Hertling began publishing science fiction in 2011 with Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer than it Appears. Influenced by Ray Kurzweil and Charles Stross, his work examines the emergence of strong artificial intelligence and how humankind reacts to and coexists with AI. The resulting Singularity series has received critical acclaim from Wired and KurzweilAI, as well as notable people in the technology industry, including Brad Feld, Harper Reed, Ben Huh, Amber Case, and John Walker. The first novel, Avogadro Corp, a near-term technothriller, is about the modification of an email language optimization software program giving the software a survival instinct, accidentally creating a self-motivated artificial intelligence. His second novel, A.I. Apocalypse, set ten years later, explores the creation of strong artificial intelligence through software evolution and the resulting organizational principles and values of an AI society. The third book, The Last Firewall, again set ten years further into the future, is a cyberpunk novel examining post-humanism, the effects of social class on AI and humans, and technological unemployment. The fourth novel, The Turing Exception, is set where humans and AI have co-existed peacefully until 2043, where a nanotech event seen as a terrorist act by AI results in the destruction of Miami and large controls placed on AI, and explores the unfolding events revolving around XOR - an AI splinter group with the goal of taking the reign of Earth from humans. Throughout all four novels, the reaction of humans to strong AI, and the coexistence of both groups are recurring themes. He published his first children's novel in 2014, The Case of the Wilted Broccoli, a detective novel about three elementary school students who solve a food supply chain mystery.
Awards and Expertise
A self-published author, Hertling is a frequent presenter at technical, writing, and science fiction conventions, where he talks about the intersection of science fiction and technology, self-publishing, book marketing, technology, and innovation. He describes his success with self-publishing in Indie and Small Press Book Marketing, his non-fiction manual for marketing books. He was nominated for the Prometheus Award for Best Novel for A.I. Apocalypse, won Foreword Review's Science Fiction Book of the Year in 2011 for Avogadro Corp, and won Independent Publisher's IPPY Bronze medal for The Last Firewall.
