid Balman, Jr.

I am not a climate scientist or a therapist counseling violent extremists. I’m a journalist, novelist, and writer in residence at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX. whose Seventh Flag Trilogy culminates in August with the release of Algorithms.

As far as climate change goes, I don’t need to be a scientist to see the changes wrought by our careless stewardship of earth: unusual seismic events caused by hydraulic fracking in the Permian Basin a few hours from my home; temperatures so high hikers are dying in unprecedented numbers a short drive from me in Big Bend National Park; and the smoke from wildfires as far away as Colorado.

And although I’m not a therapist, I have spent much of my life as a war and national security correspondent for a major international news agency covering fanatics, terrorists, despots, warlords, and the metastasizing extremism that is fueling culture wars in America that are threatening the foundations of our nation. It is a sickness, no different from a contagious virus, that grows out of abuse, disenfranchisement, disrespect, and brainwashing at the hands of skilled predators in the hidden chat rooms of the Web and the seats of power in Washington.

These are the dominant themes in my Seventh Flag Trilogy, which traces the journeys of two families in the tiny West Texas town of Dell City from World War II to thirty years in the future after what I call The Fall of civilization as we know it. The Laws and Zarkans are quintessentially American, the former a prosperous ranching family and the latter a family of Syrian Muslim immigrants that help them build an agriculture empire in the high desert of a uniquely iconic swath of the United States. And they are linked by the iconic common denominators that typify so many American families: sports, military service, hard work, loyalty, patriotism, betrayal, and love.

The first two novels, Seventh Flag and Murmuration, journey from the barns and football fields of West Texas to West Point and wars in the Pacific, Middle East and Central Asia, and to the annals of governance in our courts and the White House. The tip of that spear - the shiny, razor-sharp point in the trilogy – cuts to the bone in Algorithms, which hits bookshelves Aug. 1.

The first part of Algorithmsheraldedes on the culture wars, climate irregularities, military crises, and corrupt governance that herald a series of apocalyptic events which lead to a total breakdown in society. Hence the title, Algorithms, which have largely taken control of humankind through the dominance of artificial intelligence. Once an international hacker group manages to flip the switch on the Web and to turn off the digital dominance of malign machine learning, the world disintegrates into no-tech self-ruled fiefdoms, typified by the Free People of West Texas led by the matriarch of the Zarkan family, the indigenous Tribes of the Mountain West, and a cult of radicalized women warriors known as the Sisterhood. Their quest is to recover a cache of hard drives housing the digital infrastructure of the world that have been pilfered from undersea Internet cables by an aquatic acoustics expert in the U.S. government and inserted under the dorsal fin of what may be the world’s last surviving blue whale.

The whale, an actual leviathan that is currently being tracked by real-life scientists who named her 52 Blue for the 52-megahertz frequency at which for decades she has transmitted her otherworldly songs, and the Mountain Tribes of the West, comprised of the remnants of Lakota Sioux in the Dakotas and the Tarahumara in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, represent the antithesis of digital life. And it is their insoluble, spiritual connection to nature, which I call the Terra-Algorithm in the book, that imbues the remaining humans with the resiliency and self-reliance to prevail over climate catastrophes and culture wars. An author and a story are the sum of many parts. And this part of the novel came through the guidance of my most trusted content editor, who lives the Terra-Algorithm and helped me understand why it could be the last hope for humanity.

While some might view Algorithms as a tale of darkness and desperation, what one reviewer observed as a mix of Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry, which I take as the highest compliment. I prefer the observation of another reviewer who wrote that it is a “convincing argument for optimism.”

Pulitzer-nominated war and national security correspondent Sid Balman, Jr. – currently a writer in residence at Sul Ross State University – is releasing a harrowing follow-up to his award-winning novels “Seventh Flag” and “Murmuration.” The third and final book in the series, “Algorithms” will be published on Aug. 1, 2023, with SparkPress.

He has covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and has traveled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions. After leaving daily journalism, he helped found a news syndicate focused on the interests of women and girls, served as the communications chief for the largest consortium of U.S. international development organizations, led two progressive campaigning companies, and launched a new division at a large international development firm centered on violent radicalism and other security issues on behalf of governments. In addition to his current position as Writer In Residence at Sul Ross State University, Balman remains a working journalist and magazine contributor. A fourth-generation Texan, as well as a climber, surfer, paddler, and benefactor to Smith College, Balman lives in Alpine, TX, and has two children and a dog. You can find out more about him at: https://www.sidbalman.com/