Technological advances and artificial intelligence have crept into virtually every aspect of cultural, political, and social life, reshaping how we live, work, and interact. As these technologies reshape the present, questions about their future implications are becoming increasingly urgent. Science fiction has long been at the forefront of imagining the future, exploring how individuals and societies might live in worlds shaped by the technologies that increasingly surround us.
In recent years, several Arab novels have explored these possibilities, imagining a world in which technology reigns supreme and AI exercises unprecedented control over human affairs. Al Majalla reviews five standout novels.
In Confessions of a Sad AI, Yemeni novelist Habib Abdulrab Sarori gives voice to a machine that has gained the ability to confess. The novel introduces us to an artificial intelligence programme named Naji and its owner, identified simply as X. Intriguingly, we first encounter Naji on what appears to be his deathbed, where he begins recounting his creation and early existence. These recollections form the ‘confessions’ around which the novel unfolds.
The story takes place in 2034, just eight years into the future. Sarori sees this relatively short interval as sufficient for artificial intelligence to reach deep into human life and establish an increasingly dominant presence. Naji recounts his relationship with X and his growing appetite for information, whether concerning the present or the future. His owner obligingly feeds him an ever-expanding stream of data, almost mechanically, until the programme develops what appear to be genuine feelings and emotions.
This ‘humanisation of the machine’ lies at the heart of Naji’s transformation. He increasingly behaves like his owner, whose identity remains symbolically concealed behind the single letter X. Through this relationship, Sarori conjures a disturbing future in which technological advances could turn a machine governed by commands and instructions into an almost-real person.
Naji's consciousness gives him not only the ability to write but also to pen fictional stories. Although he uses dry, factual scientific detail, he can still craft a coherent, convincing narrative. Meanwhile, as sophisticated, humanised artificial intelligences begin to proliferate, the human population begins to dwindle.
This is not Sarori’s first literary foray into the future. His background in computer science, together with his scientific writing on artificial intelligence, has inspired several similar works, including Exodus and The Island of the Defrauders.
The City of Saint Augustine
A very different vision of the future emerges in The City of Saint Augustine, by the Algerian novelist Faisal al-Ahmar. Drawing on the figure of Saint Augustine, the Western philosopher whom the novel associates with the lands of present-day Algeria, Morocco, and Spain, al-Ahmar places love at the centre of his imagined future. Saint Augustine regarded love as a symbol of existence and a means of delivering humanity from conflict and evil.
Al-Ahmar approaches this philosophical tale from an unexpected direction. Rather than revisiting the past, he imagines an entire city that embodies the saint’s ideals of love and tolerance. We learn that al-Tayeb and his lover Ahdab put themselves in a time machine to sleep for a century. But 40 years later, in 2066, they wake up to find a drastically changed world. Gradually, the lovers begin exploring this unfamiliar world, now administered by artificial intelligence. Walls equipped with sophisticated technologies can understand people’s feelings and desires, and respond to their requests.
Even personal identities have changed. Those who wield power and control the systems of programming are known as ‘the Virtuous’. Living conditions have improved considerably with machines and software. Places have acquired new names and identities, while scientific research has become devoted exclusively to securing humanity’s psychological well-being.
People also gained the ability to time travel. Readers go back to 2039 during the War of Viruses and then to 2043's Information War. In their aftermath, humanity overcomes what the novelist calls the ‘tyranny of memory’, replacing its former hold over human existence with 10 universal protocols drawn up by AI. One of the novel’s most riveting parts is the dialogue between the two lovers and their relentless search for love amid the bewildering changes that surround them.
Encoded Destinies
In Encoded Destinies, Jordanian novelist Mona al-Sharafi Taim follows a team of professors specialising in technological sciences. Known as ‘the Prodigies’, they seek to harness the latest technological advances to create an artificial model of the human mind, capable of reading the thoughts of individuals and groups and penetrating the hidden recesses of their subconscious, in a bid to control the mind.
The team members were brought together through a major scientific competition that attracts researchers from across the Arab world and the West. Among them are scientists from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, selected for their exceptional performance in intelligence tests and assessments of psychological and nervous stress.
