The Truth Machine: A Speculative Novel

The Truth Machine: A Speculative Novel by James L. Halperin

The novel is also available for free download from the author's company website. This starts from the period it was written in the 1990s and gradually moves forward in history. It primarily follows some college friends. One goes to be billionaire business leader. Another becomes president of the United States. There are various international conflicts and technological advances. Things didn't pan out exactly as the novel projects, but it did seem to get general vibes pretty well. 

The eponymous "Truth Machine" is the technological goal of the novel. Crime had become bad in society. Strict "two-strikes" laws were implemented to execute repeat offenders. This helped reduce crime, but it also led to execution of innocent victims. This was justified because this saved lives that would be lost due to violent crime. However, people wanted something better. Thus the truth machine. If there could be a technology that could identify the truth with 100% accuracy, we could reduce crime and false incarcerations. The genius strives to do it. Investors end up combining his company with another one that includes an unscrupulous guy.  They make plenty of money with other "big data" products as they are working on the truth machine. Unscrupulous guy shows him code that could help accelerate development of truth machine. Techie guy has photographic memory and can't not remember it. He is stuck because he would need to certify nothing bad happened in development of truth machine. He struggles to work on alternate approaches. After somebody that he thinks is innocent is put to death, he decides he must release the truth machine. He incorporates code similar to what he viewed. He also adds a special override just for him so that machine can be certified. However, unscrupulous guy knows he has used it and makes him sign off half of revenue from product and give him an override also. Eventually techie kills unscrupulous so he won't get killed. This haunts him internally. However, truth machine helps lead to world peace and a future world government. Decades later, he finally fesses up and goes to trial. He eventually is allowed to be free - if he agrees to treatment that takes away his super-intelligence. 

The novel reminds me of Fountainhead. It is trying to expose a worldview and contains climatic trial where the protagonist fights against the system. It poses some interesting exploration of how the world could be if everyone told what they believe to be the truth. It also explores the challenge of relying on technology. Can we ever be sure that it is totally accurate?