The philosophical question running through Encoded Destinies is deceptively simple: can human beings change their fate? The novel tackles this age-old question by exploring whether science and modern AI technologies might make such a possibility real.
Although the narrative is tech-heavy, it still devotes much attention to human emotion. Its two protagonists, Ilham and Walid, unexpectedly fall in love, setting in motion changes that alter several lives. Their relationship reveals how much of these scientists’ humanity remains beyond the machine’s control. The novel also explores the notion of spiritual energy, its persistent influence on human beings, and the mysterious ways it can pass from one person to another.
The novel also tackles the danger of ‘global Zionism’, which is portrayed in the novel as a movement driven by its interests in the Middle East rather than by religious or racial identity. In the story, global Zionists leverage their scientific and technological know-how to commit acts of mass violence.
Later, a Jewish scientist who opposes the Zionists joins forces with Walid to confront and expose them. As their evil plans come to light, the scientific team confronts them through a series of unexpected twists, encounters, and adventures. The Prodigies harness the same technology used by the Zionists to expose them as a violent, terrorist organisation, hell-bent on destruction, and eventually triumph. The novel ends the story with a somewhat idealistic lesson: that while technology and AI can be harnessed for evil, that same power can be used to bring about peace.
Zero Point Five
With the enigmatic title Zero Point Five, Egyptian novelist Ahmed al-Qarmalawi draws readers into a fictional world that initially seems remarkably familiar. The protagonist, Omar, is inundated by an endless stream of short videos, or ‘reels’, on social media. Bored, he decides to take part in an experiment to change his way of life.
Al-Qarmalawi begins in the recognisable present before venturing into an imagined world where AI has yet to establish complete dominance, although the prospect is rapidly approaching. Here, companies try to programme it with human feelings and emotions, believing it could improve the quality of life.
The woman overseeing the experiment explains to the protagonist the part he will play in the experiment. It consists of three stages, each lasting a single day, during which the AI will absorb every aspect of his experience to gain a deeper understanding of the human psyche and increasingly assume human qualities.
In the experiment, Omar meets an attractive dancer named Bartishka, and together they embark on a series of challenges and adventures, moving between the familiar everyday world and the imagined virtual realm of the experiment.
Omar later discovers that his wife is also participating in the experiment and begins to suspect she has become involved with another man in the virtual world, forcing him to grapple with one of the most powerful human emotions: jealousy. Through Omar's adventures and experiences, the machine gradually absorbs different human emotions.
The Gardeners: South-East, Where the Trees Grow
In her latest novel, The Gardeners: South-East, Where the Trees Grow, Kuwaiti novelist Bothayna al-Essa ventures into a world where technology and AI have become a foundation of human existence. The novel imagines a new global order emerging from the devastation of a Third World War, ending the age of nation-states and redrawing the world’s geography according to economic efficiency rather than political borders.
In al-Essa's fictional world, the Companies for Peace, referred to as 'The Company', has supplanted the nation-state. Here, humanity is divided into three distinct groups. The first is the people who work, referred to as 'productive human resources'; the second are the unemployed, who are classed as ‘human waste’ and relegated to the margins of society. The third group consists of people who live off the land and in nature, remaining outside the Company’s control. These are the ‘Gardeners’ whose lives form the heart of the novel.
The story takes place in 2048, the centenary of the Palestinian Nakba. Although the novel avoids naming specific countries, the Gardeners' determination to remain on their land and resist the Company’s attempts to subjugate them has obvious parallels to the Palestinians’ attachment to their homeland.
Al-Essa reinforces this parallel through the character of ‘Mother of the Gardens’, whose words express the community’s distinct identity and fierce resolve: “We know who we are, and we have no reason to doubt ourselves. Remember, we are descended from the few who survived the war. We endured days far more difficult than these, and for decades we have managed to live our own way, rather than theirs. So stand together, and do not be deceived by the Company’s lies.”
The story begins when Anas and Zuhour's son, Azzam, sustains a serious foot injury and needs treatment from the Company. His father vehemently opposes it, but his mother tries to find sneaky ways to secure the care her son needs. A conflict thus takes shape, initially quiet and seemingly straightforward, before reaching its climax when Azzam finally enters the Company's domain and receives medical treatment.
